Kernel Development Learning Pipeline

KDLP Fall 2024 Midterm Presentation Guidelines

• Overview:
  • Short presentation about research into a topic of your choice live during class
  • Propose topic and outline ahead of time
  • Plenty of room to be creative 🙂
• Example midpoint presentation topics (pick one of these or propose your own):
  • What is the OOM killer?
  • Why are there multiple versions of some syscalls with numbers at the end (e.g. accept, dup, pipe, etc)? What do the numbers refer to? What issue were they added to address?
  • Why do some syscalls have a version ending in at (e.g. open, fstat, rename, symlink, etc)? What issue were they added to address?
  • What does .config do? How does it interact with the build process for the kernel?
  • What is physical and virtual memory? Why is there a distinction between the two?
  • What is the history of git? How does it fit into the bigger picture of version control software?
  • How do container technologies like Podman, Docker, or LXC “share” a kernel with the host machine? What do they not share? What mechanisms of the linux kernel underly this technology?
  • How does the linux BPF system let userspace run arbitrary code in kernel mode? What techniques does it use to ensure that this is safe?
  • What concept does the phrase “Don’t break userspace” refer to in the linux kernel? What does it look like in practice?
  • What is the linux VDSO? What problem does it try to solve? How does it compare to other historical techniques like vsyscall?
  • Or suggest your own!
• Select a topic and submit your proposal with a short outline as soon as possible in the new #midpoint channel on matrix.
  • The hard due date for proposals is 23:59 on 10/10/2024
  • The proposal must begin with a one sentence summary of the topic you wish to cover (e.g. “What does .config do?”)
  • The proposal must contain a rough outline of what you plan to discuss in the form of approximately a half dozen bullet points
  • We will reply to your message with the proposal to let you know if it is approved or what our concerns are if we cannot approve it
• Presentation requirements:
  • 6 (+/- 1) minutes long
  • Must include some sort of visual component:
    • Slideshow
    • Diagrams
    • Etc.
  • Must include some sort of live demo in the terminal
    • Must include discussion of some snippet(s) kernel code that is relevant to your topic
  • Present live during class time in the class Jitsi
    • Share your screen for terminal + visual elements
    • There will be three presentations per day at the start of class during L11, L12, L13, L14, L15, L16, L17, L18, L19, L20, and L21
    • The exact schedule for which student is presenting on what day will be posted on matrix in the general channel
    • We will not wait for you, so make sure you are not late on the day that your presentation is scheduled