A network driver is in principle a simple thing: its purpose is to provide the kernel with the means to transmit and receive data packets to and from network using a physical network interface. The driver is loaded into the kernel as a network module.

How do drivers work in Linux?

Linux drivers are built with the kernel, compiled in or as a module. Alternatively, drivers can be built against the kernel headers in a source tree. You can see a list of currently installed kernel modules by typing lsmod and, if installed, take a look at most devices connected through the bus by using lspci .

How do I write network driver in Linux?

The open method should register any system resources it needs (I/O ports, IRQ, DMA, etc.), turn on the hardware and increment module usage count. stop – This is a pointer to a function that stops the interface. This function is called whenever ifconfig deactivates the device (for example, “ifconfig eth0 down”).