Contributing to the Linux Kernel

Transcript

2. Contributing to the Linux Kernel Umegbewe Nwebedu TCI Technologies @nwebedu_junior
3. Meet Great - Site Reliability Engineer @TCI - Linux & DevOps Aficionado - Started writing code & using Linux at 9 - Wannabe Zuckerberg - Follow me on twitter @nwebedu_junior Umegbewe Nwebedu TCI Technologies @nwebedu_junior
4. What to expect from this talk - Quick Introduction - Understanding how the Linux Kernel is developed (release cycles, active kernel releases, kernel trees - Configuring our development system - Explore Kernel Sources - Compiling and Installing a Kernel - Writing a Kernel Patch - Aftermath
5. Why contribute to the Linux Kernel? - Linux is cool - Linux powers the world (Servers, The Cloud, Desktop? maybe this year. - By contributing your code you can add new functionality to the kernel - Why not?
6. Linux != OS Linux is a kernel
7. Open Source Festival 2022 What is a Kernel? The Kernel is the most important part of an operating system The Kernel is responsible for low-level tasks such as disk management, memory management, task management, etc. It provides an interface between the user and the hardware components of the system. When a process makes a request to the Kernel, then it is called System Call.
8. Open Source Festival 2022 About the Linux Kernel - Monolithic - Modular - Free Software - Things happen, so panic type
9. Open Source The term open source refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible.
10. Development Process It is a 24-hour, seven days a week, and 365 days of continuous open source development. the kernel uses a rolling development model which is continually integrating major changes that results in a new release once every 2+ months, and several stable and extended stable releases once a week.
12. Open Source Festival 2022 Developer Developer Developer Developer Developer Developer Maintainer Maintainer Maintainer Linus Torvalds
13. September 15 5.3 stable release September 30 5.4-rc1, merge window closes October 6 5.4-rc2 October 13 5.4-rc3 October 20 5.4-rc4 October 27 5.4-rc5 November 3 5.4-rc6 November 10 5.4-rc7 November 17 5.4-rc8 November 24 5.4 stable release
14. Open Source Festival 2022 Prepatch or RC (Release Candidate) Prepatch or "RC" kernels are mainline kernel pre-releases that are mostly aimed at other kernel developers and Linux enthusiasts. They must be compiled from source and usually contain new features that must be tested before they can be put into a stable release. Prepatch kernels are maintained and released by Linus Torvalds Active Releases
15. Open Source Festival 2022 Stable After a mainline kernel is released it is considered “stable”, and are bug fix-only release. Any bug fixes for a stable kernel are backported from the mainline kernel and applied to stable git by a designated stable kernel release maintainer. Stable kernel updates are released on average, once a week, or on an as needed basis. Active Releases
16. Open Source Festival 2022 Long Term Long-term releases are stable releases selected for long-term maintenance to provide critical bug fixes for older kernel trees. Only important bug fixes are applied to this long term releases and they don’t come frequently. E.g 5.10 Active Releases
17. Open Source Festival 2022 Linux Kernel Versioning 4: Kernel Version 15: Major Revision 0: Minor Revision 39: Patch Level or number Generic:Linux distro/kernel specific additional info So my Linux kernel version is 4.15.0-39, where:
18. Now let’s get to work
19. Configuring our development system First things first right?
20. - Check system requirements - Get needed tools - Configure tools - Configure mail client used to send patches (mutt, git-mail etc)
21. Exploring Kernel Sources Repositories the Linux Kernel source code lives
22. - Cregit - Check history of source files - Get Linux Mainline - Explore directories
23. Compiling and Installing a Kernel Yes!!!
24. - Get stable kernel - Configure kernel - Compile and Install kernel - Boot kernel
25. Writing a Kernel Patch Yes!!!
27. - Create a new branch to host our changes - Commit changes - Generate Patch - Run checkpatch.pl - Run get_maintainers.pl - Send patch
29. Open Source Festival 2022 Contribute your quota today 🚀🚀🚀
30. Any Questions? Contact: oxgreat@gmail.com
31. Beginners guide to Linux Kernel Development Linux Kernel Documentation Configuring Email Client for Kernel Development Check and Install required tools for Kernel Development Linux From Scratch Book Linux Kernel Development by Robert Love [BOOK] Appendix
32. Thank you! Umegbewe Nwebedu TCI Technologies @nwebedu_junior