Event details

You can make the kernel better - part 2

von Wolfram Sang (Pengutronix e. K.)

Friday, 25.05.2012, London, 10:45-11:30 Uhr

Not everyone is interested in becoming a kernel-developer being able to write device drivers from scratch. Yet, there are a number of people who would like to help the kernel development "just a little bit".

Last year at LinuxTag, I demonstrated how to add Linux support for a webcam by adding its USB ID to a generic driver at runtime. Even though this works at home, the second part of this talk is now about the next step - contributing. Attendees learn how to use the gained knowledge to create a proper patch, how to mail this patch upstream correctly. They find out how to deal with response (or the lack thereof). Finally delegates learn how to track the outcome of their actions.

I will share my personal collection of dos and don'ts for the above process. Rules of thumb will be given as well as pointers how to continue your kernel-hacking journey from this point on. There is enough time to ask questions: As my goal is to share my personal experiences and to create motivation to get started with kernel development, I believe this time is needed to address specific questions or difficulties which the audience may have faced.

Everyone who is interested in kernel development is invited, although most of this talk is generic to contributing. Elementary programming knowledge like in C is not required, but might help a deeper understanding. Otherwise, abilities like handling an editor, sending a mail and patch-related utilities will do, both command-line or GUI.

Über den Autor Wolfram Sang:

Wolfram Sang is a programmer since his childhood. While still coding for 8-bit homecomputers in his free time, he works at Pengutronix e.K. as a kernel developer for some years now. He uses free software since 1999, so he contributed to various projects in his quest "1000 projects to send patches to before I die". When not using computers, he is interested in ecological topics, likes cooking and tries to keep his Japanese alive.