Hi,

I've been using NetBSD for a couple of years, but have recently sought
to replace my workstation (which was running windows) with NetBSD. I
use a lot of music and sound applications, and am frustrated by the
need to use windows to do music and audio work.

Currently I'm developing an audio editing application, but I would
like to learn how to write device drivers, so I can add support for
more audio and midi devices. After extensive searching I am still very
confused. I've been browsing the sources, but have never done kernel
level work before. My first goal is to make my SBLive! card
work. Apprently someone was working on this, but it still doesn't seem
to exist.

Anyway, the things I would like to know are:

- what is the scope of writing something like a PCI
platform-independant device driver?

- how much information about the actual device is required to make the
driver go?

- what resources, other than the "The Design and Implementation of the
4.4 BSD Operating System" and sources are available to assist people
like myself that are new to kernel development? (it seems like quite a
steep learning curve)


Thanks,

Andrew Kilpatrick