Intermediate Driver DriverEntry Function

An intermediate driver's initial required entry point must be explicitly named DriverEntry so that the loader can properly identify it. All other exported driver functions, which are described in this section as MiniportXxx and ProtocolXxx, can have any vendor-specified name because they are passed as addresses to NDIS.

In an intermediate driver, DriverEntry must at a minimum:

1. Call NdisMRegisterMiniportDriver and save the handle that is returned in the NdisMiniportDriverHandle parameter.

2. Call NdisRegisterProtocolDriver to register the driver's ProtocolXxx functions if the driver subsequently binds itself to an underlying NDIS driver.

3. Call NdisIMAssociateMiniport to inform NDIS about the association between the driver's miniport upper edge and protocol lower edge.

An intermediate driver must register a MiniportDriverUnload unload handler. This unload handler is called when the system unloads the intermediate driver. If DriverEntry fails, this unload handler is not called; instead, the driver is simply unloaded. For more information about the unload handler, see Unloading an Intermediate Driver.

The unload handler should call NdisDeregisterProtocolDriver to deregister the protocol portion of the intermediate driver. The unload handler should also perform any necessary cleanup operations, such as reallocating resources used by the protocol portion of the driver.

Note that an unload handler differs from a MiniportHaltEx function: the unload handler has a more global scope, and the scope of the MiniportHaltEx function is restricted to a particular miniport adapter. The intermediate driver should clean up state information and reallocate resources when each underlying miniport driver that is bound to it is halted. For information about handling the halt operation for virtual miniports, see Halting a Virtual Miniport.

ProtocolUninstall is an optional unload handler. Register an entry point for this function in the ProtocolCharacteristics structure that you pass to NdisRegisterProtocolDriver. NDIS calls ProtocolUninstall in response to a user request to uninstall an intermediate driver. NDIS calls ProtocolUnbindAdapterEx once for each bound adapter, and then NDIS calls ProtocolUninstall. This handler is called before the system actually unloads the driver. This timing provides a chance to release any device objects or other resources that might otherwise prevent the system from calling the unload handler that is registered with NdisMRegisterMiniportDriver and unloading the driver.

DriverEntry can initialize spin locks to protect any globally-shared resources that the intermediate driver allocates, such as state variables, structures, and memory areas. The driver uses these resources to track connections and to track sends in progress or driver-allocated queues.

If DriverEntry fails to allocate any resources that the driver needs to carry out network I/O operations, it should release any previously allocated resources and return an appropriate error status.

The following topics further describe how to register intermediate drivers:

Registering as an NDIS Intermediate Driver

Registering an Intermediate Driver as a Miniport Driver

Registering an Intermediate Driver as a Protocol Driver