Product Description

Written by a leading developer and maintainer of the Linux kernel, "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" is a comprehensive overview of kernel configuration and building, a critical task for Linux users and administrators. No distribution can provide a Linux kernel that meets all users' needs. Computers big and small have special requirements that require reconfiguring and rebuilding the kernel. Whether you are trying to get sound, wireless support, and power management working on a laptop or incorporating enterprise features such as logical volume management on a large server, you can benefit from the insights in this book. "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" covers the entire range of kernel tasks, starting with downloading the source and making sure that the kernel is in sync with the versions of the tools you need. In addition to configuration and installation steps, the book offers reference material and discussions of related topics such as control of kernel options at runtime. A key benefit of the book is a chapter on determining exactly what drivers are needed for your hardware. Also included are recipes that list what you need to do to accomplish a wide range of popular tasks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160044 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 198 pages

Review
"you can't go wrong with adding Linux Kernel in a Nutshell to your library." - James Pyles, Linux Magazine, March 2007

From the Publisher
An operating system's kernel handles all interactions between the CPU and the external world, and determines which programs will share processor time, in what order. This in-depth reference documents Version 2.6 of the Linux kernel, which has seen significant changes to nearly every kernel subsystem, particularly in the areas of memory management and block devices.

Linux Kernel in a Nutshell explains the conditions that bring out Linux's best performance, and how the OS meets the challenge of providing good system response during process scheduling, file access, and memory management in a wide variety of environments. The 2.6 kernel has brought Linux into the heart of corporate IT environments. This reference shows system administrators and developers how to tweak and configure the kernel for optimal performance.

About the Author
Greg Kroah-Hartman has been building the Linux kernel since 1996 and started writing Linux kernel drivers in 1999. He is currently the maintainer of the USB, PCI, driver core and sysfs subsystems in the kernel source tree and is also one half of the -stable kernel release team. He created the udev program and maintains the Linux hotplug userspace project. He is a Gentoo Linux developer as well as the co-author of the third edition of the "Linux Device Drivers" book and a contributing editor to Linux Journal. He also created and maintains the Linux Device Driver Kit. He currently works for SuSE Labs/Novell, doing various Linux kernel related tasks.

Customer Reviews

Great Kernel reference.
Nowadays its less common for a user to have to compile a kernel, but there are times that if you don't do it a given device will no work properly (or at all). Despite the huge amount of Linux distributions available none is able to fulfill every user requirement. Configuring a laptop or installing a server requires different sets of modules with imply reconfiguring and recompiling the kernel. If you want to listen to a music, enable power management on a laptop or install some enterprise grade features like RAID or LVM this book is surely to help you.

The "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" was written by one of the most renoun Linux kernel hackers, Greg Kroab-Hartman. Greg Kroab-Hartman develops system drivers since 1999 and is currently responsible for several of the kernel's subsystems, udev and hotplug.

This book was written to explain everything with is necessary to compile and install a Linux kernel. You don't need any prior programming experience but is most recommend some knowledge of the Linux system and it's command line.

The "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" is quite complete and clear making it easy for the reader to compile its first kernel in just a few hours after having the book. Kroab-Hartman manages to do this supplying plenty of information in a well structured form that makes its reading extraordinarily easy.

The first chapters explain how to obtain and compile the kernel with is very light reading (about one hour). In the next chapters he explains how to customize your kernel. Finally at the end there is a list of boot and compilation parameters.

If you have some experience with Linux or you usually compile your kernel the information available in this book is a bit too simple never the less useful. If you never compiled a Kernel this book will save you plenty of time.

I recommend "Linux Kernel in a Nutshell" to every Linux user with wishes to learn a bit more how it's Linux system works.

Review made by Luis Rodrigues "Khromu".