Part 3 · Lesson 12 · Advanced

Inside the Kernel

Meet the kernel's organs.

In this interactive Linux lesson from Stencel Academy you don't just read — you type real commands like cat /etc/hostname, ping 1.1.1.1, top and watch the machine respond on a live, animated map. It is part of the free How Linux Works course.

Key takeaway: The kernel is a set of subsystems — each syscall is routed to the organ that handles it.

Before this lesson

Builds on: The User/Kernel Boundary.

What you'll practise

lsmod — Driver modules loaded into the kernel.
free -h — What the memory manager is doing.
ss -tlnp — Sockets the network stack is holding.

Terms you'll learn

schedulermemory managerVFSnetwork stackdriver

Check your understanding

How does the kernel handle a system call?

It routes it to the subsystem responsible
One big function handles everything
It forwards it to another program

Open the interactive lesson →