wiki:libwdi

Version 26 (modified by pbatard, 3 years ago) (diff)

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libwdi: Windows Driver Installer library for usb devices

About

The aim of this project is to create a library that facilitates the foolproof installation of any USB driver required to use a libusb application on Windows.

Features

  • all required driver files are provided by the library - no need for additional downloads.
  • automated inf generation, or can be used with your own inf files (including signed ones).
  • compatible with 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms, starting with Windows XP, with the possibility to either:
    • produce 2 separate libraries, for 32 or 64 bit, or,
    • produce a single library that covers both 32 and 64 bit at the same time.
  • can either be integrated in your libusb application, so that:
    • a single executable application is distributed without the need for an additional installer, or,
    • a separate standalone installer application is used along with the application (the library itself does not have any libusb dependency).

Status

As of 2010.06.04, libwdi is in functional beta, including the installer applications (in examples).

Documentation

  1. FAQ?
  2. Using Zadig (the GUI driver installer application)?
  3. Library Installation & Configuration?
  4. Library API Documentation & Usage?

If you have a question that cannot be answered in these pages, please send an e-mail to libusb-devel@….
Make sure you add '[libwdi]' in the e-mail subject so that your question is dealt with appropriately.

Supported development environments

The following development environments are currently supported for libwdi on Windows:

  • ​MinGW (32 bit) or ​MinGW-w64. To compile a library that is both 32 and 64 bit compatible, you should use a version of MinGW-w64 that supports both -m32 and -m64
  • ​Microsoft Visual C++ (Visual Studio) 2008. Only the full version will allow you to produce 64 bit or or 32+64 bit binaries.
  • ​Windows DDK build environment, which is freely available, through the use of the 'ddk_build.cmd' file. This will also produce all of 32, 64 or 32+64 bits binaries. Note that if you want to produce libwdi applications that are compatible with all supported platforms, you will need to use the Windows XP DDK build environment
  • ​cygwin (32 bit only).

The recommended development environment to compile the library/apps is Windows DDK as it allows the building of a 32+64 bit compatible library, and ensures that the required WinUSB DLL files are available.

Source

The current development tree is available in the ​libusb main git repository under ​libwdi.

For those not familiar with git, here are the git commands you can use retrieve and compile the Windows branch: 

git clone git://git.libusb.org/libwdi.git ; retrieve development branch (this only needs to be done once)
git pull                                  ; for further updates, once the clone has been done

If you don't want to use git from the commandline, you can use ​TortoiseGit to access and keep in sync with the git repository. Note that before you can install ​TortoiseGit you need to install ​MSysGit and make sure that, during the installation of ​MSysGit, when prompted to adjust the PATH environment, you select "Run Git from the Windows Command Prompt" (2nd option). Also, in the general settings of ​TortoiseGit, the MSysGit path must point to the MSysGit bin directory (eg: C:Program Files (x86)Gitin")

Also note that, for MinGW and cygwin, as with the libusb development tree, you need to run './autogen.sh' in order to have configure and Makefile created for you.

To create projects relying on libwdi, please refer to how the sample executables zadic (console) and zadig (GUI) are compiled.

Reusable Code Parts: Can our code solve your problems?

As a FOSS developer, there's nothing more frustrating than having to reinvent the wheel while harbouring a strong suspicion that someone, somewhere, might already have solved a similar issue.
On the other hand, googling around and looking through scores of FOSS code listings to find that particular section of code which might be of interest to you is quite time consuming. Wouldn't it be just swell if the developers simply gave an detailed, high level overview of the problems they solved, whose solutions they think you can reuse?

The following page does just that and goes through a list of the features we implemented, which you might be interested in (provided your license is compatible with LGPL v2):

Development Considerations

  • Because the driver installation requires administrative privileges, but enumeration does not, the library compiled and embeds a 32/64 bit installer, that requires UAC elevation on platforms supporting UAC (Windows Vista and later).
  • The project also uses a customer embedder to include the required driver resources (DLLs, 32 and 64 bit installer) along with any files you want to add (eg. signed inf). Note that since most of the DLLs are already compressed, there's not much space to be gained in using compression in the embedder.
  • The reliance on DifXAPI.dll was dropped in w20, as the DLL is not available by default on XP and would increase the binary size.
  • It is possible to produce a 32 bit library that is 32+64 bit compatible, but the opposite is not true. As such, when compiling for 64 bit, 32 bit compatibility will be removed to make the library smaller.

To Do

  • downloading vs embedding of the driver files

In Progress

  • GUI sample application (beta)
  • Documentation

Done

  • allow the editing of the device name
  • libusb0.sys driver support
  • MinGW/cygwim/MSVC/DDK support
  • 32 and 64 bit support and compilation time detection
  • UAC elevation
  • retrieval of device name
  • automated inf generation

Development's status log

Please consult the ​git log or the WDI section of the raw Activity Log.