Getting Started as an OPW applicant

Hooray! Thanks for your interest in working on the Linux kernel.

If you run into any issues with this tutorial, please ask questions on the [https://live.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen#Introduction #opw IRC channel]

Warning: this is still a work in progress. We'll announce on the opw-kernel google group when this tutorial is finished. Please turn in your application to express interest in the kernel project, and sign up for the opw-kernel mailing list.

Intro

This tutorial will cover how to get your first patch submitted. We would love it if accepted interns could test their kernel code on a computer running Linux, however, to get applicants started, this tutorial will describe how to set Linux up in a virtual machine.

You can run Linux from within Windows (or even run Linux on Linux!) from a virtual machine (VM). This tutorial will show you how to:

• Install VMPlayer
• Download our Linux VM image
• Configure kernel drivers
• Compile and install the kernel
• Make a simple driver change
• Test your changes
• Create a patch
• Submit a patch

Hardware Requirements

You need a system with virtualization (VT-d), at least 4GB of RAM, and 40GB of free hard drive space in order to run Linux in a VM.

Alternatives

If your system doesn't meet those requirements, you will need to be running Linux, or dual boot your machine so you can run both Linux and Windows. We strongly suggest you use the [http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?distro=desktop&bits=64&release=lts Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit version]. If your machine doesn't have 64-bit support, you can use the [http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/thank-you?release=lts&bits=32&distro=desktop&status=zeroc 32-bit version]. Once you have Ubuntu installed, please follow the directions [:OPWfirstpatchAlt:here].

Install VMPlayer

Go to the [http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ VMPlayer website] and click the 'download' link. Download the VMPlayer that's appropriate for your operating system (e.g. Windows or Linux 64-bit), and install it.

Linux installation instructions

The [http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ VMPlayer download] comes as a .bundle file. That's a binary executable, that will launch a setup wizard.

First, change to the directory where you downloaded the VMPlayer binary by using the command cd.

• Tip: cd changes the current working directory to a different directory. You can learn more about any command by reading the manual pages. Simply prefix the command with the word "man", e.g. man cd.

Next, check to see if the file is executable. Run this command:

ls -l

Then look at at the file's listing, and see if it has the executable ("x") bit set:

$ ls -l
total 181056
-rw-rw-r-- 1 sarah sarah 185386101 Apr 26 22:19 VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle

If it doesn't show the executable bit, make the file executable by running:

chmod a+x VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle

Then execute the binary by prefixing it with a ./ and running it as the root user with sudo:

sudo ./VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle

• Tip: Be careful about what you run as root! The root user has access to all the files on your system, so you usually don't want to run arbitrary commands as root. Always run commands without sudo, and without changing to a root terminal, where ever possible.

Now run VMPlayer with the command:

vmplayer

Download our Linux VM image

Before you start the VM, you need to make some adjustments to the emulated hardware. FIXME talk about increasing the amount of RAM to at least 2GB, unless the maximum recommended amount of RAM is less than 2GB.

Configure kernel drivers

Compile and install the kernel

Make a driver change

Test your changes

Create a patch

Submit a patch

TODO:

• Outline of what this tutorial covers
• If you run into any issues, ask on the opw irc channel, or email sarah.a.sharp at linux.intel.com
• Find out which drivers you have installed (maybe plug in any USB devices on hand)
• Make small change in one of the drivers (e.g. run checkpatch over them, or fix some grammer in the printks)
• Or maybe pick a driver in staging and run checkpatch on it
• Test your patch (may need to enable debugging)
• Make a patch (link to art of patch description creation)
• Send patch to kernel newbies mailing list as RFC (perhaps we need a separate mailing list?)