I haven't done like any but I am getting into it now. Also I am getting involved in yocto project. A friend of mine and I have an idea that we are pursuing and the yocto project idea fits in perfectly. I already did a build and have at least an awareness of what the challenges are. Also looking at BeagleBone solutions (yocto has build metadata already for BeagleBone). I would love to hear from anyone that has any experience,insight, whatever with these.

Thanks for sharing this. I haven't seen it before.

I'm not sure what your question is, but I can share my experiences.

If you have time, try to read through the O'Reilly 'Understanding the Linux Kernel' book. For me it was interesting, but more importantly it gives you a good breadth of the whole thing. It won't turn you into a hacker, but it gives you some context.

I took a graduate CS on the linux kernel. That might not be available to you, but the majority of my 'a-ha' moments came during the assignments, which were typically centered around tracing various parts of the system. For instance, one assignment was understanding every part of the read() system call. IT TOOK FOREVER.

That approach was valuable, since you'll traverse through all the layer. I suggest getting an old machine (or BeagleBone, RPi) and setting up a short feedback loop where you can make changes, compile the kernel reboot and play.

Don't let yourself get discouraged. No one understands it all, and everything I knew is now likely obsolete. Just pick a part that looks interesting and poke at it.