Maker’s Logbook – A New Challenge: Learning the Linux Kernel

Published 8 days ago • 1 min read

Maker's Logbook

by Stefan Herndlbauer

Week 010 (Sep 29–Oct 5): From Drone Telemetry to Linux Kernel Hacking

Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 — my new test bench for kernel driver experiments

✍ Week’s content, if you missed it

🎙 A Maker’s Journey – Episode 7: Season Finale: Lessons from the Drone Telemetry Project

🛠 This Week at the Workbench

Brainstormed ideas for Season 2 and settled on a topic: Embedded Linux & Linux kernel driver development. I’ve long wanted to dig into kernel internals, and now it’s officially the next deep-dive.
Rejoined Hack The Box after a multi-year break — created a new account to sharpen reverse-engineering and CTF skills.

💡 Things I Learned or Noticed

Spent time learning about RTOS design and how operating systems differ — there’s a surprising amount of engineering in those core abstractions.
Debating hardware for Linux experimentation: a BeagleBone/BeagleBoard Black vs a Raspberry Pi 5. STM32/ESP32-class MCUs are great, but not powerful enough for full Linux/kernel development.
I’m keen to learn Rust for embedded and systems work, but first I want to strengthen my C skills — there’s still a lot to master before diving into systems Rust.

📸 Snapshot of the Week

Scaffolding finally up! Hoping to finish the facade before the cold weather arrives.

🔗 Inspiration & Resources

UTM (QEMU on macOS) — handy virtualization for Mac with QEMU under the hood.
eBPF — Unlocking the Kernel — fascinating tech for safe, high-performance kernel extensions.
Flipper Zero — a multi-tool for exploring radio protocols, hardware interfaces, and more.

🚀 What’s Next

Next week, I’ll set up a Linux build environment and get started on a “hello world” kernel driver — first small step toward Season 2.

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share the Maker’s Logbook with a friend who likes building things.

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