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If the device drivers are stuffed into user space using stable ABIs, it would be easy to update the OS while leaving the driver alone. That can even be done wit
by ryao 9y ago
If the device drivers are stuffed into user space using stable ABIs, it would be easy to update the OS while leaving the driver alone. That can even be done with kernel drivers. I believe that Windows does it. The reason that cannot be done on Linux is that Linux elected not to have a stable driver ABI.
- yorwba 9y agoI'm not familiar with driver development, but could it be possible to rewrite a driver's machine code so that all interactions with the kernel are redirected through a translation layer that emulates the old kernel's ABI using the new kernel?
- kiriakasis 9y agoI think it would be almost impossible http://wiki.c2.com/?SufficientlySmartCompiler http://wiki.c2.com/?SufficientlySmartCompiler