Re: testing fs drivers

NTFSD
1

Experts,

Reopening this very old thread about testing and debugging FS filters…

I need to know some techniques that could be useful when one wants to debug
a driver on a production machine at a customers site.
I won’t have the checked build installed, no debug symbols and the guy
probably won’t know what a NULL modem means. What he is gonna send me is a
crash dump maybe.

So I want to “build in” some mechanism in my driver that will not be much of
a load to the system (perhaps toggled on/off by a registry key) and could
send me information.

Can this be done through a log file (mine is going to be a boot start filter
for the file systems). File writing can have issues in FSDs.

Any suggestionsand/or tested techniques are solicited.

Best Regards,

amitr0

2

WPP…

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of amitr0
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:12 AM
To: Windows File Systems Devs Interest List
Subject: Re: [ntfsd] testing fs drivers

Experts,

Reopening this very old thread about testing and debugging FS
filters…

I need to know some techniques that could be useful when one wants to
debug a driver on a production machine at a customers site.
I won’t have the checked build installed, no debug symbols and the guy
probably won’t know what a NULL modem means. What he is gonna send me is
a crash dump maybe.

So I want to “build in” some mechanism in my driver that will not be
much of a load to the system (perhaps toggled on/off by a registry key)
and could send me information.

Can this be done through a log file (mine is going to be a boot start
filter for the file systems). File writing can have issues in FSDs.

Any suggestionsand/or tested techniques are solicited.

Best Regards,

amitr0
— Questions? First check the IFS FAQ at
https://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=17 You are currently subscribed
to ntfsd as: unknown lmsubst tag argument: ‘’ To unsubscribe send a
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3

If you only need to support Win2K and forward, use WPP. You can have the
user capture trace events etc. If there is a crash, have them capture the
crash dump, a full kernel dump is most useful, and you can determine the
reason through crash analysis.

Pete

Kernel Drivers
Windows Filesystem and Device Driver Consulting
www.KernelDrivers.com
(303)546-0300

From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of amitr0
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 9:12 AM
To: Windows File Systems Devs Interest List
Subject: Re: [ntfsd] testing fs drivers

Experts,

Reopening this very old thread about testing and debugging FS filters…

I need to know some techniques that could be useful when one wants to debug
a driver on a production machine at a customers site.

I won’t have the checked build installed, no debug symbols and the guy
probably won’t know what a NULL modem means. What he is gonna send me is a
crash dump maybe.

So I want to “build in” some mechanism in my driver that will not be much of
a load to the system (perhaps toggled on/off by a registry key) and could
send me information.

Can this be done through a log file (mine is going to be a boot start filter
for the file systems). File writing can have issues in FSDs.

Any suggestionsand/or tested techniques are solicited.

Best Regards,

amitr0

— Questions? First check the IFS FAQ at
https://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=17 You are currently subscribed to
ntfsd as: unknown lmsubst tag argument: ‘’ To unsubscribe send a blank email
to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

4

But would WPP be able to do boot level tracing? Mine is a boot start filter
driver that attaches itself to all filesystems.

5

Yes WPP works at boot time.

Find more details on MSDN about WPP software tracing.

Basically you instrument you driver.

Then for Vista you configure an Autologger. Downlevel from vista use
GlobalLogger to log your events. What happens is that both methods
create a logging session at boot time, and you can then view the events
on the file.

Thanks,

Jose Sua

Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no
rights.

From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of amitr0
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:02 PM
To: Windows File Systems Devs Interest List
Subject: Re: [ntfsd] testing fs drivers

But would WPP be able to do boot level tracing? Mine is a boot start
filter driver that attaches itself to all filesystems. — Questions?
First check the IFS FAQ at https://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=17
You are currently subscribed to ntfsd as: unknown lmsubst tag argument:
‘’ To unsubscribe send a blank email to
xxxxx@lists.osr.com