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Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

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Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#31

Post by kuter »

One project I made for myself was to to wtite a kernel module that could control the led backlight of my laptop keyboard.

I had to first reverse engineer the windows utility that was written in c# and found out that it used wmi commands. After reading the kernel code for a while I realized there where already some code that implemented HP WMI commands.

Using that as a foundation it was quite easy to write my own kernel module that could change the led colors. Then I tried to integrate it with the linux kernel's led API. Since the LEDs where RGB it was a little different to integrate but I managed to find some examples in some playstation joystick driver code.

This project was a lot of fun, but I would say that you should be careful not to break your hardware. I have broken devices even from the user space by pushing it beyond it's limits.

Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#33

Post by lloydatkinson »

kuter wrote: post #31

One project I made for myself was to to wtite a kernel module that could control the led backlight of my laptop keyboard. I had to first reverse engineer the windows utility that was written in c# and found out that it used wmi commands. After reading the kernel code for a while I realized there where already some code that implemented HP WMI commands. Using that as a foundation it was quite easy to write my own kern…

That's cool! Did you publish the module somewhere? Could it be in mainline?

Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#37

Post by dokem »

Write a simple USB driver for interacting with some arduino widget. I'm talking actual USB not serial emulation. For instance, when you plug in some microcontroller/arduino with a small LCD screen you can `echo Hello World > /dev/my_lcd_screen` and it will appear.

Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#38

Post by kuter »

lloydatkinson wrote: post #33
kuter wrote: post #31

One project I made for myself was to to wtite a kernel module that could control the led backlight of my laptop keyboard. I had to first reverse engineer the windows utility that was written in c# and found out that it used wmi commands. After reading the kernel code for a while I realized there where already some code that implemented HP WMI commands. Using that as a foundation it was quite easy to write my own kern…

That's cool! Did you publish the module somewhere? Could it be in mainline?

This is kinda funny but I was going to try to get it merged to mainline but then realized there was already a similar patch waiting on review.

This my code, large part of it is based on other HP WMI stuff https://github.com/kuterd/hp_omen_led_controler

Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#39

Post by LeonM »

watmough wrote: post #27
LeonM wrote: post #5

I have recently been looking into getting a 12" Apple Macbook for on the road. The 12" Macbooks were small 12" Intel laptops produced between 2015 and 2017. They can boot Linux, but many devices are not functioning. They are great little machines, though a bit underpowered (even when they were new) so running MacOS is not a great experience. Decent Linux support should give these devices a second live. Most devices s…

So Elementary OS is one example of Linux that already runs very happily on my 2012 MacBook Air. Surely most of the required support is there already?

I wasn't talking about the Macbook Air, but rather the 12" Retina Macbook [0].

Also known as the A1534 Macbook8,1 (yes, Apple's naming is always confusing).

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP757?locale=en_US

Re: Ask HN: Project ideas for a Linux kernel module

#40

Post by mailey »

cushychicken wrote: post #21

Writing or modifying an existing driver for something like an I2S DAC would suit you, I think. You'd have to figure out phandle support for the I2C configuration channel, fire up I2S streaming by enabling it in the kernel and piping audio to the DAC, then playing it into some speakers. Could expand it by adding some filtering. Many DACs have filter banks that you can populate with coefficients via I2C. There's some d…

Thank you, that does sound interesting, and I do have an interest in cybersecurity (just not IT security as in firewalls, incident response ...etc). I saw some interesting stuff being done recently from programming/writing code to emulate a microcontroller/CPU in something like qemu, to power glitching and bypassing protection on some chips to allow accessing serial/debug interface or even some of the mobile baseband reverse engineering/emulation being done by experienced security researchers. but I couldnt tell what kind of experience I would need to have for that sort of job, or where to start, at least I think starting with embedded projects and low level OS-related stuff would someday lead me to that career path.

> my company is hiring and likely will be all year. We probably have a use for a new SWE on the embedded side. Email me at my username at Gmail.

I'll keep this mind, thank you.

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