Introduction:
Hello folks, The linux kernel is a massive project. and has been going on for almost 34 years. I always thought how cool it would be to have my name among the many contributions. In this article I'll talk about my experience in the linux kernel mentorship program, how I applied, the experience during these months of the program, and what kind of contributions i did
Application:
I found out about the program through linkedin. I applied through the linux foundation mentorship page on 2025 summer round[1]. So, keep an eye out for when the program opens up again. Also, it's a chance to explore other projects provided by the linux foundation. The program is led by Shuah Khan [2] .It's unpaid. and it clearly states that. It does not hold your hand. And you will gain insight and mentorship on contributing to the linux kernel code base.
My Experience:
Once applied i got assigned few tasks to complete as a pre-requeset to for acceptance. Nothing scary, but it's required just to make sure you grasp the basics. a couple of weeks later and, hooray. I got accepted into the program. From there, I had a up to 6(for part-time mentees) or (3 months for months to understand and get me hands dirty into the kernel. The goal was to submit minimum of 5 accepted non-trivial patches into the kernel. I had many question so did my mentor mates. thankfully shuah conducted a office hours weekly meeting in it we would discuss how to tackle different question we had. Unfortunately because of my full-time job i couldn't attend some of them. but I could ask my questions on the mailing list or via discord.
My contributions
So far H have between 7-9 accepted batches. I would categorize them as follows:
1- simple
To get my feet wet into the kernel i started with simple fixes to spelling mistakes in documentation as so on (just to get comfortable with the process).
2- simple DRM changes
The DRM documentation list some work to be done form drm based drivers [3]. a nice thing a bout that is some are suited for kernel noobs like I am. It's a good place to start if you're interrested in DRM.
3- backporting
Fixes are usually ported to the stable tree. and applied to one or more of the supported stable branches. However, for different reasons it my be missed. so it a good chance to do the leg work for that. where to find that kind of work ? well a good source would be syzbot[4].
4- bug hunting
I mainly resorted to two sources for finding bugs.The first was syzbot[4], and the second was coverity[5]. you can look at these links to help you get started [6][7].
Final thoughts
The program is a great opportunity to get started as a kernel contributor whether you're a newbie or have experience doing kernel related work but never got the chance to go through mainstream process of the linux kernel community. However expereinced once is it's a good chance to ask questions to experienced kernle developers who understand the process very well. So I would encourage you to apply.
Links
[1] https://mentorship.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/project/8822c262-9795-4c84-a7c8-43346e2f5974
[2] https://mentorship.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/mentor/5b5c6ac7-5735-4ed6-9666-4ddd0a140c0c
[3] https://docs.kernel.org/gpu/todo.html
[4] https://syzkaller.appspot.com
[5] https://scan.coverity.com/