Method for transitioning control of a peripheral device from a first device driver to a second device driver during operating system initialization
View Patent ↗A system for meeting demanding boot time requirements, such as those timing requirement mandated by vehicle telematics systems, is described. Current computer systems use expensive hardware like coprocessors to service requests, such as input/output requests, that have timing requirements which are less than the time required to load the operating system into memory. Instead, a mini-driver may be initialized early in the boot process before the operating system is loaded, to service these requests. For example, the mini-driver may buffer incoming data, and/or reply to incoming messages. After the operating system has loaded, a second device driver may be initialized, and the mini-driver may be transitioned to the second driver.
1. A method for operating a computer system, the computer system including an operating system, memory, and at least one peripheral device, the method comprising:
loading a first device driver for the at least one peripheral device prior to loading the operating system, the first device driver operating to initialize the peripheral device and associate the peripheral device with an interrupt;
loading a second device driver for the at least one peripheral device after loading of the operating system;
transitioning control of the peripheral device to the second device driver by
attaching the second device driver to the interrupt,
disabling the interrupt,
re-enabling the interrupt for use by the second driver, and
transferring data associated with the first driver to the second driver.
2. The method of claim 1 , where transitioning control of the peripheral device to the second device driver further comprises synchronizing the transferred data with data obtained by the second device driver.
3. The method of claim 1 , where the device driver is loaded before an image of the operating system is copied into memory.
4. A method for servicing at least an input/output request during the boot process of a computer system, the computer system including an operating system including a kernel module and at least one peripheral device, where the at least one peripheral device is responsive to input/output requests, the method comprising:
loading, prior to loading the kernel module, a first device driver associated with the at least one peripheral device, the device driver including
a handler for servicing the at least one input/output request, the handler callable throughout the boot process, and
a data manipulation component in communication with the handler and operable to manipulate data associated with the at least one input/output request;
loading a second device driver for the at least one peripheral after loading of the kernel module;
transitioning data manipulated by the data manipulation component to the second device driver;
creating a temporary exception table for servicing the input/output requests with the first device driver;
creating, by the kernel module, a second exception table for servicing the input/output requests with the second device driver; and
transitioning exception information from the temporary exception table to the second exception table.
5. A method for operating a computer system having an operating system and at least one peripheral component adapted to handle input and/or output data requests, the method comprising:
loading a first device driver for the at least one peripheral component to handle input and/or output data requests prior to loading of the operating system;
storing data received and/or transmitted using the first device driver;
loading a second device driver for the at least one peripheral device after loading the operating system;
transitioning control of the at least one peripheral device from the first device driver to the second device driver; and
transitioning the data received and/or transmitted using the first device driver to the second device driver.
6. The method of claim 5 , where the first device driver is responsive to a first triggering mechanism and the second device driver is responsive to a second triggering mechanism, where the first and second during mechanisms differ from one another.
7. The method of claim 6 , where transitioning control comprises transitioning control from the first triggering mechanism to the second triggering mechanism.
8. The method of claim 5 , where the first device driver is responsive to a first triggering mechanism and the second device driver is responsive to a second triggering mechanism, where the first and second during mechanisms are substantially identical.
9. The method of claim 5 , where the first and second device drivers are adapted to control messaging associated with the at least one peripheral device.
10. A method for operating a computer system having an operating system and at least one peripheral component adapted to handle input and/or output data requests associated with communications on a bus, the method comprising:
loading a first device driver for the at least one peripheral component to handle input and/or output data on the communications bus prior to loading of the operating system;
storing data received and/or transmitted using the first device driver;
loading a second device driver for the at least one peripheral device after loading the operating system;
transitioning control of the at least one peripheral device from the first device driver to the second device driver; and
transitioning the data received and/or transmitted using the first device driver to the second device driver.
11. The method of claim 10 , where the first device driver is responsive to a first triggering mechanism and the second device driver is responsive to a second triggering mechanism, where the first and second during mechanisms differ from one another.
12. The method of claim 11 , where transitioning control comprises transitioning control from the first triggering mechanism to the second triggering mechanism.
13. The method of claim 10 , where the first device driver is responsive to a first triggering mechanism and the second device driver is responsive to a second triggering mechanism, where the first and second during mechanisms are substantially identical.