Hi ,
I am fairly comfortable with Linux and have afairly good hold on the basics. I now need to get into t he working of the Linux kernel and find out how everything works. On Safari I found a book by Robert Love which covers 2.6 (this is what I need) . My question is : Is this a good place to start? or can you guys recommend something else or some other specific sources apart from www.google.com . All suggestions r welcome.

Thnx
Arvind

I would suggest starting by getting to know all the options than can be compiled in or as modules for the kernel. Being able to know what you need for your machine(s) is quite important. Go to the kernel source (usually /usr/src/linux) and issue command
There are menuconfig help options for each section and option, they are usually quite descriptive..

If you were talking about something more advanced than this, such as how the kernel works, code base.. etc.. sorry, somone else will have to get you on that one...

http://www.kernelhacking.org/
http://people.netfilter.org/~rusty/u...ing-guide.html
http://jungla.dit.upm.es/~jmseyas/li...kers-docs.html
http://www.linuxchix.org/content/cou...ernel_hacking/

Basically it depends on what you want to do.
Books can be good for basics, however the kernel changes so much and so fast that anything written more than 6 months ago will be out of date (this is subjective of course - others will disagree, some even with hairtrigger-flamethrowrs at the ready...)

Installing a custom kernel is probably the best place to start.
Don't worry about the book, just hunt down the information. Typically what you need is spread between several howtos and manuals so you'll get a good workout.

That linux-chix site BTW is one of the best yet leave it to the ladies to get it right...

It also helps if your distro is quite configurable. Slack is great for this kind of learning - though I did my first kernel hack on RH9.

oh can u tell me what really is linux module programming
some days before i was trying to access system clock but i was not able to do that
i also wanted t do sth with pid_t data structure of structure but i was unable to do tha
please throw some light from basics

Thnx guyz 4 the help..I will go thru what you'll advised and get back if I have problems

Arvind

Great links from Simon Bridge - *however* do not accept his discouragement re buying the book.

Excellent tome - and Robert Love knows his sh1t.
Buy it - it's as at 2.6.10, so hasn't aged too much in the 6 months I've had my copy.

I'd also recommend "Understanding the Linux Kernel" - it's "only" 2.4, but goes into concepts much better. The two works compliment each other nicely.

I like to have a book I can flip through rather than a pile of web pages - maybe it's just me.

Oh I hardcopy the web pages and bind them

My discouragement was based on general principles. After all, I got a book with my first linux (Red Hat 9 Linux for Dummies ... heh heh ... but only because I needed to learn in a hurry and it was by Hall and Seary. It was out of date, but not in terms of the distro it came with, and maddog happily discussed omissions, snafus and fubars etc.)

The right book can be a lifesaver.
Good desk references tend to be technical.
Kernel references tend to be kernel specific - but provide a point of departure: depends what you want to do (as I said before).