Need help and advises for being like ML professionals

[Attila]

Hi to all.

I would like to learn how the ML professionals are hacking those firmwares?
Is there any educational material or explanatory guide?
I have only some C background, which additional tools I should master for this job?

Thank a lot.

[dmilligan]

Learn about ARM: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=7013.0
Download the code, setup the toolchain, and successfully compile a build: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=991.0
Setup and run QEMU: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=2864.0
Play with Lua: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=14828.0
Do some easy coding tasks: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9625.0
Disassemble a firmware dump and find some stubs: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=12177.0
Good reverse engineering related threads:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=2388.0
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6751.0
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=1915.0
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=17596.0
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13408.0
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6740.0

[Tullen]

Great response. I think there are some (not many) that would not mind learning enough to actually be able to help. Since there are relatively few that are working at the moment (not sure how many) I guess every new developer is greatly appreciated (although it has to be weighted against the time it takes from current developers to help). Still busy with my studies, but would be great to make it easier for people to get going. I know there are other threads also giving advice on what you can do to help like; https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=991.0 and maybe https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9625.25 (seems it has not been active for a long time).

How much time would you say is necessary to put down in order to learn from scratch dimilligan? I would imagine at least a couple of hundreds of hours.

[a1ex]

How much time would you say is necessary to put down in order to learn from scratch?

There's no upper limit for stopping the learning process (we are all still learning), so it's really hard to give a time frame. However, to make useful contributions, you only need minimal skills (such as editing a text file or following a tutorial), time to experiment, and motivation.

Simply pick a topic that looks interesting to you, and you think is within your reach. Try to solve it; during the process, you will have to look up a few things (maybe some from the above list) or ask some questions. By the time you succeed, you have already learned something new.

If you get stuck with something hard, don't feel bad about it. Just pick something easier (even fixing a typo or some other minor change will do), then revisit the difficult topic later. At least, that's what I do. In other words, feel free to learn at your own pace, without any time pressure.

The only difficult part is how to keep the motivation levels high. Don't forget to have fun. It's just a hobby project, after all.

[Attila]

Thanks a lot to all ... and I'm very sorry for the late reply.