Curated References

Essential resources for Linux driver development, organized by topic.

Official Kernel Documentation

Core References

• Kernel Documentation - Primary documentation source
• Driver API - Driver-specific APIs
• Core API - Fundamental kernel APIs

By Subsystem

Subsystem	Documentation
Device Model	Driver Model
Device Tree	Devicetree
Block Layer	Block
Network	Networking
USB	USB API
PCI	PCI
I2C	I2C
SPI	SPI
GPIO	GPIO
IIO	Industrial I/O
RTC	RTC
Regulator	Regulator
Clock	Clock Framework
PWM	PWM
Watchdog	Watchdog
HWMON	Hardware Monitoring
LED	LED
Power Management	Power

Memory and DMA

• Memory Allocation
• DMA API Guide
• DMA API HOWTO

Synchronization

• Locking
• RCU
• Atomic Operations

Debugging and Testing

• Debugging
• KUnit
• KASAN
• Ftrace

Development Process

• Submitting Patches
• Coding Style
• MAINTAINERS

Books

Recommended

Title	Notes
Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition	Classic reference (covers 2.6, concepts still relevant). Free online
Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love)	Excellent kernel internals overview
Essential Linux Device Drivers (Sreekrishnan Venkateswaran)	Good subsystem coverage

Advanced Topics

Title	Notes
Understanding the Linux Kernel (Bovet & Cesati)	Deep kernel internals
Professional Linux Kernel Architecture (Mauerer)	Comprehensive reference
Linux Kernel Networking (Rami Rosen)	Network stack deep dive

Online Resources

Source Code Browsing

• Elixir Cross Referencer - Searchable kernel source
• LXR (Linux Cross Reference) - Alternative source browser
• GitHub Mirror - Linux kernel on GitHub

Mailing Lists and News

• LWN.net - Linux Weekly News (essential reading)
• LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List) - Main development list
• Kernel Newbies - Resources for beginners

Tutorials and Guides

• Kernel Newbies - First Kernel Patch
• Bootlin Training Materials - Free embedded Linux training
• The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide

Tools

Development

| Tool | Purpose | |——|———| | checkpatch.pl | Code style checker | | sparse | Static analysis | | coccinelle | Semantic patching | | scripts/get_maintainer.pl | Find patch reviewers |

Testing

| Tool | Purpose | |——|———| | QEMU | Hardware emulation | | KUnit | Unit testing | | kselftest | Integration tests | | syzkaller | Fuzzing |

Debugging

| Tool | Purpose | |——|———| | dmesg | Kernel log viewer | | ftrace | Function/event tracing | | perf | Performance analysis | | crash | Crash dump analysis |

Specifications

Hardware Protocols

• USB Specification - USB-IF documents
• PCI Express Specification - PCI-SIG (requires membership)
• I2C Specification - NXP I2C-bus specification
• SPI Overview - Wikipedia (no formal spec)

Device Tree

• Devicetree Specification - Official specification
• Kernel DT Bindings - Binding documentation

Kernel Versions

This guide targets Linux 6.6 LTS. Check kernel changelogs for API changes:

• KernelNewbies Changelog - Human-readable changelogs
• Git Changelog - Official commits

Getting Help

1. Search first: Use Elixir to find existing drivers similar to yours
2. Read the docs: Check docs.kernel.org for your subsystem
3. Ask on IRC: #kernelnewbies on OFTC
4. Mailing lists: Use get_maintainer.pl to find the right list
5. Stack Exchange: Unix & Linux Stack Exchange for general questions