Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752059Ab0HUR4W (ORCPT ); Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:56:22 -0400 Received: from mail-qw0-f46.google.com ([209.85.216.46]:48033 "EHLO mail-qw0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751173Ab0HUR4U (ORCPT ); Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:56:20 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=kTJsw+IWJ+U+LLGob+NrKDVNvr5oJF5VavMopJKoxTaJ4zQn9BNWX/FtuCeY1F/U1y Egcs8mio8WcnLyNu1S7TtkFm/+D9Pzf2weLgqqXl+xX/ZIig6IG0364uZPhjfmUZte9s ih98Hqr3gPWU1BaQ1C3jAMmXOJ2M0xs593k1M= MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 13:56:19 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: How the heck do I get started? From: Someone Something To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1328 Lines: 28 Hello everyone, I am a pretty so so C programmer (I've written small networked stuff, a simple game engine, GUI tools etc.), I just do programming as a hobby and I'm a middle school student. I am interested in low level programming and I dabble in assembly, so, I downloaded the latest kernel source and the sheer size of it just blows my mind. How should I get started hacking on it? Writing modules, or just browsing through the code and trying to understand it? Any books you guys recommend? I'm pretty sure that you're sick and tired of these newb questions, so, I actually did some research, and I do have a few concrete questions. 1) Does the linux kernel use pages AND segments? Or just one of them? If its pages, how does it deal with the wasted memory at the end of each page? Very small pages? 2) I looked at the 0.01 kernel and it has this weird mix of nasm and gas syntax for its assembly. Why's that? 3) Is there some kind of tracker for the kernel where it lists bugs and stuff? 4) If I do have a patch I'd like to submit, how would I do this? Thanks a lot, Dhaivat -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/