Ep.09 - S2|E2: Writing, Debugging & Cross-Compiling My First Linux Character Driver

2025-10-28

In this new episode of Build, Create & Learn – A Maker’s Journey, I take the next step into the world of Embedded Linux: writing, debugging, and cross-compiling my very first character driver. After my initial “Hello Kernel” experiment, I wanted to go deeper — to understand how real drivers work, how they register with the kernel, and how data travels between user space and kernel space. Along the way, I learned the hard way how to debug without crashing the system, and how to cross-comp...

In this new episode of Build, Create & Learn – A Maker’s Journey, I take the next step into the world of Embedded Linux: writing, debugging, and cross-compiling my very first character driver.

After my initial “Hello Kernel” experiment, I wanted to go deeper — to understand how real drivers work, how they register with the kernel, and how data travels between user space and kernel space. Along the way, I learned the hard way how to debug without crashing the system, and how to cross-compile a kernel module from my Ubuntu machine to a Raspberry Pi.

This episode is about more than just code — it’s about exploring the invisible layers that make Linux so powerful, and why knowing what happens beneath the surface gives every maker a new kind of confidence.

Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to check out the companion article at https://herndlbauer.com/blog/a-makers-journey-podcast-episode-9/ — it includes the full source code and more details from my journey into the kernel.

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