Date: 25 Jun 1997 01:00 EDT From: "Andrew Atrens" <atrens@nortel.ca> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: newbie device driver question. Message-ID: <199706250502.WAA00875@hub.freebsd.org>
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Hi Folks, You may have answered this one many times, but I couldn't find exactly the info I needed in the mail archive (laziness+slow link), so I thought I'd ask it here. Besides, its short :) I'd really like to buy a hand scanner that I can use under FreeBSD ( rebooting into Windows is a hassle ). Since Logitech is the only hand-scanner vendor in my neck of the woods, and no Logitech drivers exist for FreeBSD, I gather this means that I need to write a device driver for it. Now, Logitech appears to have two models to choose from. The newest model connects via parallel port and communicates via a proprietary protocol with the PC. The second, older variety has its own ISA card. A partially complete (alpha quality) linux driver already exists for this beastie. So, to get to the point, I suppose the older model ( the one with the proprietary ISA card ), would require a (standard) ISA device driver much like what one of Julian's scripts would produce. BUT the newer model, requiring only a parallel port connection, would that need an ISA dev driver, or else a `pseudo device' driver? Or perhaps just a simple userland program? As I said, this is a *newbie* question. Regardless, I think I've resigned myself to buying the older model, since I'm not sure how to begin to reverse-engineer the newer's port protocol. Thanks in advance. Andrew Atrens ( opinions are mine, not Nortel's ) Nortel
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