Hi Penguins..

I am currently a Linux system administrator and i love my job and is very thankful to the opensource community for taking Linux through a beautiful journey of 20 years to greater awesomeness... I want to contribute to the community and be a part of history like you all are... I want to do Linux/kernel development, where can i start ?

My programming experience is just basic bash scripting, nothing more...

Any advise would be awesome....anything would do

Thanks
Fellow Geek

you should need to be familiar with c, compiling, linking, building (especially kernel), what are the modules, drivers, devices ....
the start is to write a simple hello world in c.

Hi,
I would suggest trying: Linux Kernel Newbies
Kernelnewbies "is a community of people that improve or update their Kernels"

You could begin there then participate at the level which interest you or at a level of expertise as you gain experience/knowledge.

Of course you should expect a need to learn 'C'.

Look at Linux Kernel section of Slackware®-Links for additional links to kernel related information.

Hope this helps!

You'll want these http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...nel_index.html & http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ing_index.html

You can start here: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/lkmpg.html

1 members found this post helpful.

Here's the first thing that I would do ... talk to your supervisor!

Think about it ... right now, you serve geeks. Now, for whatever crazy reason, you wish to become one.

Your supervisor certainly is in an excellent position to know where the geeks are ... what their teams need ... and how you might possibly transition into them ... and to give you experienced pointers.

Your supervisor is also in a superior position to talk you out of it! ...

"Bloom where you are planted."

... and, "be willing to be an apprentice." Obviously, the most-logical place to begin your (perhaps initially, "provisional") foray into the world of pure-programming at your company would be one that leverages, as much as practicable, your existing experience as a sysadmin. It might, therefore, be an intermediate step. Your supervisor will either be in a position right-now to guide you, or (s)he will be able to connect with someone who can.

Enjoy the ride.

And ... "believe me, this sort of thing happens all the time." Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but "it's all good." You want to grow. Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see. (Either way, you won't get fired and don't have to cut-and-run.) "Anyway, cool!"

1 members found this post helpful.

I really appreciate what you guys provided here. Thanks a lot.

Some solid advice above, but one question I think you may need to ask yourself is the fact of what type of Linux/kernel developer you want to be. This decision will help you determine where you will be developing. For example, do you want to help out a specific module? driver? networking? gpu related?

There are quite a few options that are not directly kernel related and while they maybe not as glamorous as being a major kernel developer; all will offer you more insight into your goals and some may have a smaller more close knit community to guide and mentor you.