Channel 9 - Entries tagged with Drivers

Defrag Tools: #22 - WinDbg - Memory Kernel Mode

Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:31:31 GMT

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder and Larry Larsen continue looking at the Debugging Tools for Windows (in particular WinDbg). WinDbg is a debugger that supports user mode debugging of a process, or kernel mode debugging of a computer.

This installment goes over the commands used to show the memory used in a kernel mode debug session. We cover these commands:

!vm
!vm 1
!memusage 8
!poolused 2
!poolused 4
!poolfind
!pool
!pool 2
!pte

Make sure you watch Defrag Tools Episode #1 for instructions on how to get the Debugging Tools for Windows and how to set the required environment variables for symbols and source code resolution.

Resources:
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
Sysinternals LiveKD
Sysinternals RAMMap

Timeline:
[00:45] - Sysinternals LiveKD debug of the machine
[01:47] - Virtual Memory summary (!vm 1)
[05:10] - Sysinternals LiveKD live kernel dump (livekd.exe -m -o kernel.dmp)
[09:30] - Sysinternals RAMMap
[11:10] - Memory List summary (!memusage 8)
[16:15] - Pool Usage by Non-Paged Pool (!poolused 2)
[20:16] - Pool Tags (c:\debuggers\triage\pooltag.txt)
[28:06] - Pool Usage by Paged Pool (!poolused 4)
[29:27] - Pool issues lead to Bugchecks
[34:00] - Find Pool by Address (!pool )
[36:05] - Find Pool by Tag (!poolfind )
[40:30] - Page Table Entry (PTE) and Page Frame Number (PFN) (!pte )
[42:45] - Sometimes it is a physical hardware failure

Defrag Tools: #19 - WinDbg - OCA

Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:54:20 GMT

In this week's episode of Defrag Tools, Graham McIntyre, Senior Developer from the Windows Reliability team, gives us an overview of Online Crash Analysis (OCA). Graham describes OCA and how dump collection has been enhanced in Windows 8.

Resources:
Debugging Tools for Windows
Bugcheck 0x133 - DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
Bugcheck 0x144 - BUGCODE_USB3_DRIVER

Timeline:
[00:00] Intro
[01:00] "Send to Microsoft" does go somewhere!
[02:00] What happens at a Bugcheck
[08:00] OCA 'Buckets'
[11:17] "Request for Additional Data"
[12:09] OCA 'Solutions'
[13:00] Data Mining
[15:25] Trending issues
[17:46] Firmware and DMA bugs caught by PFN tracking
[19:32] Reliability History and Problem Reports
[22:15] Event Viewer - 'Windows Error Reporting' source
[23:38] 'Automatic' dump type
[26:15] OEM/ISV/IHV Relationships
[28:02] Bugcheck 0x133 - DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION [NT Debugging Blog]
[30:30] !findxmldata
[31:06] Bugcheck 0x144 - BUGCODE_USB3_DRIVER

Defrag Tools: #18 - WinDbg - Driver Verifier - Part 3

Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:33:55 GMT

In this followup to last week's episode of Defrag Tools, Michael Fourre, senior test engineer from the Driver Verifier team, gives us an overview of all the available verifier settings, and explains when you might need to use them.

Resources:

Debugging Tools for Windows

About Driver Verifier

Timeline:

[00:00] Intro
[00:58] Volatile mode (also known as "No Reboot Feature")
[02:09] Using Verifier on production systems
[03:19] Different ways to configure Verifier (command line vs. GUI)
[05:55] /query vs. /querysettings
[07:38] "Deadlock Detection." How does it work?
[11:07] Standard Flags overview
[13:28] Additional Flags overview
[15:43] /log switch

Defrag Tools: #17 - WinDbg - Driver Verifier - Part 2

Larry Larsen, Andrew Richards, Chad Beeder — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:13:52 GMT

In this episode of Defrag Tools, Michael Fourre, senior test engineer from the Driver Verifier team, pays a visit to Larry Larsen and Chad Beeder in the Channel 9 studios to give us some deeper insight into this valuable tool for catching device driver bugs!

Resources:

Debugging Tools for Windows

About Driver Verifier

Timeline:
[00:00] Intro - Michael Fourre
[01:45] New Windows 8 feature: DDI compliance checking
[02:33] Verifier.exe: command line vs. GUI
[03:10] Looking at a Windows 8 verifier crash
[04:37] New Windows 8 verifier feature - VerifierExt.sys driver
[05:39] !ruleinfo tells you what the driver did wrong
[08:00] Best practices with Driver Verifier when you suspect a faulty driver
[09:03] Performance impact of enabling Driver Verifier
[10:37] Using !verifier in the debugger to view verifier settings and statistics
[11:50] Viewing IRQL transition log with !verifier 0x8
[13:13] What are IRQLs (Interrupt Request Levels)
[15:41] Does Driver Verifier make drivers behave differently?
[19:00] Other useful flags to use with !verifier
[22:10] Viewing kernel pool allocate/free log with !verifier 0x80
[22:45] Viewing IRP allocate/complete log with !verifier 0x100
[23:19] Disable verifier on the fly: !verifier -disable

Windows 7 Sensor and Location - Developing Drivers Part 2

Yochay Kiriaty — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:56:00 GMT

The Windows Sensor and Location platform, new for Windows 7, enables your computer and applications to adapt to their current environment and provide location base services and application. But sensors are external or logical devices that require a driver to connect to Windows 7. Join Gavin Gear, product team PM, and Yochay Kiriaty, Technical Evangelist, as we dive deep into the Windows 7 Sensor and Location driver architecture, learning the different about its different components and how to build one.

This is part 2 and here is the link to part 1.

Additional videos in this series:

In the Windows 7 Developer Training Kit, you can find three labs about Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform.

You can find additional information about the Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform in the:

www.microsoft.com/whdc/sensors
Send email with any questions to - sensext@microsoft.com
Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform Developer Center on MSDN

Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform series of posts
PDC session recording - Windows 7: The Sensor and Location Platform: Building Context-Aware Applications

Windows 7 Sensor and Location - Developing Drivers Part 1

Yochay Kiriaty — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:55:00 GMT

Additional videos in this series:

www.microsoft.com/whdc/sensors
Send email with any questions to - sensext@microsoft.com
Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform Developer Center on MSDN

Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform series of posts
PDC session recording - Windows 7: The Sensor and Location Platform: Building Context-Aware Applications

Automatically Find Local Printers

Sarah Perez — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:04:00 GMT

Seriously cool! Recently, I read about the new Xerox Mobile Express Driver that lets you automatically detect all the available printers in your vicinity - even the ones that are non-Xerox - and then downloads and installs the appropriate drivers automatically. Keep in mind that this software won’t get you connected the office printer at your favorite wi-fi hotspot, but it will help you find printers when you plug into the corporate network of the client you’re visiting or the printers over at your friend’s house. The software is dead simple to install and use, but you will need to be connected to the internet for the installation to work. When you’re ready to print, just choose the Xerox Mobile printer that will now be in your printer list and the software scans and adds available printers. You can even assign a name to the location so you won’t have to scan and re-add printers next time you’re there. (via CNet)

Byron Cook: Terminator - Proving Good Things Will Eventually Happen

Charles — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:31:00 GMT

Here's another installment from MSR Cambridge (much more to come). This time, I was lucky enough to get some time with Byron Cook, a researcher in MSR's Programming Principles and Tools group focusing on static analysis of system code to hunt for algorithms and code fragments that will most likely induce a system state lovingly referred to by all as a Hang. You know, when nothing seems to work anymore, you can't use your mouse or keyboard, windows are frozen in time and you resort to a hard reboot. Well, what is a hang, exactly? How is a hang directly related to events? Did you know that a typical hang is event-related (never ending event response) caused by kernel mode code (drivers mostly) that never, well, terminates?

Byron and team have written a very interesting tool that analyzes code, tests it against proofs of correctness (mathematical proofs, indeed) and alerts developers at design time that some code they've written is heading down a very slippery slope that will end in a hang. Terminator is proof based. OK. How does Terminator work, you ask? Proofs? It's all about prooving termination.

Please tune in and find out. This is a really cool introduction to the notion of mathematically prooving that good things will eventually happen in code.

PS. I just found out that, like myself, Byron is an Evergreen State College alumnus. Small world!

Cakewalk: Making Music with Sonar

Charles — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:47:51 GMT

The guys at Cakewalk are passionate about music and providing the technology that enables audio enthusiasts & professionals to create great music. Noel Borthwick, Cakewalk CTO and Carl Jacobson, Woldwide Marketing Director, spend some time with Inside Out talking about their lessons learned as an early Vista adopter for their audio application Sonar, which also is the only application of its kind for the 64-bit platform.

They also talk candidly about the development process and experiences with managed code, certification documentation and virtualization.

PrintVerifier demo

nsashwin — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:07:47 GMT

PrintVerifier is a powerful tool that can be used for development and testing of print drivers and print applications. This is a screencast of a demo of the PrintVerifier tool that is to be presented at WinHEC 2007.

For more information on PrintVerifier, visit http://blogs.msdn.com/PrintVerifier.

Driver Development and Much More With Mike Calligaro

Rory — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:38:37 GMT

Mike Calligaro came to Microsoft thirteen years ago to help build a supercomputer. But, two days before his arrival, the project evaporated, leaving Mike on the payroll but without a position.

This isn't an unheard of situation for new hires, but Mike's story, detailing all the different projects he worked on throughout the years, is just fantastic.

We get to hear about his work on the Sega Dreamcast, an early attempt at providing video-on-demand in the home (in 1994!), and the best explanation ever given as to what a device driver is and how they work.

I'm hoping to visit Mike again. I found him through some posts he wrote for the Windows Mobile blog. I found him to be thoughtful and interesting - he was the same in person. One of those hidden gems at the company.

He has more stories to tell, and I hope to get him to divulge more of his past for the camera. People like Mike impress me because of their ability to approach many different disciplines with great success.

This video, I feel, only scratches the surface...

The Advancement of Windows: Narayanan Ganapathy - Windows Vista IO

Charles — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:25:06 GMT

From the kernel to the shell, Windows Vista is a very different OS than XPSP2. How so?

Here, Charles interviews Architect Narayanan Ganapathy whose team of highly skilled engineers write the Windows IO system, driver frameworks and related technologies. So, what, exactly, is new in Windows Vista with regard to IO? What does it mean, exactly, to users and developers?

Tune in. Learn.

Erik Gubitz and Ferdous Rubaiyat: Inside the Driver Installation Framework

Charles — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:43:41 GMT

Installing drivers is sometimes difficult to understand process for users, but getting drivers on to a machine is not as easy as you think, from a developer point of view. In fact, installation is often quite a hard problem for driver developers to get right...

Well, Erik Gubitz, SDE, and Ferdous Rubaiyat, SDET, work on the Driver Installation Framework, which provides a set of APIs that promise to make the installation process less turbulent for both users, indirectly, and driver devlopers, directly(via APIs...), alike.

Meet two of the engineers behind a great installation technology that will make your life easier if you write drivers for Windows.

Peter Wieland: User Mode Driver Framework

Charles — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:33:45 GMT

In Windows Vista, we have moved many drivers out of the kernel and up into user mode, which will greatly decrease the potential for blue screens and other bad things. As always, we love making Frameworks for developers that enable them to get things done faster, even for low level stuff like drivers.

You've learned about the Kernel Mode Driver Framework. In this video, we meet Peter Wieland who is the Development Lead for the User Mode Driver Framework (UMDF) team. We have a conversation about many topics, but one of particular interest is why we are investing so much effort in making it easier to write drivers. Driver development is a very specialized programming niche, which requires deep knowledge of the underlining system as well sophisticated programming skills. Why open it up to the masses? Peter explains...

For more info:

WHDC’s site on UMDF - It has some white papers and WinHEC 2006 presentations including Peter's “Technical Synopsis” which has a PPT animation of how I/O flows through UMDF (slides 10 and 11 show I/O flow for a kernel stack and then a user-mode stack.)

The UMDF beta is part of the Windows Drivers Kit (WDK) beta which can be joined at http://connect.microsoft.com. Peter posted some instructions a while back on his blog about how to get into the WDK beta.

Peter's blog is http://blogs.msdn.com/peterwie. "I’m not as active as I’d like to be, but there’s a long series there on DMA and drivers that folks seem to like."

Juggs Ravalia – Windows CE 6.0 Device Driver Model

Charles — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:06:48 GMT

The upcoming release of Windows CE 6.0 ships with a redesigned kernel, memory model and device driver architecture, Juggs Ravalia is a Program Manager on the Windows CE drivers team who gives us the low down on the new driver architecture and what that means for embedded device developers. Mike Hall, Senior Product Manager and Channel 9 correpsondent, conducts this interview.

Donn Terry: PreFAST for Drivers

Charles — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:54:50 GMT

Donn Terry is a Software Developer who's been writing driver code for Windows for a very long time... He's the guy who's been working on PreFAST for drivers (PFD) for the past several years. PFD is a really handy static analysis tool used by driver developers to find bugs in their code that would otherwise go undetected until blue-screening Windows (assuming the drivers are running in the kernel) and other bad things.

Doron Holan - Kernel Mode Driver Framework

Erik Porter — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:42:53 GMT

It's hard to write kernel mode drivers. Real hard. In fact, it's hard to believe how hard it is. Well, the Windows Driver People have been working tirelessly to make it a little less hard (not easy) to write kernel mode drivers that won't hose your system. You know, blue screen of death and the like. If you write kernel mode drivers you really should watch this video. You will be impressed with the work that has gone into the Kernel Mode Driver Framework. This framework abstracts some of the pain points away for driver developers giving them the freedom to concentrate on their algorithms related to device usability...

Find out more about KMDF and related technologies (and get the bits!)

KMDF Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/doronh/

KMDF homepage: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/KMDF.mspx

KMDF bits (v1.1 right now): http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/KMDF_pkg.mspx

WDF: (UMDF, verification tools): http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/default.mspx