From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: aishpant@gmail.com (Aishwarya Pant) Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2017 12:01:42 +0530 Subject: How to contribute (was Re: Kernelnewbies Digest, Vol 77, Issue 7 In-Reply-To: <41462.1492000491@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> References: <5a737810-7b6b-3859-92a4-c59845088706@gmail.com> <41462.1492000491@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> Message-ID: <20170416063142.GA25202@aishwarya> To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org List-Id: kernelnewbies.lists.kernelnewbies.org On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 08:34:51AM -0400, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote: > On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 10:30:27 +0800, Tran Ly Vu said: > > > How exactly do i start to contribute to linux community, i.e fix bug, etc > > Step 0: Figure out *why* you want to contribute to the Linux kernel. > > Did your boss just tell you that you have 6 weeks to write a driver for > your company's new widget? > > Do you have a device that doesn't have Linux support? > > Is your kernel crashing/misbehaving? > > Do you have an intense interest in filesystems, or memory management, or > networking, or process scheduling, or other aspect of kernels? > > Do you just want to give back to the community? > > Did you think it was a good way to attract members of the appropriate gender? > > What you do next will depend on *why* you're here, and what your current > technical skills are. > > Note that asking others for what you should do is as bad an idea as > asking people whether you should write a murder mystery or a romance novel, > and for exactly the same reason. If you're doing it because somebody else > suggested it but you don't care for it, the results will be bad. > > Though if you just want to give back to the community, the easiest thing > to do, and the most useful, is to build and boot linux-next kernels and > see if anything breaks on your system. We have *lots* of people slinging > code, and not so many testing. And testing is easier than coding. :) > > Here's the cheat sheet for linux-next: > > $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git > $ cd linux > $ git remote add linux-next git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git > $ git fetch linux-next > $ git fetch --tags linux-next > > (now get a .config file - grabbing your distro's config is a good place > to start. 'make locallmodconfig' if you want a faster build by not building > device driver modules for devices you don't have. > Then do a 'make' and install/boot your kernel. Google for detailed > instructions for how to build/install your own kernel on your distro > > ... # later on - do this once every 1-3 weeks or as time permits > $ git remote update > $ make oldconfig > $ make > (install as above) > Boot it, and report any problems. > > Do *not* do a 'git pull' to get the most recent linux-next, it won't do what > you think. As far as I understand unless a git pull or fetch + merge/rebase is run, nothing would change locally. make oldconfig would result in the same config. Then what are we testing for here? Thanks Aishwarya > > Yes, it really *is* that simple. > > > _______________________________________________ > Kernelnewbies mailing list > Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org > https://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies