Question

I am trying to understand an existing Linux Wi-Fi driver for a USB Wi-Fi adapter. While I can read the C code, I would also like to be able to insert debug/print statements at certain critical spots in the driver to see how it behaves when executed. On a Linux system, after modifying the driver code, how does one go about loading it into the kernel in such a way that it replaces the old driver? Is there a way to “hotplug substitute” it straight over the old driver, or is it more complicated than that?

I intend on doing this inside of an expendible virtual machine, so I am not concerned about messing up the original driver, for what it counts.

Answer 1

If the driver is compiled as a module, all you need to do is to add your debug print outs, compile the module, rmmod the original module, insmod your new module and initiate the WLAN connection as usual.