Minidriver implementation notes

Let's examine in more detail the steps for developing, running and debugging a minidriver.

These are the main phases when developing a minidriver:

• customizing the startup program that contains your minidriver code
• making a boot image that includes your minidriver
• debugging from within the minidriver
• displaying information about minidriver status (after the kernel boots)
• making the transition to the real (full) driver

Note that the last phase "making the transition to the real (full) driver" is optional. Until you turn off the minidriver by attaching an interrupt handler (InterruptAttach*()), your handler continues to receive interrupts and can be called even after the Neutrino system is booted and running. This may be a desired design.

Let's look at each of the phases of development and some tips and techniques for each phase.