How to contribute (was Re: Kernelnewbies Digest, Vol 77, Issue 7

[Amit Kumar]

On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 12:01:42PM +0530, Aishwarya Pant wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 08:34:51AM -0400, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> > On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 10:30:27 +0800, Tran Ly Vu said:
> > 
> > > How exactly do i start to contribute to linux community, i.e fix bug, etc
> > 
> > Step 0:  Figure out *why* you want to contribute to the Linux kernel.
> > 
> > Did your boss just tell you that you have 6 weeks to write a driver for
> > your company's new widget?
> > 
> > Do you have a device that doesn't have Linux support?
> > 
> > Is your kernel crashing/misbehaving?
> > 
> > Do you have an intense interest in filesystems, or memory management, or
> > networking, or process scheduling, or other aspect of kernels?
> > 
> > Do you just want to give back to the community?
> > 
> > Did you think it was a good way to attract members of the appropriate gender?
> > 
> > What you do next will depend on *why* you're here, and what your current
> > technical skills are.
> > 
> > Note that asking others for what you should do is as bad an idea as
> > asking people whether you should write a murder mystery or a romance novel,
> > and for exactly the same reason.  If you're doing it because somebody else
> > suggested it but you don't care for it, the results will be bad.
> > 
> > Though if you just want to give back to the community, the easiest thing
> > to do, and the most useful, is to build and boot linux-next kernels and
> > see if anything breaks on your system.  We have *lots* of people slinging
> > code, and not so many testing.  And testing is easier than coding. :)
> > 
> > Here's the cheat sheet for linux-next:
> > 
> > $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
> > $ cd linux
> > $ git remote add linux-next git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git
> > $ git fetch linux-next
> > $ git fetch --tags linux-next
> > 
> > (now get a .config file - grabbing your distro's config is a good place
> > to start. 'make locallmodconfig' if you want a faster build by not building
> > device driver modules for devices you don't have.
> > Then do a 'make' and install/boot your kernel.  Google for detailed
> > instructions for how to build/install your own kernel on your distro
> > 
> > ... # later on - do this once every 1-3 weeks or as time permits
> > $ git remote update
> > $ make oldconfig
> > $ make
> > (install as above)
> > Boot it, and report any problems.
> > 
> > Do *not* do a 'git pull' to get the most recent linux-next, it won't do what
> > you think.
> 
> As far as I understand unless a git pull or fetch + merge/rebase is run, 
> nothing would change locally. make oldconfig would result in the same config.
> Then what are we testing for here?
git remote update
git tag --list "next-*"
git checkout -b branch_name next-201704xy
> 
> Thanks
> Aishwarya
> 
> > 
> > Yes, it really *is* that simple.
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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