Development environment discussion

[Louis]

On 12/17/25 7:49 AM, Isaac Gonzalez wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm new posting to the newbies kernel list and currently learning kernel
> driver and subsystem development.

Welcome to the Linux Kernel community!

> I am considering working on a Macbook air with virtual machines for
> my learning and experimentation process. Is it reasonable or would it be
> better to consider native development, especially while working remotely?

I'd always suggest native but using MacOS ssh'd into a different host or 
running a VM are pretty okay options IMO.

Personally I'd find all this kinda cumbersome to work in, running a 
x86_64 machine with a native Linux Distro seems like the easier route. 
(although I do understand the want to use a Macbook, the M series are 
great on power!)

> I plan to use the macbook as a remote development environment with tools to
> work on code inside virtual machines and remotely (ssh) to a desktop with
> Ubuntu 24. It has been cumbersome getting the kernel to build due to
> configurations in Ubuntu for certificates which do not exist in the
> mainline kernel so any suggestions on any other host OS are appreciated.

I generally have an easier time in Arch, but Debian is also a good 
option if you don't want to deal with the bleeding edge packages Arch 
uses. (It's generally pretty stable, but bugs do slip through more often 
compared to Debian for example)

Cheers,
Louis