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Operating System
161 posts
An operating system is the most important software that runs on a computer. It manages the computer’s memory and processes, as well as all of its software and hardware. It also allows you to communicate with the computer without knowing how to speak the computer’s language.
What programming languages are commonly used for writing kernel modules
Someone asked me recently whether they could write a Linux kernel module in Python, because that’s the only…
How are kernel modules loaded and unloaded dynamically in an operating system
I remember the first time I ran rmmod on a module that had a driver still open under…
Why are kernel modules essential for extending kernel functionality
A few years ago I helped a friend get an obscure USB Wi-Fi dongle working on Linux. The…
What is a kernel module, and how does it differ from a monolithic kernel
I used to think “monolithic kernel” and “kernel module” were somehow opposing architectures — like Linux was either…
Discuss the relationship between virtual memory size and application performance
I once watched a Java application’s throughput drop by nearly half after someone “helpfully” doubled its heap size,…
Explain the concept of high memory in the context of the Linux kernel
The first time I ran into the term “high memory,” I was debugging a strange performance issue on…
Discuss the implications of kernel memory leaks and how they can be prevented
A kernel memory leak is a quietly dangerous kind of bug. I once traced a slow, mysterious server…
How does the Linux kernel ensure memory protection for kernel space
A student once asked me why a buggy user application can crash itself but “usually” can’t crash the…
How do SLUB and SLOB memory allocators handle memory fragmentation
Every time the Linux kernel needs a small chunk of memory — a task_struct, an inode, a network…
What is the SLOB (Simple List Of Blocks) memory allocator in the Linux kernel
If you’ve only ever worked with modern desktop or server Linux, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard…