Would implementing UMDF support be useful (or even viable)?

[Fabian Maurer]

Hello Mark,

I'm just a hobby contributor, please view the following response in that
light.

Personal opinion: I'd love to see something like that! Even something like
ndiswrapper but in wine and usermode, but that's a different story ;)
AFAIK, the API is pretty similar to kernel mode drivers, with obvious
differences. Though I didn't look further into it, so I might be wrong. Maybe
we could even have a shared implementation? After all, we have the unique
situation that we run kernel mode drivers in userland as well...

There's certainly niche hardware that's not supported under Linux, they pop up
from time to time in the forums. They might not ever be supported in Linux
either. Although admittedly the need for that is not too high. In the end, it
seems like a lot of work for marginal benefits - Still, why not? If you have
fun working on it.
Unpopular opinion: Even if there's a Linux driver, it doesn't hurt to have an
alternative. Not all drivers are made equally, after all. There's been moments
when people picked ndiswrapper over the Linux driver as well.

It's probably not easy to test though, since you need the hardware to test it
against. Do you have a program/hardware in mind that you want supported? Sure
would help give a direction in which to start. Just keep in mind that it's
probably a lot of work, take it slow so you don't get overwhelmed. :)

Regards,
Fabian Maurer


On Montag, 16. Mai 2022 00:20:14 CEST Mark N wrote:
> Hello, I was reading about the Windows User Mode Device Framework (aka
> UMDF) and I was  interested in possibly working on adding support for UMDF
> drivers in Wine. I think there are Windows drivers out there that run
> entirely in usermode (e.g. some USB drivers) which could be successfully
> ported to Linux this way.
>
> However I'm still new to Wine so I thought I'd ask - has anybody else ever
> explored doing this? Would this sort of thing be a good fit for Wine in
> general?
>
> Thanks!
> Mark N