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

Published 2 months 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.

P.S. If you enjoy these behind-the-scenes updates,
share the Maker’s Logbook with a friend who likes building things.

Unsubscribe · Preferences

Maker’s Logbook – Landing Pages & My HomeLab

Maker's Logbook by Stefan Herndlbauer Week 017 (Nov 17–Nov 30): A Fresh Start, New Ideas & the Road to HakFabrik First concept for the HakFabrik hardware-hacking learning device ✍ Week’s content, if you missed it I took a one-week break to refocus, recharge, and come back with fresh energy. 🛠 This Week at the Workbench Finished the landing page for HakFabrik.com. I integrated a third-party email service and built a small API to keep full flexibility over form handling and data flows. Updated...

18 days ago • 1 min read

Every project starts with a handful of components

Maker’s Logbook – Building the Foundation for HakFabrik

Maker's Logbook by Stefan Herndlbauer Week 016 (Nov 10–Nov 16): Prototyping, New Hardware Ideas & a Big Milestone Early prototype parts for HakFabrik — every project starts with a handful of components. ✍ Week’s content, if you missed it 🎙 A Maker’s Journey – Ep. 10 (S2 E3):From Makers to Hackers – Lessons from Maker Faire Salzburg — My 10th episode 🎉 🛠 This Week at the Workbench Started planning the first prototype for HakFabrik. I ordered a few inexpensive components to test ideas and get a...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Maker’s Logbook – From Maker Faire Inspiration to a New Hardware Security Idea

Maker's Logbook by Stefan Herndlbauer Week 015 (Nov 3–Nov 9): Maker Faire, AI Design & Hardware Security Logo from Maker Fair Salzburg ✍ Week’s content, if you missed it No new content published last week. 🛠 This Week at the Workbench Attended Maker Faire Salzburg — a small but inspiring event full of passionate makers and tinkerers. It was great to see curiosity spark in children’s eyes as they explored different projects. For the next podcast episode, I decided to take a different approach:...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read