Louis Kotze
Senior Full-Stack Engineer · Linux Kernel Contributor
Ten-plus years shipping production software across FinTech, automotive, and pharmaceuticals. Currently delivering enterprise platform engagements through iOCO Digital. Patches land upstream in the Linux kernel, NetworkManager, and the wireless regulatory database.
Open-source & upstream
17 commits merged across five upstream projects, plus a
Reviewed-by credit on another contributor’s
regulatory analysis.
- wpa_supplicant (hostap): seven commits merged in July–August 2026 fixing Wi-Fi 7 multi-link (MLO) association: stale per-link BSS entries, ML-probe channel scanning, per-link key clearing, duplicated association-request IEs, and a PMKSA-caching deauthentication fallback — with two hwsim regression tests. Found and reproduced against real AP hardware; ships in the 2.13 release.
- Linux kernel (mainline): authored the
RTL8922AU USB RF-calibration fix
(v3
on lore), with five independent
Tested-bytags across USB WiFi chipsets. Also a cfg80211 MLO group-key error-message fix. Both now in mainline. - NetworkManager: authored Wi-Fi 7 MLO awareness for the daemon’s background-scan logic (MR !2405, merged July 2026): parses the AP-MLD address from the Multi-Link element so a single-AP MLO association keeps the relaxed scan cadence, eliminating scan-induced traffic stalls. Landed after a five-revision review with the core maintainers.
- wireless-regdb audit: seven regulatory-database
commits merged across six jurisdictions (ZA, HK, RU, KR, UA, TG), each
verified against the primary regulatory instrument (ICASA, OFCA, MSIT,
SCRF, ETSI). Plus a
Reviewed-byon a community-submitted RU 6 GHz 320 MHz patch — first review credit on someone else's regulatory analysis. Where the published instrument left a limit blank, I corresponded directly with the national regulator (ARCEP Burkina Faso) and obtained a written ruling on the applicable 6 GHz limits before writing the patch. Patch series on lore. Includes an audit script for ongoing monitoring. - morrownr/rtw89: PR #76 backports the in-kernel RF-calibration fix to the out-of-tree DKMS driver (merged April 2026).
- Fedora bug 2458629: filed a reproducer and root-cause analysis for a wpa_supplicant MLO reassociation race; assigned, in triage.
- In review: a cfg80211 patch improving the diagnostics when an association BSS lookup fails. All submissions on lore.
Mentorship
- University of Pretoria Mentorship Programme (2026 – present): mentoring graduates on CV, interview prep, and the current South African software job landscape.
- Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator (at BMW IT Hub SA, 2021 – 2025): mentored three graduates through their placement on the team, supporting their transition into first engineering roles.
Elsewhere
- louis@louiskotze.dev
- GitHub
- Kernel patches (lore.kernel.org)
- Prolific Studio (small consultancy)