Introduction

- Objectives
- Who You Are
- The Linux Foundation{
- Copyright and No Confidential Information
- The Linux Foundation{ Training
- Certification Programs and Digital Badging
- Linux Distributions
- Platforms
- Preparing Your System
- Using and Downloading a Virtual Machine
- Things Change in Linux and Open Source Projects
- Documentation and Links

Preliminaries

- Procedures
- Kernel Versions
- Kernel Sources and Use of git
- Labs

How to Work in OSS Projects **

- Overview on How to Contribute Properly
- Know Where the Code is Coming From: DCO and CLA
- Stay Close to Mainline for Security and Quality
- Study and Understand the Project DNA
- Figure Out What Itch You Want to Scratch
- Identify Maintainers and Their Work Flows and Methods
- Get Early Input and Work in the Open
- Contribute Incremental Bits, Not Large Code Dumps
- Leave Your Ego at the Door: Don't Be Thin-Skinned
- Be Patient, Develop Long Term Relationships, Be Helpful

Kernel Architecture I

- UNIX and Linux **
- Monolithic and Micro Kernels
- Object-Oriented Methods
- Main Kernel Components
- User-Space and Kernel-Space

Kernel Programming Preview

- Error Numbers and Getting Kernel Output
- Task Structure
- Memory Allocation
- Transferring Data between User and Kernel Spaces
- Object-Oriented Inheritance - Sort Of
- Linked Lists
- String to Number Conversions
- Jiffies
- Labs

Modules

- What are Modules?
- A Trivial Example
- Compiling Modules
- Modules vs Built-in
- Module Utilities
- Automatic Module Loading
- Module Usage Count
- The module struct
- Module Licensing
- Exporting Symbols
- Resolving Symbols **
- Labs

Kernel Architecture II

- Processes, Threads, and Tasks
- Process Context
- Kernel Preemption
- Real Time Preemption Patch
- Dynamic Kernel Patching
- Run-time Alternatives **
- Porting to a New Platform **
- Labs

Kernel Initialization

- Overview of System Initialization
- System Boot
- Das U-Boot for Embedded Systems**
- Kernel Startup

Kernel Configuration and Compilation

- Installation and Layout of the Kernel Source
- Kernel Browsers
- Kernel Configuration Files
- Kernel Building and Makefiles
- initrd and initramfs
- Labs

System Calls

- What are System Calls?
- Available System Calls
- How System Calls are Implemented
- Adding a New System Call
- Labs

Kernel Style and General Considerations

- Coding Style
- kernel-doc **
- Using Generic Kernel Routines and Methods
- Making a Kernel Patch
- sparse
- Using likely() and unlikely()
- Writing Portable Code, CPU, 32/64-bit, Endianness
- Writing for SMP
- Writing for High Memory Systems
- Power Management
- Keeping Security in Mind
- Mixing User- and Kernel-Space Headers **
- Labs

Race Conditions and Synchronization Methods

- Concurrency and Synchronization Methods
- Atomic Operations
- Bit Operations
- Spinlocks
- Seqlocks
- Disabling Preemption
- Mutexes
- Semaphores
- Completion Functions
- Read-Copy-Update (RCU)
- Reference Counts
- Labs

SMP and Threads

- SMP Kernels and Modules
- Processor Affinity
- CPUSETS
- SMP Algorithms - Scheduling, Locking, etc.
- Per-CPU Variables **
- Labs

Processes

- What are Processes?
- The task_struct
- Creating User Processes and Threads
- Creating Kernel Threads
- Destroying Processes and Threads
- Executing User-Space Processes From Within the Kernel
- Labs

Process Limits and Capabilities **

- Process Limits
- Capabilities
- Labs

Monitoring and Debugging

- Debuginfo Packages
- Tracing and Profiling
- sysctl
- SysRq Key
- oops Messages
- Kernel Debuggers
- debugfs
- Labs

Scheduling

- Main Scheduling Tasks
- SMP
- Scheduling Priorities
- Scheduling System Calls
- The 2.4 schedule() Function **
- O(1) Scheduler **
- Time Slices and Priorities
- Load Balancing
- Priority Inversion and Priority Inheritance **
- The CFS Scheduler
- Calculating Priorities and Fair Times
- Scheduling Classes
- Scheduler Details
- Labs

Memory Addressing

- Virtual Memory Management
- Systems With and Without MMU and the TLB
- Memory Addresses
- High and Low Memory
- Memory Zones
- Special Device Nodes
- NUMA
- Paging
- Page Tables
- page structure
- Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) **
- Labs

Huge Pages

- Huge Page Support
- Transparent Huge Pages
- libhugetlbfs
- Labs

Memory Allocation

- Requesting and Releasing Pages
- Buddy System
- Slabs and Cache Allocations
- Memory Pools
- kmalloc()
- vmalloc()
- Early Allocations and bootmem()
- Memory Defragmentation
- Labs

Process Address Space

- Allocating User Memory and Address Spaces
- Locking Pages
- Memory Descriptors and Regions
- Access Rights
- Allocating and Freeing Memory Regions
- Page Faults
- Labs

Disk Caches and Swapping

- Caches
- Page Cache Basics
- What is Swapping?
- Swap Areas
- Swapping Pages In and Out
- Controlling Swappiness
- The Swap Cache
- Reverse Mapping **
- OOM Killer
- Labs

Device Drivers**

- Types of Devices
- Device Nodes
- Character Drivers
- An Example
- Labs

Signals

- What are Signals?
- Available Signals
- System Calls for Signals
- Sigaction
- Signals and Threads
- How the Kernel Installs Signal Handlers
- How the Kernel Sends Signals
- How the Kernel Invokes Signal Handlers
- Real Time Signals
- Labs

Closing and Evaluation Survey

- Evaluation Survey

Nov 2024

I have come away with a far greater understanding of Linux kernel internals, as well as an increased confidence in this area.

I really enjoyed the labs, I felt that they were very well designed.

I liked how much detail went into the course, it allowed me to learn in even more depth some of the concepts I already knew.

The exercises working with the kernel were engaging, and learning about the history of Linux's development, as well as its ongoing efforts was interesting.

Oct 2024

I liked the diversity of the topics.

A lot of information about Linux, and the Linux kernel developer community in general.

The course was very well structured, and a lot of topics were covered in just 4 days.

Sep 2024

It was surprisingly hands-on, and included a good number of exercises. A very good overview to start deep diving into more topics.

Well designed, instructed and reinforced.

Aug 2024

The content, and how each topic was approached, along with the labs.

The coverage of CPU scheduling, process address space, and memory architecture was excellent.

Great course. Hoping to take more.

Jun 2024

Written materials and lab exercises were of good quality and interesting.

I liked how the instructor pointed out the underlying fundamental topics for each section, and emphasized that certain topics should already be understood if the student took Comp Sci college courses.

The instructor had a lot of experience and knowledge about the topic. Many stories he told that were not covered in the text book were really beneficial. He also answered our questions really well.

Tim is an affable professor, with a great attitude. When labs were more of an "applied learning" rather than following exact directions, the learning was better.

Very focused on many topics. The chapters were sorted sensibly by the instructor.

The instructor was often able to answer questions about details / reasons, and showed some extra material on the command line or in code, I enjoyed that.

Linux Kernel Internals and Development (LFD420)

Stay Up to Date