Interest in contributing - Rust abstractions for the sound subsystem

Interest in contributing - Rust abstractions for the sound subsystem

[Jihed Chaibi]

Hi there,

I'm an independent Linux Kernel contributor primarily specializing in
the sound subsystem (ASoC) and Device Trees.

I'm reaching out because I'd like to start contributing Rust
abstractions for ASoC. The audio subsystem has a lot of patterns,,
codec registration, DAPM widget management, clock handling,  that seem
like strong candidates for safe Rust wrappers, and I'd like to help
move that forward.

Before jumping in, I wanted to ask:

- Is there any existing work or RFC around Rust bindings for ASoC or
the broader sound subsystem?
- Are there specific areas where help would be most useful right now?
- Any recommended starting points for someone familiar with kernel C
(obviously) but still building Rust proficiency?

Happy to start small, even reviews or testing would be a useful way to
get oriented.

Cheers,

Re: Interest in contributing - Rust abstractions for the sound subsystem

[Miguel Ojeda]

On Tue, Mar 31, 2026 at 11:47 PM Jihed Chaibi
<jihed.chaibi.dev@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> - Is there any existing work or RFC around Rust bindings for ASoC or
> the broader sound subsystem?
> - Are there specific areas where help would be most useful right now?
> - Any recommended starting points for someone familiar with kernel C
> (obviously) but still building Rust proficiency?
>
> Happy to start small, even reviews or testing would be a useful way to
> get oriented.

Welcome!

If you are asking for starting points in general (i.e. not just for
ASoC etc.) and/or if you haven't seen it, then please take a look at:

  https://rust-for-linux.com/contributing

I have there a bunch of suggestions and links, e.g. in the "Finding
tasks and issues to work on" subsection.

In particular, I usually highlight that reviewing or testing other
patches in the list is indeed a great way to get started, since you
get to know other people, what work is going on, etc.; so it was great
to see you mentioned it in your message. :) Please do review and test
if you have the time, you would be welcome to do so!

(Actually, I should perhaps add one more way of helping to the website
that applies nowadays, at least until the mailing list functionality
is implemented: looking at Sashiko reviews at
https://sashiko.dev/#/?list=org.kernel.vger.rust-for-linux and
forwarding any to the list that look correct -- I have seen e.g. SJ do
that.)

Regarding ASoC/sound/... and in general particular subsystems, I would
suggest contacting the maintainers early ("Submitting new abstractions
and modules" in the link above), searching in lore.kernel.org (I may
be wrong, but I don't recall work in that area) and asking in our
Zulip as well (someone may be interested or may have done something
outside the list -- please see https://rust-for-linux.com/contact).

I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Miguel

Re: Interest in contributing - Rust abstractions for the sound subsystem

[SeongJae Park]

Thank you for Cc-ing me, Miguel!

On Wed, 1 Apr 2026 11:01:30 +0200 Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sandonis@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 31, 2026 at 11:47 PM Jihed Chaibi
> <jihed.chaibi.dev@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > - Is there any existing work or RFC around Rust bindings for ASoC or
> > the broader sound subsystem?
> > - Are there specific areas where help would be most useful right now?
> > - Any recommended starting points for someone familiar with kernel C
> > (obviously) but still building Rust proficiency?
> >
> > Happy to start small, even reviews or testing would be a useful way to
> > get oriented.
> 
> Welcome!
> 
> If you are asking for starting points in general (i.e. not just for
> ASoC etc.) and/or if you haven't seen it, then please take a look at:
> 
>   https://rust-for-linux.com/contributing
> 
> I have there a bunch of suggestions and links, e.g. in the "Finding
> tasks and issues to work on" subsection.
> 
> In particular, I usually highlight that reviewing or testing other
> patches in the list is indeed a great way to get started, since you
> get to know other people, what work is going on, etc.; so it was great
> to see you mentioned it in your message. :) Please do review and test
> if you have the time, you would be welcome to do so!
> 
> (Actually, I should perhaps add one more way of helping to the website
> that applies nowadays, at least until the mailing list functionality
> is implemented: looking at Sashiko reviews at
> https://sashiko.dev/#/?list=org.kernel.vger.rust-for-linux and
> forwarding any to the list that look correct -- I have seen e.g. SJ do
> that.)

I agree doing that can be very helpful.  Many maintainers are happy about
sashiko, but also struggling at increased amount of arguments that they need to
review.  If someone can participate in reviewing the AI reviews, that would be
very helpful.

One of the purposes of me forwarding sashiko reviews for DAMON patches was to
make such participation easy to do on the mailing list based workflow that we
are familiar with.

Specifically, I was simply forwarding the entire sashiko review as a mail to
all recipients first using a tool, and then replied my review of the AI review
to the forwarded mail.

Nonetheless, there were also concerns [2] about increased traffic from  such
blind-reply-all behavior.  I'm trying to make some changes to my workflow, and
adding guides to the sashiko review forwarding tool.  E.g.,

- Consider reducing recipients.
- Add your review of AI review together with the original AI review.
- Add short summary of your review at the top.

Just wanted to let you know that, so that you don't get the concern again ;)

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/20260328093603.10052-1-aethernet65535@gmail.com
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/2026032915-library-embolism-b48c@gregkh


Thanks,
SJ

[...]

Re: Interest in contributing - Rust abstractions for the sound subsystem

[Jihed Chaibi]

On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 11:01 AM Miguel Ojeda
<miguel.ojeda.sandonis@gmail.com> wrote:
> Welcome!
>
> If you are asking for starting points in general (i.e. not just for
> ASoC etc.) and/or if you haven't seen it, then please take a look at:
>
>   https://rust-for-linux.com/contributing
>
> I have there a bunch of suggestions and links, e.g. in the "Finding
> tasks and issues to work on" subsection.
>

Thanks a lot Miguel, SeongJae, this is helpful. I'll start with
reviews and testing on the list, and explore the Sashiko workflow SJ
described. I'll also reach out to the ASoC maintainers about Rust
abstractions as you suggested. Looking forward to be part of the
journey.

Best regards,