Modifying the Predefined Database

To add a currently unsupported device to your system, you must modify the Predefined database.

To do this, you must add information about your device to three predefined object classes:

To describe the device, you must add one object to the PdDv object class to indicate the class, subclass, and device type. You must also add one object to the PdAt object class for each device attribute, such as interrupt level or block size. Finally, you must add objects to the PdCn object class if the device is an intermediate device. If the device is an intermediate device, you must add an object for each different connection location on the intermediate device.

You can use the odmadd Object Data Manager (ODM) command from the command line or in a shell script to populate the necessary Predefined object classes from stanza files.

The Predefined database is populated with devices that are present at the time of installation. For some supported devices, such as serial and parallel printers and SCSI disks, the database also contains generic device objects. These generic device objects can be used to configure other similar devices that are not explicitly supported in the Predefined database. If new devices are added after installation, additional device support might need to be installed.

For example, if you have a serial printer that closely resembles a printer supported by the system, and the system's device driver for serial printers works on your printer, you can add the device driver as a printer of type osp (other serial printer). If these generic devices successfully add your device, you do not need to provide additional system software.