d

Linux Kernel: The Complete Documentation

• This category contains 13 Papers
• The last paper was added on 2007-03-26 (YYYY-MM-DD)

Compile your own Linux kernel

Published on July 2002, by Philip de Groot, www.linuxfocus.org.

You will presently find out that you too can get, configure, compile, and install your very own kernel.

Conceptual Architecture of the Linux Kernel

Published on 1998-01-01, by Ivan Bowman, ©Ivan Bowman.

This paper describes the abstract or conceptual software architecture of the Linux kernel. This level of architecture is concerned with the large-scale subsystems within the kernel, but not with particular procedures or variables. One of the purposes of such an abstract architecture is to form a mental model for Linux developers and architects. The model may not reflect the as-built architecture perfectly, but it provides a useful way to think about the overall structure. This model is most useful for entry-level developers, but is also a good way for experienced developers to maintain a consistent and accurate system vocabulary.

Concrete Architecture of the Linux Kernel

Published on 1998-02-12, by Ivan Bowman, Saheem Siddiqi and Meyer C. Tanuan, ©Ivan Bowman, Saheem Siddiqi and Meyer C. Tanuan.

The objective of this report is to describe the concrete (as-built) architecture of the Linux kernel. A concrete architecture description of the Linux kernel serves as a high-level specification for developers to modify and extend the existing kernel source code.

Critical Server Needs and the Linux Kernel

Published on 2004-10-21, by Ibrahim Haddad, ©Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc..

This article provides some examples of features and mechanisms needed in the Linux™ kernel for server nodes operating in mission-critical environments, such as telecom, where reliability, performance, availability and security are extremely important. Here, we discuss four such features: a cluster communication protocol, support for multiple-FIB, a module to verify digital signatures of binaries at run time and an efficient low-level asynchronous event mechanism. For some of these example features, open-source projects already exist to provide their implementations. For other features, there currently is no open-source project that can implement them. For each of our four examples features, we discuss the feature, its importance, the advantages it provides, its implementation when available and the status of its integration with the Linux™ kernel.

Fail Safe Port Allocation for Linux Device Drivers

Published on November 2002, by Dr. B. Thangaraju, www.linuxfocus.org.

Writing a device driver is a challenging and an adventurous job. Once the device is registered in the driver's init_module routine, the resources for the device should be allocated. One of the main resources for the device is I/O port. The dynamically linked drivers, the developer should be careful to allocate unused range of port addresses for their device. First the driver should probe whether the range of ports are in use or free, then the ports should be requested for the device. When the module is removed from the kernel, the ports must be freed. This article discusses the intricacies of fail safe port allocation for the Linux device driver.

Kernel Hacking HOWTO

Published on 2002-03-27, by Andrew Ebling, ©Andrew Ebling.

Kernel hacking may not be hard, but it certainly could not be described as easy. That said, probably the biggest barrier to be overcome is a psycological one; having the confidence to get started, dive in and try things out. The next barrier to be faced is the lack of up to date, organised documentation, which hampers the efforts of even the most determined. Although there is actually quite a lot of information out there in books, web pages, newsgroups, mailing lists and the source code, it is all very disparate, dis-organised and on occasion even contradictory.

KernelAnalysis-HOWTO

Published on March 26, 2003, by Roberto Arcomano, ©Roberto Arcomano.

This document tries to explain some things about the Linux Kernel, such as the most important components, how they work, and so on. This HOWTO should help prevent the reader from needing to browse all the kernel source files searching for the "right function," declaration, and definition, and then linking each to the other.

Linux kernel Compilation

Published on 2005, by Hardik, ©Hardik.

One of the best things that Linux offers to its users is that it gives u the ability to recompile the kernel. But there are some newbies which thinks why I need this? or why should I go for this complex and dangerous procedure? or why bother when we install linux and it does everything we need?The short answer is that today probably u don't need this, but here are couple of situation in which u might need to recompile the kernel.

For example some version of Linux are compiled to run on a 386 machine. So if you have P-III then you are unable to take advantage of extended instruction set of P-III. Believe me or not but when the first Mandrake distro came out then it is nothing but a literal copy of the Red Hat Linux which is compile to run on the Pentium (which is perfectly legal under GNU-GPL). But today most of the installations have routines to determine which processor u have and then install the appropriate kernel. But still you need to optimize the kernel, as your need. For example you might want to optimize the services, networking, SCSI and others according to your needs or another reason is that you want to stay up to date with the latest kernel realease. So read on.

Linux Kernel HOWTO (The)

Published on August 15, 2003, by Alavoor Vasudevan, ©Alavoor Vasudevan.

This is a detailed guide to kernel configuration, compilation, upgrades, and troubleshooting for ix86-based systems. Can be useful for other architectures as well. This document is kept small and simple, so that even non-technical "home computer users" will be able to compile and run the Linux Kernel.

Linux Kernel Modules Installation HOWTO

Published on July 03, 2003, by rhw, ©rhw.

Describes the installation of Linux kernel modules.

Linux kerneld mini-HOWTO

Published on May 22, 2000, by Henrik Storner, ©Linux Documentation Project.

This document explains how to install and use the automatic kernel module loader "kerneld".

Linux Loadable Kernel Module HOWTO

Published on July 03, 2003, by Bryan Henderson, ©Lauri Tischler.

This is the HOWTO for Linux loadable kernel modules (LKMs). It explains what they are and how to use and create them. It also includes documentation of parameters and other details of use of some particular modules.

Unreliable Guide To Hacking The Linux Kernel

Published on 2000, by Paul Rusty Russell, ©netfilter/iptables project.

This document describes the common routines and general requirements for kernel code: its goal is to serve as a primer for Linux kernel development for experienced C programmers. I avoid implementation details: that's what the code is for, and I ignore whole tracts of useful routines.