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Closed 9 years ago.
I want to work with the Linux kernel, but I have no idea where to start. Is there a sort of ticketing system somewhere where bugs and such are distributed? Where can I get ideas for potentially useful contributions?
EDIT: Yes I know what I'm doing. I've been writing my own modifications for a good while now, and I'm doing an independent project under one of the operating systems researchers at my university next semester.
The reason I ask is I'd like to contribute my expertise to the dev process, and I don't know where to start in terms of organization. In terms of technical matters, I'm just about there.
Start with these: Kernel Bugs involving typo.
(Search everyday until you find something promising).
Search that bug database with keywords like "comment", "typo", "documentation", "minor bug", etc.
Also, search under the category Documentation here.
Learn the process first. Then, attempt to contribute something significant.
Pick a subsystem and subscribe to the relevant mailing list. Spend some time studying the subsystem. Start small and fix simple bugs then gradually do work of higher significance. You may want to look at the TODO files in the kernel source directory, especially for drivers in staging.
Get a GIT tutorial. You may also watch this
Related
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Closed 9 years ago.
This is more a philosophical question but its one I've been pondering for some time now.
I don't know anything about computer security or how computers are broken into. I thought hackers used disassembling software on executable software to create malware and other things.
My question is would making some software open source make it vulnerable to hackers or do I have reverse engineering confused with hacking?
Making something open source does not inherently make it more vulnerable. Trying to hide what you are doing is known as Security Through Obscurity, and it doesn't work very well.
Making something open source makes things easier for casual hackers, since they can see how your app works more easily. On the other hand, making it open source also lets anyone who is interested look through your code and report security vulnerabilities. They're two sides of the same coin.
For the most advanced threats, they'll get through regardless of whether your code is open source or not. On the other hand, honest volunteers are much less likely to bother trying to find and fix bugs in a closed source product.
So basically, it depends. In general, you're better off open sourcing things if you think people are actually going to be interested in the project.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Can any one suggest me how to become a linux device driver programmer.
I have many doubts as I am working as software engineer in a company (1+ yr experience ).Our project is done using C,c++ in linux and windows both,I am working in C,C++ and using Visual studio and Linux GCC for my project.Our project is mainly on remote management of servers and systems.
I am very interested linux kernel-device driver programming .
can any one tell me what is good for me,and how to start I got some books (LDD 3ed ,etc ) but only reading book is sufficient or I have to get some training.
what about this driver programming future and scope.
Kindly tell some suggestion.
Thanks
The LDD O'Reilly book is really good (Rubini et all), Also take a look at the LXR project:
http://lxr.linux.no/
It is a great cross-linked reference of the kernel source. Reading over current driver code is probably the best way to become acquainted.
The best way to learn any language or coding style is to read as much code as you can. Compile it, modify it, crash the kernel, and just play around. Kernel drivers are my personal favorite thing to write, you have a lot of exciting stuff to see!
Good luck!
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Closed 10 years ago.
I was wondering since all updated operating systems guard against stack and heap type overflows via ASLR, Canary Checks, and other such methods, are memory corruption exploits still prevalent? Given that the administrator of the system is competent and protects the system from brute force or libc attacks, I honestly can't see many other ways. They only thing that I can possibly imagine for someone to attack a system is to overwrite function pointers on the stack but thats about it. Maybe if someone found a clever way of predicting random numbers, the schemes that rely on random results could be defeated, however it seems unlikely. It seems the only way to exploit someone else's system given now a days is to trick root or the admin into installing your software. Are the old days of code injection over? I'm at this from the perspective of breaking updated protected systems.
You do not need to trick the admin into installing your software if vulnerable software is already installed.
It is much easier to use higher-level constructs to have a OS command injected.
E.g.: a web application allowing to upload a file to arbitrary location, a web application using user-controllable input to build an OS command.
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Closed 11 years ago.
Is it still possible for someone to learn and start contributing to the linux kernel? looks like the contributor list seems to be dominated by paid employees from large companies. Is there still a chance that one can get their patches or bugs in the kernel or is it sort of saturated with great developers? I'm thinking on focussing on the networking subsystem. Sorry, if all this sounds too noobish, but any opinions on all this? Is it even worth it to start on this route? I plan to spend my evenings and weekends for however long it takes, assuming I will be able to make some contribution.
Thanks.
Yes. Example: Con Kolivas (of course you could also cite that in order to give arguments against hobbyist development). See also this survey (original source):
For the evaluation period, almost 19% of changes were reportedly contributed by unaffiliated hobbyists.
Write something interesting and relevant, head over to the mailing list (or vice versa: Ask if something is interesting at the mailing lists, then head over to development). Not even the head of development Linus Torvalds is looking at your professional status.
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Closed 10 years ago.
Are there any alternatives to the Open Source Job Scheduler?
I'm looking for a way to gain more control over scheduled work tasks than plain cron is offering, but haven't found anything else but Quartz, which isn't language-neutral.
There's JAMS. http://www.mvpsi.com/JobScheduling.aspx
Especially awesome if you're using OpenVMS
We use JAMS as well but it's not cheap. When I hear "open source" I think "free" and JAMS is far from free. My boss negotiated the agreement so I don't know all of the gory details but I know we spent in excess of $35,000 for JAMS
By the way, I should mention that it is a great tool and their support is awesome
I'm not sure from your question, but I think SuperScheduler could match your requirements:
http://www.acelet.com/super/SuperScheduler/index.html
I can't imagine what do you expect from it, if you want "task scheduler" than you probably want to specify interval and task itself. that's exactly what cron is for.
Someone mentioned JAMS on OpenVMS. We use JAMS on Windows with UNIX and Linux Agents. They have a Cron converter as well which is not perfect but it does about 90% of the work moving Cron jobs into JAMS. website is jamsscheduler.com and jamssupport.com