This was years ago, so I can't remember any of the assignments, but I remember they were mostly simple changes to the kernel - but we had to actually re-compile

This was years ago, so I can't remember any of the assignments, but I remember they were mostly simple changes to the kernel - but we had to actually re-compile the Linux kernel, make sure it booted up and worked the way it was supposed to! :) In some cases it was data structure changes, in some, it was small improvements to some algorithms. Quite challenging in the beginning, but by the end, I was actually having fun playing with the Linux kernel and watching a custom kernel boot up and work perfectly!