My journey in kernel dev so far | retpolanne blog
Back in September 2022, I wrote this blogpost [1] about how to start learning about kernel development. A year and a few months later, I’m still learning a lot.
Finding opportunities to contribute and to study is hard. However, Linux can run everywhere, but not perfectly. It’s up to you to make Linux better. So testing on the weirdest hardware is crucial.
I found two great opportunities to learn when I started, the first one was a bug on xhci-pci-renesas triggered by an obscure Chinese chip and the other was getting ethernet to work on my Orange Pi One Plus. I also want to start learning a little bit about Linux on RISCV, so I should be testing Allwinner D1 soon.
Dotfiles are cool. I have my own dotfiles scripts to ease my life, especially when changing computers, setting new VMs, etc. My dotfiles for kernel dev are here on [4] and my dotfiles for my Mac on [5].
Yocto adds a layer of complexity that you don’t need if you’re just compiling, hacking and testing the kernel. It hides the complexity of kernel compilation and customization in a way that is difficult to work with sometimes.
