Find the skeleton driver source, built it, try it, and modify it. There's both an overall one, and some for particular types of things like USB-UARTs. Look at some existing drivers for common things. Find an actual hardware device you want to write a driver for, take time to understand how Linux handles the mechanisms it uses (for example by looking at drivers for other things that use those mechanisms...) and then write your own. Answer from UniWheel on reddit.com
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Apriorit
apriorit.com › home › blog › software development blog › linux device drivers: tutorial for linux driver development
Linux Device Drivers: Linux Driver Development Tutorial – Apriorit
February 16, 2026 - Building a Linux device driver demands in-depth knowledge of the operating system’s internals. Apart from understanding kernel architecture and memory management, your team also needs to have strong expertise in driver programming. In this tutorial, Apriorit experts provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to build a driver in Linux (starting from kernel version 6.14.0), including code samples.
Discussions

How good and practical is Linux Device Drivers book?
It's pretty outdated. A lot has changed since 2.6. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/embedded
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November 15, 2020
Linux Device Drivers, O'Reilly 3rd. Ed - Out of date?
I worked through the first few chapters of this book on the latest staging tree, and it seems like it's pretty out of date. Most of the places it referred me to check out the source code, I tried searching the code for this or that function and couldn't find them where I was told to look. Not surprising given the book is 13 years behind the mainline tree. That said, if anyone knows of a more modern alternative to this text, I'd love to pick up some more knowledge about kernel internals! More on reddit.com
🌐 r/linux
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December 25, 2018
How good is Linux Device Drivers book mainly to understand linux concepts and architecture?
find myself googling stuff which just seems a bit time consuming Welcome to the world of Linux driver development. As far as I can see, that's exactly what you have to deal with. Read all the books and fill in the gaps with online documentation and the documentation that comes with the kernel sources. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/embedded
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January 19, 2021
Best book to start with Linux drivers?
For a Uni project with a Raspberry PI, I decided to make a Kernel Mode web server (well... a demo of a kernel mode web server). I brought back from the dead kHTTPd... I looked at: https://linux-kernel-labs.github.io/master/index.html https://www.tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/ https://www.kernel.org/doc/htmldocs/kernel-hacking/index.html I had to cobble together what works because some of it is very outdated... Honestly though... for the most part I've been greping the kernel source code and eyeballing it to see which functions I need to use. (Thankfully now for Kernel Threads there are functions specifically for it. Unlike back in the original kHTTPd days... o.O) I was supposed to actually add support for loading real files over the holiday break... but got distracted :D My Code... which I'll probably get back to... one year or another: https://gitlab.com/kierangrant/khttpd (Note: My code probably could be much better: Locking is probably redundant in this case with calls to kernel_accept probably could be done in worker threads...) I think this code should still compile on latest kernel (It was built on Kernels from late last year...) More on reddit.com
🌐 r/linux
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January 11, 2019
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GitHub
github.com › Johannes4Linux › Linux_Driver_Tutorial
GitHub - Johannes4Linux/Linux_Driver_Tutorial: My new Tutorial how to get started with Linux Kernel Modules and Linux Drivers. Started in 2024 · GitHub
An improved Hello World Linux Kernel Module · An example for using GPIOs in a driver without device tree · Some info about Device Files, Device Numbers, Block and Character Devices · Create a Character Device in a Driver · Linux Kernel log levels · Implement open and release functions for character devices ·
Starred by 243 users
Forked by 43 users
Languages   C 89.5% | Makefile 10.5%
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Linux Kernel
kernel.org › doc › html › v4.11 › driver-api › index.html
The Linux driver implementer’s API guide — The Linux Kernel documentation
The kernel offers a wide variety of interfaces to support the development of device drivers. This document is an only somewhat organized collection of some of those interfaces — it will hopefully get better over time!
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Emertxe
emertxe.com › home › linux device drivers › linux device drivers | course materials
Linux Device Drivers Course Material | Free Resources | Emertxe
July 31, 2025 - Our Linux Device Driver course takes a hands-on approach to enable participants to create a driver on their own.
Find elsewhere
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Doulos
doulos.com › training › arm-and-embedded-software › linuxyocto › practical-embedded-linux-device-drivers
Practical Embedded Linux Device Drivers
An understanding of the capabilities of the embedded Linux kernel and the techniques to work within it effectively · The facilities and frameworks of the kernel and how they can be used to speed up driver development · How to utilise the common patterns and data structures for different types ...
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SCIS
scis.uohyd.ac.in › ~chakcs › AOS2025 › code › device_drivers_linux.pdf pdf
Writing device drivers in Linux: A brief tutorial
Table 2. Device driver events and their associated functions between kernel space and the hardware ... I’ll now show you how to develop your rst Linux device driver, which will be introduced in the kernel as a
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YouTube
youtube.com › playlist
Learning Linux Device Drivers Development tutorial - YouTube
Linux is an operating system that consists of a monolithic kernel. This course will get you comfortable with setting up and building any device driver from s...
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Bootlin
bootlin.com › doc › books › ldd3.pdf pdf
LINUX DEVICE DRIVERS ,TITLE.9502 Page i Thursday, January 27, 2005 12:06 PM
Chapter 12 covers the details of writing drivers for PCI devices, and · Chapter 13 examines the API for working with USB devices. With an understanding of peripheral buses in place, we can take a detailed look at the · Linux device model, which is the abstraction layer used by the kernel to describe the
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Linux.org
linux.org › home › forums › general linux forums › ask tuxbot (archived)
Learn Linux driver programming | Linux.org
January 23, 2024 - Once you've got a solid understanding of C, it's time to get your hands on some Linux kernel documentation. The Linux kernel source code itself is a great resource, but it can be pretty overwhelming. Start with the official Linux kernel documentation, specifically the "Kernel Hacking Guide" and the "Device Drivers" section.
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freeCodeCamp
freecodecamp.org › news › how-to-create-linux-device-drivers
How to Create Linux Device Drivers
October 2, 2024 - Understanding how drivers interface ... system programming and development. We just published a course on the freeCodeCamp.org YouTube channel that will teach you all about developing Linux device drivers....
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Medium
medium.com › @wedevelop21 › write-your-first-linux-device-driver-c3d9d0143cfb
Write your first Linux device driver | by We develop | Medium
November 25, 2024 - Unlock the secrets of writing your first Linux driver with simple steps using Multipass and VS Code. Dive into creating a character driver and explore the exciting world of Linux development!
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LWN.net
lwn.net › Kernel › LDD3
Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition [LWN.net]
This is the web site for the Third Edition of Linux Device Drivers, by Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman.
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Sysplay
sysplay.github.io › books › LinuxDrivers › book › Content › Part01.html
Linux Device Drivers for Your Girl Friend | Introduction
Later, I shall show some examples of decoding data sheets as well. However, the OS-specific portion is the one which is tightly coupled with the OS mechanisms of user interfaces. This is the one which differentiates a Linux device driver from a Windows device driver from a MAC device driver.
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Chrizog
chrizog.com › linux-device-driver-tutorial-ultrasonic-sensor-1
A step-by-step guide for writing a Linux device driver for an ultrasonic sensor on a Raspberry Pi - Part 1 | Chrizog
February 20, 2023 - In this tutorial we will delve into the fascinating world of Linux and embedded systems. I will show how you can write your own Linux device driver for an ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 and a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. It shows how to write a loadable Linux kernel module, how to cross-compile it, register character devices, setup GPIOs and interrupts and more interesting topics.
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Linux Kernel Labs
linux-kernel-labs.github.io › refs › heads › master › labs › device_drivers.html
Character device drivers — The Linux Kernel documentation
Using LXR find the definitions of the following symbols in the Linux kernel: ... The driver will control a single device with the MY_MAJOR major and MY_MINOR minor (the macros defined in the kernel/so2_cdev.c file).