Awesome Embedded Linux

A curated list of awesome Embedded Linux resources.

Embedded Linux: Operating systems based on the Linux kernel used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics, in-vehicle infotainment, networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment, mobile devices, medical instruments, etc.

Contents

• Bootloaders
• Build systems
• Container runtimes
• Container orchestration systems
• Cloud infrastructure
• Cloud provider integration
• Databases
• Display servers
• Distributions
• Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems
• Hypervisors
• Init systems
• IoT platform integrations
• Kernel patches
• Kernel modules
• Kubernetes
• Kubernetes Edge Computing Platforms
• OTA software updates
• Platforms
• Process control systems
• SSH servers
• Web servers
• Zero configuration networking
• Books
• Presentations
• Trainings
• Related awesome lists

Bootloaders

• barebox - A bootloader (initially named U-Boot v2) designed for embedded systems.
• coreboot - Extended firmware platform that delivers a lightning fast and secure boot experience on modern computers and embedded systems.
• libreboot - coreboot distribution with proprietary software removed.
• RedBoot - Complete bootstrap environment for embedded systems.
• U-Boot - The Universal Bootloader.

Build systems

• buildroot.
• Debos - Debian OS builder.
• ELBE - Debian based E.mbedded L.inux B.uild E.nvironment.
• Isar - Integration System for Automated Root filesystem generation (Debian).
• LFS - Linux system from source code.
• LTIB - Unmaintained?.
• mkroot.
• NARD - Specific to Raspberry Pi (compute modules).
• OpenADK.
• OpenBricks.
• OpenEmbedded - Build system used in the Yocto Project.
• OpenWrt.
• picl-k3os-image-generator - Generates images for k3os compatible with various armv8/aarch64/arm64 devices.
• PTXdist.

Container runtimes

• containerd - An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability.
• cri-o - Lightweight Container Runtime for Kubernetes.
• Docker Engine - The Industry-Leading Container Runtime.
• frakti - The hypervisor-based container runtime for Kubernetes.
• runC - CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification.

Container orchestration systems

• Kubernetes - System for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
• Nomad - Easy-to-use, flexible, and performant workload orchestrator that can deploy a mix of microservice, batch, containerized, and non-containerized applications.
• okd - OKD provides a complete open source container application platform which powers OpenShift (Kubernetes Distribution).
• OpenShift - A hybrid cloud, enterprise Kubernetes platform to build and deliver better applications faster. Can be run on ARM as well (Kubernetes Distribution).
• Rancher - From datacenter to cloud to the edge, Rancher lets you deliver Kubernetes-as-a-Service (Kubernetes Distribution).

Cloud Infrastructure

• StarlingX - StarlingX is a complete cloud infrastructure software stack for the edge used by the most demanding applications in industrial IOT, telecom, video delivery and other ultra-low latency use cases.

Cloud Provider Integration

• Azure IoT Edge - IoT Edge moves cloud analytics and custom business logic to devices so that your organization can focus on business insights instead of data management. Enable your solution to truly scale by configuring your IoT software, deploying it to devices via standard containers, and monitoring it all from the cloud.
• AWS Edge
  • IoT Core - Easily and securely connect devices to the cloud. Reliably scale to billions of devices and trillions of messages.
  • IoT Device Management - Register, organize, monitor, and remotely manage connected devices at scale.
  • IoT Events - Easily detect and respond to events from IoT sensors and applications.
  • IoT Greengrass - Bring local compute, messaging, data management, sync, and ML inference capabilities to edge devices.
  • Sagemaker Neo - Train models once, run anywhere with up to 2x performance improvement.
  • IoT Sitewise - Easily collect, organize and analyze data from industrial equipment at scale.
  • Wavelength - Deliver ultra-low latency applications for 5G devices.

Databases

• MongoDB Mobile - NoSQL MongoDB as embedded database for embedded devices (embedded, document-oriented).
• Raima Database Manager - Embedded, cross-platform, small-footprint, in-memory database developed for the IoT and the edge market (embedded, SQL).
• SQLite - Defacto standard embedded SQL database for mobile phones (embedded, SQL).

Display Servers

• Enlightenment - (wayland, BSD).
• Mazecompositor - A 3D qtwayland compositor (wayland, MIT).
• Mir - The fast, open and secure display server for any device (wayland, GPL).
• SWAY - Tiling Wayland compositor (wayland, MIT).
• Weston - Wayland project reference compositor (wayland, MIT).

Distributions

Traditional Distributions

• Aboriginal Linux - DISCONTINUED.
• Android.
• Android (Go edition).
• Ångström.
• Arch Linux ARM.
• Clear Linux OS - Open source, rolling release Linux distribution optimized for performance and security, from the Cloud to the Edge, designed for customization, and manageability.
• ELinOS.
• Embdebian - Embedded Debian, DISCONTINUED.
• Embedded Gentoo.
• GoboLinux - Linux distribution redefining the entire filesystem hierarchy (no need for package database) which runs on ARM.
• LinRT - Embedded Linux distribution that uses the FSL Community Yocto Project layers with LinRT proprietary layers for Phytec’s SOMs and Single Board Computers.
• Mentor Embedded Linux Flex OS - Highly customizable and flexible embedded Linux distribution based on the Yocto Project.
• Mentor Embedded Linux Omni OS - Enterprise class binary embedded Linux distribution based on Debian.
• Moxa Industrial Linux
• OpenSTLinux - Yocto Project based Linux Distribution for STM32 multi-core microprocessors (MPU).
• Sailfish OS.
• SnapGear Embedded Linux.
• STLinux - Linux for STMicroelectronics ARM or ST40 embedded processors.
• Ubuntu Core.
• Wind River Linux.

Container Orchestration Distributions

• k3os - Linux distribution designed to remove as much OS maintenance as possible in a Kubernetes cluster. It is specifically designed to only have what is needed to run k3s.
• metalk8s - An opinionated Kubernetes distribution with a focus on long-term on-prem deployments.
• Photon OS - Open source, minimal Linux container host that is optimized for cloud-native applications, cloud platforms and VMware infrastructure but runs on ARM as well. Supports Docker (container runtime) as well as Mesons and Kubernetes (container orchestration).
• Talos - Talos is a modern OS designed to be secure, immutable, and minimal. Its purpose is to host Kubernetes clusters, so it is tightly integrated with Kubernetes.
• Pharos - Deploy and run Kubernetes workloads at any scale on any infrastructure.

Container Runtime Distributions

• BalenaOS (formerly ResinOS) - Operating System tailored for containers, designed for reliability, proven in production. Meant to be used with OpenBalena to deploy and manage connected devices and with BalenaCloud for deploying IoT applications.
• CoreOS Container Linux - A container-focused OS that’s designed for painless management in large clusters.
• Fedora CoreOS - Combines the best of CoreOS Container Linux and Fedora Atomic Host: Automatically updating, minimal, monolithic, container-focused operating system, designed for clusters but also operable standalone, optimized for Kubernetes but also great without it.
• Linux microPlatform - A minimal Linux distribution built using OpenEmbedded/Yocto providing OTA software updates and a container-based application runtime.
• Oryx Linux - Long-term maintenance oriented distribution providing a lightweight container runtime engine OryxCMD and Mender integration.
• OSv - OSv is the versatile modular unikernel designed to run unmodified Linux applications securely on micro-VMs in the cloud or on on-premise bare metal servers.
• RancherOS - A lightweight, secure Linux distribution, built from containers to run containers well.
• Torizon - Linux-based software platform providing a preconfigured Yocto-based Linux distribution, bootloader, OTA service and Docker container runtime.

Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems

• AIDE - Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment, a file and directory integrity checker.
• afick - Another File Integrity Checker, monitors changes on the file system and detects intrusions.
• chrootkit - Checks for rootkits.
• Open Source Tripwire - Security and data integrity tool for monitoring and alerting on file & directory changes.
• OSSEC - The World’s Most Widely Used Host-based Intrusion Detection System.
• rkhunter - A rootkit hunter.
• SAMHAIN - Provides file integrity checking and log file monitoring/analysis, as well as rootkit detection, port monitoring, detection of rogue SUID executables, and hidden processes.

Hypervisors

• ACRN - A flexible, lightweight reference hypervisor, built with real-time and safety-criticality in mind, optimized to streamline embedded development through an open source platform (type 1, bare metal).
• Cross-OS Hypervisor - Hypervisor used in the military domain (type 1, bare metal).
• Crudible Embedded Hypervisor - Hypervisor for defense systems (type 1, bare metal).
• Jailhouse - Linux-based partitioning hypervisor.
• L4Re Runtime Environment - Operating system framework built on top of the Fiasco microkernel and providing user-level infrastructure that includes services (program loading, memory management, virtual machine management, etc.).
• LxWin - (type 1, bare metal).
• LynxSecure - Least privilege real-time separation kernel hypervisor (type 1, bare metal).
• PikeOS - Currently (Jan 2019) the only hypervisor worldwide that holds a Common Criteria certification EAL 3+ for its separation performance (type 1, bare metal).
• QNX Hypervisor - (type 1, bare metal).
• RTS Hypervisor - (type 1, bare metal).
• Xen Project Hypervisor - (type 1, bare metal).

Init systems

• dumb-init - A minimal init system for Linux containers.
• finit - Fast init for Linux systems.
• minit - A small yet feature-complete init.
• OpenRC - Dependency-based init system that works with the system-provided init program.
• runit - A UNIX init scheme with service supervision.
• systemd - The systemd System and Service Manager.
• upstart - Event-based init system.

IoT platform integrations

2019/2020 there existed approx. 600 IoT platforms. “IoT” includes domains like healthcare, industry, etc.

Kernel patches

• PREEMPT_RT patch - “Controlling a laser with Linux is crazy, but everyone in this room is crazy in his own way. So if you want to use Linux to control an industrial welding laser, I have no problem with you using PREEMPT_RT.” – Linus Torvalds.

Kernel modules

• AppArmor - Linux Security Module that provides MAC style security extension for the Linux kernel.
• LoadPin - Linux Security Module that ensures all kernel-loaded files (modules, firmware, etc) all originate from the same filesystem, with the expectation that such a filesystem is backed by a read-only device.
• SELinux - Linux Security Module.
• SMACK - Linux Security Module providing mandatory access control that includes simplicity in its primary design goals.
• TOMOYO - Linux Security Module adding name-based MAC to the Linux kernel.
• Yama - Linux Security Module that collects system-wide DAC security protections that are not handled by the core kernel itself.

Kubernetes

• Akri - Akri lets you easily expose heterogeneous leaf devices (such as IP cameras and USB devices) as resources in a Kubernetes cluster, while also supporting the exposure of embedded hardware resources such as GPUs and FPGAs.
• K3s - The certified Kubernetes distribution built for IoT & Edge computing.
• microk8s - MicroK8s is a small, fast, single-package Kubernetes for developers, IoT and edge (Ubuntu core/server).
• minikube - minikube implements a local Kubernetes cluster (Linux).

Kubernetes Edge Computing Platforms

• Baetyl - Baetyl, extend cloud computing, data and service seamlessly to edge devices.
• KubeEdge - KubeEdge is built upon Kubernetes and extends native containerized application orchestration and device management to hosts at the Edge.

OTA software updates

• HERE OTA Connect - Over-the-air software updates for the automotive industry.
• libostree - Both a shared library and suite of command line tools that combines a “git-like” model for committing and downloading bootable filesystem trees, along with a layer for deploying them and managing the bootloader configuration.
• Mender - Open source client-server update manager.
• RAUC - Lightweight update client that runs on your Embedded Linux device and reliably controls the procedure of updating your device with a new firmware revision.

Platforms

• RZ/G Linux Platform

Process control systems

• daemontools - Collection of tools for managing services.
• M/Monit - Can monitor and manage distributed computer systems (including their processes), conduct automatic maintenance and repair and execute meaningful causal actions in error situations.
• s6 - Suite of programs to allow process supervision (a.k.a service supervision).
• Supervisor - A client/server system that allows its users to monitor and control a number of processes.
• watchdogd - Advanced System & Process Supervisor for (embedded) Linux.

SSH servers

• dropbear - A relatively small SSH server and client particularly useful for “embedded”-type Linux.
• sshd - Popular OpenSSH server.
• TinySSH - Minimalistic SSH server which implements only a subset of SSHv2 features.
• wolfSSH - Lightweight SSHv2 server library written in ANSI C and targeted for embedded, RTOS, and resource-constrained environments.

Web servers

• Apache - httpd.
• Barracuda - Optimized for deeply embedded devices in remote-monitoring and control-management applications.
• Cherokee - .
• Hiawatha - An advanced and secure webserver for Unix.
• lighttpd - Designed and optimized for high performance environments and for every server that is suffering load problems.
• Monkey - Monkey is a lightweight and scalable Web Server with a strong focus on Embedded devices.
• nginx - Web server and reverse proxy server with a strong focus on high concurrency, performance and low memory usage.
• nostromo - nhttpd is a simple, fast and secure HTTP server.
• sthttpd - A simple, small, portable, fast, and secure HTTP server.

Zero configuration networking

• Avahi - Service Discovery for Linux using mDNS/DNS-SD.
• JmDNS - Java implementation of multi-cast DNS and can be used for service registration and discovery in local area networks.

Books

System design

• Building Embedded Linux Systems - Book website.
• Embedded Linux Primer - Book website.
• Embedded Linux System Design and Development - Book website.
• Linux for Embedded and Real-time Applications.
• Pro Linux Embedded Systems.

System programming

• Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
• The Linux Programming Interface - Book website, free only version.
• Linux System Programming.
• Linux Debugging and Performance Tuning: Tips and Tricks.

Kernel development

• Mastering Linux Kernel Development: A kernel developer’s reference manual

Device driver development

• Essential Linux Device Drivers - book website.
• Linux Device Drivers - book website, free only version.
• Linux Device Drivers Development: Develop customized drivers for embedded Linux.

Presentations

• Embedded Linux Conference + OpenIoT Summit Europe 2018 slides / video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference + OpenIoT Summit North America 2018 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference + OpenIoT Summit Europe 2017 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference + OpenIoT Summit North America 2017 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference + OpenIoT Summit Europe 2016 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2015 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2015 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2014 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2014 video playlist slides / video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2013 slides / video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2013 video playlist
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2012 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2012 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2011 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2010 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2010 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2009 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2009 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2008 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2008 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2007 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference North America 2007 slides
• Embedded Linux Conference 2006 slides

Trainings

System

• Embedded Android (2net).
• Embedded Android + Automotive (2net).
• Embedded Linux Trainging (bootlin) - Free slides and lab material, paid sessions.
• Linux Basics (Linutronix) - From Bootloader to System.
• Mastering embedded Linux (2net).

Build systems

• Debian Distribution (Linutronix) - An introduction to ELBE.
• Embedded Linux development with Buildroot training (bootlin) - Free slides and lab material, paid sessions.
• Mastering Yocto Project (2net).
• Yocto (Linutronix) - An introduction to Yocto.
• Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded development training (bootlin) - Free slides and lab material, paid sessions.

System programming

• System programming for embedded Linux (2net).

Kernel and device driver development

• Embedded Linux device drivers (2net).
• Linux kernel and driver development training (bootlin) - Free slides and lab material, paid sessions.

Security

• Security (Linutronix) - Embedded security.

Misc

• Displaying and rendering graphics with Linux (bootlin) - Free slides and lab material, paid sessions.
• Fastboot (Linutronix) - Boot Linux within One Second.
• Linux Advanced (Linutronix) - Scheduling mechanisms, real-time, multicore, CPU isolation, IPC development, best practices of application development.
• Realtime (Linutronix) - Linux and Realtime (Preempt-RT).
• Tracing & Debug (Linutronix) - Detailed insight into the Linux Tracing Infrastructure and its powerful features.

Related awesome lists

• awesome-edge-ai
• awesome-edge-computing
• Awesome Edge Intelligence
• awesome-edge-machine-learning
• awesome-ubuntu-core
• awesome-yocto-project

License