I did something recently I haven’t done in a long time: I recompiled the Linux kernel. There was a time when this was a common occurrence. You might want a feature that the default kernel didn’t ...

Editor's Note: Linux remains an attractive option for embedded systems developers. In fact, industry surveys such as the Embedded Market Study by UBM (EDN's parent company) consistently show interest ...

Kernel modules are chunks of code that are loaded and unloaded into the kernel as needed, thus extending the functionality of the kernel without requiring a reboot. In fact, unless users inquire about ...

Have you ever felt the urge to make your own private binary format for use in Linux? Perhaps you have looked at creating the smallest possible binary when compiling a project, and felt disgusted with ...

Alexei Starovoitov posted some patches to allow the kernel to load regular ELF binaries (aka plain executables) as kernel modules. These modules would be able to run user-mode helper routines instead ...

More than 135 Linux kernel developers have signed a document in protest of vendors that create closed-source code modules for the kernel, calling the practice “harmful and undesirable.” The developers ...

Security modules watch the rest of the Linux system for intruders, but if they’re dynamically loadable, qui custodiet ipsos custodes? The ever-contentious Linux Security Modules (LSM) API is being ...

It would be useful for someone to do a temperature check of Hell because after years of queries and requests, Nvidia has released on GitHub the source code for its GPU kernel modules. Long suffering ...

Up until about 10 years ago I wrote a lot of Linux device drivers. The last one I wrote was in '03, needless to say I'm out of practice (and out of date, that was for a 2.4 kernel). I've got 2 ...