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Linux Kernel Mentorship Program
The Linux Kernel Mentorship Program offers a structured remote learning opportunity to aspiring Linux Kernel developers. Experienced Linux Kernel developers and maintainers mentor volunteer mentees and help them become contributors to the Linux Kernel.
The Linux Kernel Mentorship Program includes three 12-week, full-time volunteer mentee positions, and two 24-week part-time volunteer mentee positions each year. Please check the Fall 2020 Linux Kernel Mentorship Program and get started. This is a remote opportunity and there is no need to relocate or move to participate.
Through funding from the Linux Foundation, the Linux Kernel Mentorship Program will offer location based Stipend and travel funding to attend industry conferences to present the work they’ve done during the program.
Please see below regarding additional matching grants that the Linux Foundation is providing to other projects on LFX Mentorship in support of diversity initiatives.
The program serves as a vehicle to reach out to students and developers to inject new talent into the Linux Kernel community. It aims to increase diversity in the Linux Kernel community and work towards making the kernel more secure and sustainable. We strongly encourage applicants who are from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized groups in the technology and open source communities, including, but not limited to: persons identifying as LGBTQ, women, persons of color, and/or persons with disabilities.
The mentors are experienced developers and maintainers seeking additional help on the project as well as an opportunity to teach aspiring developers. Many mentors and mentees will be focused on improving security and stability of the kernel.
Mentees will be invited to speak at Open Source Summits to share the work they have done during the program and will be given an opportunity to network with the community and prospective employers. Mentees are encouraged to write blogs to share their experience and their project, and the blogs will be published on the Linux Foundation blog site.
What are the licensing guidelines for the mentorship work?
All Linux Kernel Mentorship work product must be contributed and made available under GPL-2.0 and submitted with Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) sign-off statements. This applies regardless of whether the work product is for kernel code or for user space code.
Benefits for Mentees
Learn from experienced Linux Kernel developers/maintainers
Learn to collaborate, communicate, and work with the Linux Kernel community
Become a Linux Kernel contributor
Opportunity to network with other open source communities and prospective employers
Learn to speak and share experiences at Linux conferences (travel funding included)
Receive a stipend for learning
Opportunity to interview with employers
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Mentee Blogs
Benefits for mentors
Opportunity to teach and share expertise
Get help with work in your respective Kernel areas
Opportunity to train and bring new talent into the project
Get rewarded with an invite to a Linux conference
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Add well-trained and educated diverse talent to the project
Opportunity to train and add to areas of the project that could benefit from extra help
Gives a structured and well-defined program to attract and develop new talent
Opportunity to strengthen the project and the community that is crucial to the Linux ecosystem
Benefits for the Linux Ecosystem
Strong and sustainable kernel community
Improved security and quality of Linux releases
Talented pool of prospective employees trained by experts
How to apply
Prospective mentees! Get started by creating mentee profile on
LFX Mentorship.
Prospective mentors! Get started by creating mentor profile on
LFX Mentorship.
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Join #linux-kernel-mentees
IRC Channel on
freenode. This server recommends Nick registration.
Server Name: irc.freenode.net/6667
You can register your Nick in the server tab with command: identify /msg NickServ identify <password>
You can configure your chat client to auto identify using NickServ(/MSG NickServ+password) option - works on hexchat
Mentees - Profile Creation process
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Confirm permission to participate (if applicable) from education institution or employer. Please note that all mentorship work product must be contributed and made available under
GPL-2.0 and submitted with Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) sign-off statements. This applies regardless of whether the work product is for kernel code or for user space code. This includes the work done during the 6 week application process.
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Mentees - Complete Application process
Complete the project prerequisite tasks assigned to you when you apply for the project:
Complete Skill evaluation period - 2 weeks (due before Application Contribution period begins)
NOTE: we recommend you to start steps 1-3 as soon as the Prerequisites and Skill Evaluation Period opens, so we can have time to evaluate your skills and assigning you to a mentor.
Application Contribution period (6 weeks)
Complete application and submit: Application packet should contain a short summary of your skills and what you learned during the 6 week application period and include a report of all your contributions. Upload your application to the “Submit Completed Application task”.
Frequently Answered Questions and tips
Before starting work on a task, please check the archive first to see if a patch is already in progress. Please avoid duplicated efforts.
Linux Kernel Mentees Archive
For documentation tasks, start small with picking one file for conversion first. You don't have to work on all the files in a directory in one step. Working on a single file helps you get over the learning curve and then you can take on larger set of files as needed. If in doubt, send email to maintainers - starting with
Shuah Khan and
Mauro Carvalho Chehab. Mauro is working on a series of documentation patches in progress and check with him before starting Documentation tasks. He is a good resource for Documentation changes.
Please copy mailing lists and maintainers/developers suggested by scripts/get_maintainer.pl
Please run scripts/checkpatch.pl before sending the patch.
Compile and test - Documentation compile steps have been documented.
Signed-off-by should be the last tag.
Mentees - What to expect after getting selected?
If you are selected for the program and completed your paper work:
mentors on your projects and
Work with your mentor(s)
Continue to send patches to linux-kernel-mentees and
Shuah Khan.
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Please stay subscribed to linux-kernel-mentees. Don't hesitate to contact
Shuah Khan with any questions.
Mentor time commitment
Mentors should expect to spend two to four hours per week during the entire duration of the Mentorship Program starting from the application process to the end of the program.