Linux Internals

Content

Linux is widely deployed on systems ranging from supercomputers and servers to smartphones and tiny embedded devices. It supports a large amount of processor architectures both widely used like x86 and ARM, and experimental ones like RISC-V. This flexibility is enabled by Linux's licensing as free software. The free license also makes Linux an interesting target for research. Projects like Debian or Android use the Linux kernel as basis for complete operating system distributions.

In this seminar, the participants will delve into the internals of Linux-based systems and research and present Linux-specific concepts from the following areas and potentially compare them to implementations in other operating systems:

  • General system architecture, integration to distribution
  • Memory management, scheduling, I/O processing
  • Security

For the seminar, each participant will prepare a report (6 pages) and a short talk (15 min) about an individually assigned topic. The grade will be based on the quality of the report, the proficiency of the talk, and the liveliness of the participant’s participation in discussing the other talks.

The proseminar is only intended for computer science (Informatik) students as part of their Bachelor. A successful participation in the Operating Systems exam (Betriebssysteme Klausur) is a prerequisite for this seminar.