Javier is right, I got a copy from Linux Device Drivers and it's a very good book. Here is the download link (from the official book website): http://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/ You can buy a hard copy on some online shop if you want. On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 09:40, Javier Martinez Canillas <martinez.javier@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello André, > > On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 7:41 PM, André Silva <andre.beat@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I'm taking a masters degree in computer engineering and I'm really >> interested in OSs, so the idea of hacking the linux kernel really got to my >> curiosity. While I was looking for the best way to start I found this >> project which seemed a really good way for me to get into the kernel. The >> thing is the idea I got from the project's website and irc channel is that >> project is kind of dead. I want to know if that is the case or if there is >> anyone out there willing to help me out. > > Yes, there is always people in the community willing to help > >> I have a fair knowledge of C programming and UNIX programming, my knowledge >> of assembly and cpu architectures is a bit poor though. >> > > The Linux kernel is highly portable. Every subsystem (process > scheduling, memory management, I/O, storage) has a architecture > dependant part and a platform independent part. So you don't need to > be a assembly/hardware guru to be a Linux kernel developer as long as > you stay in the platform independent part of the code. > >> Also, if anyone could recommend the "best" way to get my feet wet (books to >> read, documentation to read, tasks to start hacking), any help would be >> appreciated. >> > > I dont know if it is the "best" way but I think that a good one is > first reading about the Linux kernel internals. The best book in my > opinion is Linux kernel development by Robert Love. Others very good > books are Linux Device Drivers and Essential Linux Device Drivers. > > Then you could make a few very basic modules to get familiar with the > data structures from your relevant area (i.e: task_struct for > scheduling or sk_buff for networking). > > Once you learn the data structures and the API you could use Linux as > a platform to develop anything that you want. Then you should > investigate what it is the state of the art in the area that interest > you, read some papers, talk with your professors to find a algorithm > that you could implement in Linux. > >> Since the kernel is such a big monster I might add that one of my main >> interest areas is scheduling. >> > > The first time i hack in the Linux kernel was when I was a student. We > had an assignment in a operating system course and it was rewriting a > major part in the Linux kernel. My teammate and I choose scheduling. > So we implement a really silly fair share scheduler, basically what we > did was schedule in round robin by group, user and thread. > > The implementation didn't support neither SMP nor kernel preemption, > it was inefficient and buggy, but we learned a lot and served as > academic purpose. The scheduler wasn't more that 50 lines long but the > really hard part was figure out what we need to do. > > We found in Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development book all the > information we need to learn how the Linux scheduler works and what > were the relevant data structures and functions (i.e: struct > task_struct, context_switch). > >> I'm sorry if my English isn't perfect but as it is not my main language >> there might be some screw ups. >> >> Regards, >> André Silva >> -- >> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kernel-janitors" in >> the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html >> > > Hope it helps > > Best regards > > ----------------------------------------- > Javier Martínez Canillas > +595 981 88 66 58 > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kernel-janitors" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kernel-janitors" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
