What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Naman Shekhar Mishra]

Hi mentors,
I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going to
try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS but
would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
(and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It would
be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.

Thanks and regards,
Naman
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What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Mandeep Sandhu]

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Naman Shekhar Mishra
<mishra123.naman@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi mentors,
> I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going to
> try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
> what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS but

If you're comfortable with Gentoo then I guess you're ready for kernel
development! :P (kidding!) The reason I say this is because I heard
(I've not used Gentoo personally) that you get to build/install all
packages from scratch before using them! :)

You can also have a look at the popular ones like Ubuntu, Fedora or
Mint (dunno much about Mint though). They come with good package
managers and that makes installing stuff easy. So whether you want to
install eg binutils or a new browser or even the kernel sources, the
package manager will help you get all the stuff + it's dependencies.

HTH,
-mandeep


> would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
> (and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It would
> be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.
>
> Thanks and regards,
> Naman
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[abrahanfer at gmail.com]

I suggest you Archlinux[1], highly updated and customizable. But it's not
broke by updates day in day out.

[1] https://www.archlinux.org/


2013/11/13 Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com>

> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Naman Shekhar Mishra
> <mishra123.naman@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi mentors,
> > I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going to
> > try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
> > what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS
> but
>
> If you're comfortable with Gentoo then I guess you're ready for kernel
> development! :P (kidding!) The reason I say this is because I heard
> (I've not used Gentoo personally) that you get to build/install all
> packages from scratch before using them! :)
>
> You can also have a look at the popular ones like Ubuntu, Fedora or
> Mint (dunno much about Mint though). They come with good package
> managers and that makes installing stuff easy. So whether you want to
> install eg binutils or a new browser or even the kernel sources, the
> package manager will help you get all the stuff + it's dependencies.
>
> HTH,
> -mandeep
>
>
> > would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
> > (and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It
> would
> > be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.
> >
> > Thanks and regards,
> > Naman
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Kernelnewbies mailing list
> > Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> > http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>
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What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Geyslan Gregório Bem]

2013/11/13 abrahanfer at gmail.com <abrahanfer@gmail.com>:
> I suggest you Archlinux[1], highly updated and customizable. But it's not
> broke by updates day in day out.
>
> [1] https://www.archlinux.org/
>
>
> 2013/11/13 Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Naman Shekhar Mishra
>> <mishra123.naman@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi mentors,
>> > I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going
>> > to
>> > try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
>> > what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS
>> > but
>>
>> If you're comfortable with Gentoo then I guess you're ready for kernel
>> development! :P (kidding!) The reason I say this is because I heard
>> (I've not used Gentoo personally) that you get to build/install all
>> packages from scratch before using them! :)
>>
>> You can also have a look at the popular ones like Ubuntu, Fedora or
>> Mint (dunno much about Mint though). They come with good package
>> managers and that makes installing stuff easy. So whether you want to
>> install eg binutils or a new browser or even the kernel sources, the
>> package manager will help you get all the stuff + it's dependencies.
>>
>> HTH,
>> -mandeep
>>

Hi,

I have not tried gentoo yet. But I think that is a great distro for a
deep learning.
Nowadays I'm using arch and it is working very well to me.

>>
>> > would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
>> > (and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It
>> > would
>> > be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.
>> >
>> > Thanks and regards,
>> > Naman
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Kernelnewbies mailing list
>> > Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
>> > http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Kernelnewbies mailing list
>> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
>> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>



-- 
Regards,

Geyslan G. Bem
hackingbits.com

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Andreas Platschek]

Hi,

On 11/13/2013 11:25 AM, Mandeep Sandhu wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Naman Shekhar Mishra
> <mishra123.naman@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi mentors,
>> I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going to
>> try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
>> what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS but
> If you're comfortable with Gentoo then I guess you're ready for kernel
> development! :P (kidding!) The reason I say this is because I heard
> (I've not used Gentoo personally) that you get to build/install all
> packages from scratch before using them! :)
>
> You can also have a look at the popular ones like Ubuntu, Fedora or
> Mint (dunno much about Mint though). They come with good package
> managers and that makes installing stuff easy. So whether you want to
> install eg binutils or a new browser or even the kernel sources, the
> package manager will help you get all the stuff + it's dependencies.
Ack. Use whatever distro _YOU_ like best. The only restrictions are the
minimal requirements of the kernel. You can find them in the source in
Documentation/Changes
They should not be a problem with any newer distro, in example for 3.12
they are:

---<snip>---
Current Minimal Requirements
============================

Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
encountered a bug!  If you're unsure what version you're currently
running, the suggested command should tell you.

Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already functionally
running a Linux kernel.  Also, not all tools are necessary on all
systems; obviously, if you don't have any ISDN hardware, for example,
you probably needn't concern yourself with isdn4k-utils.

o  Gnu C                  3.2                     # gcc --version
o  Gnu make               3.80                    # make --version
o  binutils               2.12                    # ld -v
o  util-linux             2.10o                   # fdformat --version
o  module-init-tools      0.9.10                  # depmod -V
o  e2fsprogs              1.41.4                  # e2fsck -V
o  jfsutils               1.1.3                   # fsck.jfs -V
o  reiserfsprogs          3.6.3                   # reiserfsck -V
o  xfsprogs               2.6.0                   # xfs_db -V
o  squashfs-tools         4.0                     # mksquashfs -version
o  btrfs-progs            0.18                    # btrfsck
o  pcmciautils            004                     # pccardctl -V
o  quota-tools            3.09                    # quota -V
o  PPP                    2.4.0                   # pppd --version
o  isdn4k-utils           3.1pre1                 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep
version
o  nfs-utils              1.0.5                   # showmount --version
o  procps                 3.2.0                   # ps --version
o  oprofile               0.9                     # oprofiled --version
o  udev                   081                     # udevd --version
o  grub                   0.93                    # grub --version ||
grub-install --version
o  mcelog                 0.6                     # mcelog --version
o  iptables               1.4.2                   # iptables -V
---<snap>---

thx,
andi

>
> HTH,
> -mandeep
>
>
>> would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
>> (and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It would
>> be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.
>>
>> Thanks and regards,
>> Naman
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Kernelnewbies mailing list
>> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
>> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar]

Kernel development may not directly be related to the Distro. The choice of
distro is completely personal. If you have read kernel development books or
Linux in general you would have understood the same. Some distros come
ready with development tools right from onsets, for others you can use
repository for downloading and installing the tool. The kernel systems and
distros have become quite complicated for pretty much all major distros, so
the overhead is necessarily always there.
Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox use Fedora(or other redhat distros), though
Alan talked about shifting to other distros due to his annoyance with
Fedora.

Few important distros I would consider as a developer
Fedora: Pros: most development tools are installed by default and you can
get all others easily. It is pretty bleeding edge when it comes to adoption
of new open source technologies.
Cons: It might be buggy at times, it can be difficult for newbies
sometimes.
Debian: Pros: very stable releases, not so many experimental features, huge
number of packages, adheres closely to unix philosophy
Cons: fewer new releases, can be difficult to begin with or you are used to
redhat/suse based distros
Arch: Pros:newer distro, very favoured by everyone, very very comprehensive
user guides, good for development, does everything from the scratch, but
there are pre configured configs all over the place to choose from.
Cons: you should know a little bit as to what exactly are you doing, you
may have to manually configure package configuration files etc. I donno if
there are any bugs.


-- 
Thank you
Warm Regards
Anuz
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What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Mandeep Sandhu]

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 5:00 PM, Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar
<chambilkethakur@gmail.com> wrote:
> Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox use Fedora(or other redhat distros), though Alan
> talked about shifting to other distros due to his annoyance with Fedora.

Nit -picking here...but Linus does not Fedora...if anything, I think,
he _hates_ Fedora and Gnome (3)! :)

A more informed answer on Quora:
http://www.quora.com/Linux/What-Linux-distribution-does-Linus-Torvalds-use-on-his-MacBook-Air

I saw a G+ post of his where he was very pleased with the Samsung
pixel running ChromeOS. Though that was not for development purpose
(only reading stuff).

-mandeep

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar]

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Mandeep Sandhu <
mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 5:00 PM, Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar
> <chambilkethakur@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox use Fedora(or other redhat distros), though
> Alan
> > talked about shifting to other distros due to his annoyance with Fedora.
>
> Nit -picking here...but Linus does not Fedora...if anything, I think,
> he _hates_ Fedora and Gnome (3)! :)
>
> A more informed answer on Quora:
>
> http://www.quora.com/Linux/What-Linux-distribution-does-Linus-Torvalds-use-on-his-MacBook-Air
>
It talks about what he uses on __Mac book air__,
Here is another link which says he used Fedora 9 on a __most__ of his
computers
http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html



>
> I saw a G+ post of his where he was very pleased with the Samsung
> pixel running ChromeOS. Though that was not for development purpose
> (only reading stuff).
>
> I read that whole discussion, he never said that he __hates__  Fedora, he
was expressing his dismay that the kernel was not updated with proper
wireless driver which are required for him to get the driver because that
machine(not sure which one) doesn't have an ethernet port.
But he does hate Gnome. Also from his post, he seems to be using Fedora
more often than any other distros.

>  -mandeep
>



-- 
Thank you
Warm Regards
Anuz
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What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Geyslan Gregório Bem]

2013/11/13 Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar <chambilkethakur@gmail.com>:
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Mandeep Sandhu
> <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 5:00 PM, Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar
>> <chambilkethakur@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox use Fedora(or other redhat distros), though
>> > Alan
>> > talked about shifting to other distros due to his annoyance with Fedora.
>>
>> Nit -picking here...but Linus does not Fedora...if anything, I think,
>> he _hates_ Fedora and Gnome (3)! :)
>>
>> A more informed answer on Quora:
>>
>> http://www.quora.com/Linux/What-Linux-distribution-does-Linus-Torvalds-use-on-his-MacBook-Air
>
> It talks about what he uses on __Mac book air__,
> Here is another link which says he used Fedora 9 on a __most__ of his
> computers
> http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html
>
>
>>
>>
>> I saw a G+ post of his where he was very pleased with the Samsung
>> pixel running ChromeOS. Though that was not for development purpose
>> (only reading stuff).
>>
> I read that whole discussion, he never said that he __hates__  Fedora, he
> was expressing his dismay that the kernel was not updated with proper
> wireless driver which are required for him to get the driver because that
> machine(not sure which one) doesn't have an ethernet port.
> But he does hate Gnome. Also from his post, he seems to be using Fedora more
> often than any other distros.
>>
>> -mandeep
>
Why not ask him? :-D

>
>
>
> --
> Thank you
> Warm Regards
> Anuz
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies
>



-- 
Regards,

Geyslan G. Bem
hackingbits.com

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Mandeep Sandhu]

> Why not ask him? :-D

Straight from the horse's mouth! :)

-mandeep

PS: Put your fire-retardant suit and fire away on LKML! :P

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Geyslan Gregório Bem]

2013/11/13 Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com>:
>> Why not ask him? :-D
>
> Straight from the horse's mouth! :)
>
> -mandeep
>
> PS: Put your fire-retardant suit and fire away on LKML! :P

I'm not so crazy at all. LOL!

-- 
Regards,

Geyslan G. Bem
hackingbits.com

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar]

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Geyslan Greg?rio Bem <geyslan@gmail.com>wrote:

> 2013/11/13 Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com>:
> >> Why not ask him? :-D
> >
> > Straight from the horse's mouth! :)
> >
> > -mandeep
> >
> > PS: Put your fire-retardant suit and fire away on LKML! :P
>
> I'm not so crazy at all. LOL!
>
> I don't think it is of much consequence anyway.  Though I am very inclined
to believe old timers mostly use either redhat based distros or Debian.


-- 
Thank you
Warm Regards
Anuz
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What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Geyslan Gregório Bem]

2013/11/13 Anuz Pratap Singh Tomar <chambilkethakur@gmail.com>:
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 12:49 PM, Geyslan Greg?rio Bem <geyslan@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> 2013/11/13 Mandeep Sandhu <mandeepsandhu.chd@gmail.com>:
>> >> Why not ask him? :-D
>> >
>> > Straight from the horse's mouth! :)
>> >
>> > -mandeep
>> >
>> > PS: Put your fire-retardant suit and fire away on LKML! :P
>>
>> I'm not so crazy at all. LOL!
>>
> I don't think it is of much consequence anyway.  Though I am very inclined
> to believe old timers mostly use either redhat based distros or Debian.
>
I agree. What is important is to have easy access to packages.
Or not! What really matters is like the distribution.

Personal taste. Period.
>
> --
> Thank you
> Warm Regards
> Anuz



-- 
Regards,

Geyslan G. Bem
hackingbits.com

What is the best distro for starting linux kernel development?

[Aldo Iljazi]

 Naman Shekhar Mishra wrote:

> Hi mentors,
> I have been studying the Linux kernel for some time and now I am going to
> try and get my hands hands dirty with the kernel. Can you please tell me
> what is the best distro for this? I have experience with Gentoo and LFS but
> would they be good if I just want to get involved in  kernel development
> (and not the maintenance overhead that comes with these distros)? It would
> be useful for me if you could tell me the distro you use.
> 
> Thanks and regards,
> Naman

> _______________________________________________
> Kernelnewbies mailing list
> Kernelnewbies at kernelnewbies.org
> http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/mailman/listinfo/kernelnewbies

Whatever distro you feel comfortable with will do just fine. I use
Ubuntu or elementary OS. Sometimes even Debian Stable.
-- 
Aldo Iljazi