Today I finished the First Phase in MAC0470 (FLOSS Development) course unit in my Computer Science Degree.

We started learning about the Linux Kernel, Licenses, software collaboration, and how to emulate this kernel on our computer to modify it. We were asked to follow some tutorials from FLUSP (FLOSS at USP), an extension group designed to help students contribute to free software.

The tutorials#

The first phase was about preparing ourselves and our machines to the Linux Kernel development. First, we used QEMU and libvirt to set up a test environment, which we set a Virtual Machine (VM) and granted access to it using ssh. We’ve built the Linux kernel for x86 and ARM.

After this, we learned how to modify, install, and build modules for our kernel, one of the main ways to modify it.

My personal choices#

My computer was x86, so I chose to work in this way. I used Arch Linux .iso to install my VM, because I have more experience and knowledge about it than Debian, which was the other option given to us.

I can’t wait to contribute and send my first Kernel commit!