Device Drivers

5

Device drivers do not usually enter into the day-to-day duties of a system administrator. You need be concerned about drivers only when adding an unsupported device to the system.

Use the following table to find specific information on administering devices drivers.

*About Device Drivers*	*page 69*
*Device Drivers in the Solaris 2.x Environment*	*page 70*
*How to Add a Device Driver*	*page 71*
*How to Remove a Device Driver*	*page 72*

About Device Drivers

A computer typically uses a wide range of peripheral and mass-storage devices. Your machine, for example, probably has a SCSI disk drive, a keyboard and a mouse, and some kind of magnetic backup medium. Other commonly used devices include CD-ROM drives, printers and plotters, light pens, touch-sensitive screens, digitizers, and tablet-and-stylus pairs.

The Solaris software does not directly communicate with all these devices. Each type of device requires different data formats, protocols, and transmission rates.

A device driver is a low-level program that allows the operating system to communicate with a specific piece of hardware. The driver serves as the operating system's "interpreter" for that piece of hardware.

Device Drivers in the Solaris 2.x Environment

Drivers needed to support a wide range of standard devices are included in the Solaris 2.x environment. These drivers can be found under the directory /kernel/drv.

However, when you install a unsupported device, you'll need to add a new driver to allow that device to work properly. The Solaris 2.x environment makes this job much easier--just add the software package containing the device driver.

What You Need From an Unsupported Device Manufacturer

If you've purchased an unsupported device, the manufacturer should provide the software needed for the device to be properly installed, maintained, and administered.

At a minimum, this software includes a device driver and its associated configuration (.conf) file. In addition, the device may be incompatible with the utilities provided in the Solaris 2.x product, and may require custom maintenance and administrative utilities.

Contact your device manufacturer for more information.

Instructions for Adding and Removing Device Drivers

This section includes step-by-step instructions for performing tasks related to device drivers.

Note - You must be superuser to perform the following procedures.

· How to Add a Device Driver

Place the tape, diskette, or CD-ROM into the drive.
Use the pkgadd command. Type the following:


  # pkgadd -d device packagename

Replace device and packagename as appropriate.

Create a file called /reconfigure that will be read when the system is booting.


  # touch /reconfigure

The /reconfigure file will cause the SunOS software to check for the presence of any newly installed device drivers when you power on or boot your system later.

Shut down the system.


  # /usr/sbin/shutdown -y -g30 -i0  
  .  
  .  
  .  
  .  
  ok

Note - The 0 in i0 is a zero.

In the example above, the command sends a message to all users who are logged in stating they have 30 seconds (-g30) before the system begins to shut down. The ok or > prompt is displayed once the operating environment is shut down.

Turn off power to the system after the ok or > prompt is displayed. Refer to the hardware installation guide that accompanies your system for the location of the power switch.
Turn on the power to the system.
The system will boot and you will be shown the login prompt.

· How to Remove a Device Driver

It is not necessary to remove a driver when its associated device is removed from a system. However, if you want to clean up your file systems and conserve space, you can easily remove a driver.

* Type the following:


  # rem_drv drivername

Caution - A single driver can serve multiple devices. If you want to remove a driver, first make sure that there are no devices on the system that require that driver!