When Is WDF 1.7 RTM Coming Out?
UPDATE 10/02/2008: The WDF 1.7 RTM coinstallers were released on 4/18/2008. For more information on how to download them, please look at http://blogs.msdn.com/iliast/archive/2008/10/02/where-are-the-wdf-1-7-rtm-coinstallers.aspx
Lately, I've been hearing the same question over and over: Where is the WDF 1.7 RTM? Many driver developers have gone to the onConnect website and there they see the following notice:
· **URGENT** - WDK WS08 - WDF ALERT
· WDF Users:
Two patches from Windows Update (KB 938371 & KB 933607) interfere
with installation of the Kernel Mode Driver Framework and the User Mode
Driver Framework on Windows Vista. Testing of the fixes is in
progress. Our current estimate to complete these fixes is the end of
March. Until then, we ask that you not release device drivers using
either KMDF or UMDF version 1.7.
For further information, contact WDFINFO@microsoft.com.
Sincerely,
KMDF Team
Of course, the end of March has passed and right now we're in April. So, what has happened? Let's start from the beginning.
First of all, I'll say that we had tested all WDF binaries and coinstallers and we were ready to ship with the 6001.18000 RTM WDK (i.e. the Windows Server 2008 WDK). Everybody was happy in the team, since we were on time and we were eagerly working on the new WDF version. Finally, the WDK went out and we had a mini-party :)
A few days after the release of the WDK I received a couple of emails saying that there is a problem with the KMDF 1.7 coinstaller: it cannot update a system, where KMDF 1.5 was already installed. Of course, this was a scenario that we had already tested (many times and using multiple configurations and test scenarios) and it seemed weird at first. However, the log files that I got were not lying: the files were not being updated. In the beginning, it was hard to believe that such a fundamental scenario was not working and it was even harder to convince other people in my team that there was a potential problem. Anyway, after some tests we found out that even in our machines (which we were using to test the KMDF 1.7 coinstallers), the coinstallers were not working!
So, while brainstorming with the WDF test lead, Shefali, she told me that the KMDF 1.5 binaries were part of the KB938371, which is a prerequisite for Vista SP1. Up to that moment I had no idea about the existence of this package. Anyway, indeed we verified that this package was creating a versioning conflict with the coinstaller and it was preventing the coinstaller from working correctly. All this happened within a couple of days, after we received the initial emails that were informing us about the installation failure. Immediately we informed people about workarounds on this issue. You can find the initial announcement that I made in OSR's ntdev mailing list here. The workaround for testing purposes (which can also be found in the above link) is to extract the files from the coinstallers and manually place them to their directory.
After that, we had to take the hit, remove the 6001.18000 WDK from the onConnect website and post the 6001.18001 WDK, which is exactly the same as the previous one, however it doesn't have the WDF coinstallers. Around that time, while searching for the best solution, we found (again, while brainstorming with Shefali) that there was an issue with the package of the UMDF coinstaller: it would not upgrade a small number of Windows Vista users. So, we created new coinstallers and started testing them. The code is EXACTLY the same as the one coinstaller that we had released in the 6001.18000 WDK, but we had to modify the update packages that are inside the coinstaller. Of course, right now our testing scenarios are checking everything, since we want to make sure that we're controlling all the unknown factors and there are no more suprises in the corner for us. Fortunately, testing is going well and we haven't found any issues. AFAIK, we're almost done testing the coinstallers and the only thing that remains is to find a way to re-release them. Our PM, Jeff, is currently working on this issue.
So, when are is WDF 1.7 coming out? We're doing our best. Most probably, if everything goes well, sometime in April. The whole issue has been as disturbing for you as it has for us and we want to overcome it asap.