Linux Kernel Programming: A comprehensive guide to kernel internals, writing kernel modules, and kernel synchronization

This is a great book for those wanting to get into Linux kernel development. It has a good flow to the writing and doesn't try and bury you with too much deep knowledge as a beginner (just enough to give you the basics of the concepts being discussed). if you purchase this book there is a second book with more depth on programming provided free (on the books website github). I enjoyed this book so much I've purchased the second book for my kindle reader to support the author.I've also purchased Kaiwan's book on Linux kernel debugging which is also an excellent read; giving you a good introduction to all the different methods/tools that can be used to help you debug those stubborn issues you'll inevitably encounter working as a kernel developer.I can't wait to read the next edition of this book coming out in January; revised for the 6.x kernel. FYI, I've read this book and worked through all the examples on the latest Linux stable kernel (as of this review 6.4.x/6.5.x-rcX).You won't regret getting this book if you want to start down the path of being a Linux kernel developer! I'd love to see a book from Kaiwan on developing module/drivers using Rust (with it's support now included in Linux kernel since 6.2). :-)

The content is very well written for beginner.

This is an excellent book for learning kernel programming on Linux. I highly recommend it. Also excellent condition.

I would highly recommend this book to people interested in learning the internal working of the Linux kernel and writing kernel level code like device drivers. Everything is covered in great detail and where impractical many resources are provided to further explore the topic. Definitely a must read!

Great book. Well written and easy to follow.

Have you been wanting to figure out the innards of the Linux kernel without getting overwhelmed or have been working without enough context to actually understanding it, here is a fantastic book.If you are fascinated with operating systems and new to it, if you have wondered what terms like system calls, timers, threads mean and how they are developed? This book is for you.Major subsystems and features of the Linux kernel like System calls, Memory Management, Loadable Kernel Module framework, Kernel config, Virtual Address Space, Page Cache and Kernel build(for x86 and ARM) are detailed very well in the book. The delivery through both practical and theoretical focus, can meet the expectations of both professional and academic needs.When used along with Linux kernel documentation, this book is bound to provide a deeper, well structured understanding of Linux kernel architecture.Yet to complete reading the entire book and I'm sure that it will keep me interested.

A book that says comprehensive guide to Linux kernel should include more information about linux kernel internals with proper examples and explanation how kernel actually work and not just very high level overview of the modules building process. Don't waste your time and money. Linux device drivers book is much much better books than this one and provide way more details than this one.

Okay, I do need to disclose that I was one of the technical reviewers for this book, and that I'm also a fellow Packt Publishing author. Reviewing the book was a fun project, which I really enjoyed. There's a lot of good information here, and lots of hands-on projects for both x86_64 and Raspberry Pi. The author writes in a clear, concise, and conversational style that makes the material really easy to digest.If you have a good foundation of C programming knowledge and want to get into Linux kernel programming, you'll definitely want to check this book out.

This is a great book for starters, those with no experience on kernel code and how to 'put the things together'. I loved the fact that code is just there to compile and load the modules (alias Mafiles and lwm script) so one can try quite fast. However, once you move forward into the book, topics get harder and harder so it needs time to digest and hands on real issues.Although I did not went into the code details, I noticed that the author points to some chapters in the code that does not exist in the git repository, i.e."Examples of using refcount_t within the kernel code base In one of our demo kernel modules regarding kernel threads (in ch15/kthread_simple/kthread_simple.c),...."and there are more around the book.One more thing: The author suggested to install a VM but IMO in case you just want to play with the modules (not the kernel itself where theare are built-in modules), using your bare metal linux Box is just fine so you can jump the first (long) chapters which are just about setting up either the VM or the raspberry lkm enviroment.

Se lo regale a mi yerno porque estaba muy interesado. Le ha encantado.

This book covers the vast field that is Linux Kernel Programming with sufficient amount of detail needed for module/driver development. The book is a hands-on guide as each chapter features example code, designed to illustrate the presented topics, which you can try out for yourself. Along with the code come questions (with solutions), exercises and a very well composed 'Further Reading' list, all of which you can download from the books GitHub repository. The book starts with fundamentals such as 'Building the Linux Kernel from Source' and 'Writing Your First Kernel Module' and leads to advanced topics such as memory management, scheduling and synchronization/concurrency. Thanks to the easy to follow instructions, this book is for anyone with a minimal amount of experience with Linux, C and embedded-/low-level-programming. Aside from the sound technical expertise this book brings to the table, it is written in a style that is inspiring and motivational. This book is actually fun to read and I would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn the skills and knowledge needed to become a Linux Kernel developer.

Good book

I bought the book after effectively failing a job interview and also because I wanted to add a new highly needed skill to my resume. I like the way the book is written, but there are things that could be done better, like not tying the book to a fixed kernel version that is now obsolete. I would make instructions a lot more generic, having patches that do not apply in the accompanying GitHub repo is a little frustrating. I did manage to follow the steps with the current Ubuntu LTS version 22.04, after making some changes. I also wish I knew there is a second version of the book that could be picked up instead of this one. I do love being able to get for free a PDF version of the book that is updated when compared to the physical version.