You are not logged in.

#1 2013-06-03 18:44:13

as-cii
Member
Registered: 2013-06-03
Posts: 2

Linux Kernel Development

Hi everyone,
I'm 19 but I develop since I was 13. I am really interested in everything that is related to kernel stuff and I would like to be involved more but I feel like I don't know where to start.

I am writing here because ArchLinux is my favourite distro and the community behind it is really great.

Recently I have been reading Robert Love's great book but it seems to me that it is not enough to contribute seriously.

Of course I've already seen websites like kernelnewbies.org but everything seems so generic/abstract to me that I can't really concentrate on what to do. So the question is: does anybody know or work to a project that involves kernel programming? Is there any place to start coding (something that's not too specific as Linux Mailing List for example)?

I would really appreciate your help since for me it would mean that I can finally get involved in the community in the way that I love more: by developing.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Antonio (as-cii)

P.s. I am Italian so I hope you will forgive my grammar mistakes smile

Last edited by as-cii (2013-06-03 18:44:53)

Offline

#2 2013-06-03 19:59:18

Thom
Member
Registered: 2012-05-22
Posts: 72
Website

Re: Linux Kernel Development

Maybe Linux Device Drivers :
http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/
It's could be an interesting lectures.

Good luck.

Offline

#3 2013-06-03 20:09:38

drcouzelis
Member
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Linux Kernel Development

I have a suggestion, but I don't know if you will like it. wink

Please consider contributing to the Haiku operating system (Wikipedia). There are many reasons why contributing to Haiku would be better / more exciting / different than contributing to the Linux kernel:

  • Haiku is a complete operating system. You can easily contribute to the kernel, the API, the GUI, the applications that come with it, or anything else.

  • Haiku is newer (2002 vs 1991).

  • Haiku is C++, Linux is C. (Maybe you like C++. I don't. tongue)

  • There are many opportunities to contribute to the Haiku kernel, both simple things and big things.

  • The community is very very open and friendly. You can introduce yourself on the haiku-development mailing list.

  • Haiku is very modular. You can recompile a specific part and reload it to test your changes.

You can easily run Haiku in VirtualBox or on actual hardware (most of the time).

I think the biggest thing is that Haiku isn't "finished". It works and it works well, but there are still many bugs that anyone can help find and fix. I assume it would be difficult to find a bug on the Linux kernel tracker that would be easy enough for a new kernel developer and not already taken... hmm

Despite having a pretty small group of developers, Haiku development is quite active. I think it can be fun contributing to a big software project that still has many opportunities for people to contribute.

Please let me know if you have any more questions about it.

Oh, and I'm not a Haiku developer. I just use it sometimes and I try to write some applications for it. I think the Arch Linux forum moderators are used to me spamming these forums with information about Haiku. wink

Last edited by drcouzelis (2013-06-03 20:10:23)

Offline

#4 2013-06-05 06:31:22

vkumar
Member
Registered: 2008-10-06
Posts: 166

Re: Linux Kernel Development

Of course I've already seen websites like kernelnewbies.org but everything seems so generic/abstract to me that I can't really concentrate on what to do. So the question is: does anybody know or work to a project that involves kernel programming? Is there any place to start coding ...

I think many of us on the forums have had similar experiences. It's important to have an itch, a goal, or a research interest in mind before settling into the task of kernel development. This motivation is necessarily very personal. If you're interested on working on new stuff, you could try your hand at writing your own operating system [1], or you could contribute to projects like Haiku, or you could go read some cool research papers and implement them in Linux.

If you're interested in developing new features for Linux, there are some good papers here [2]. An ambitious idea (that I would like to see) is a copy-on-write copy_range() for ext4, and maybe even for other filesystems. There's good information on lwn.net about copy_range() here [3].

If you want to fix bugs in Linux, it might be best if they are bugs that personally affect you.

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about any specific projects.

[1] http://osdev.org/
[2] http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs194-24 … douts.html
[3] http://lwn.net/Articles/550621/


div curl F = 0

Offline

#5 2013-06-06 17:59:37

as-cii
Member
Registered: 2013-06-03
Posts: 2

Re: Linux Kernel Development

drcouzelis wrote:

I have a suggestion, but I don't know if you will like it. wink

Please consider contributing to the Haiku operating system (Wikipedia).

[...]

I think the biggest thing is that Haiku isn't "finished". It works and it works well, but there are still many bugs that anyone can help find and fix. I assume it would be difficult to find a bug on the Linux kernel tracker that would be easy enough for a new kernel developer and not already taken... hmm

Maybe working on a project like Haiku (have you ever heard about Minix? smile) could help me getting started.
I think I will take a look at them before trying to dive into Linux Kernel.

Thank you very much smile

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB