Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America 2026

Once you've done enough of them, putting together a simple Linux system is easy. The hard part is working out what "simple" means in each new context.

We'll start by building and booting an example minimal Linux system to a shell prompt, first under QEMU and again on real hardware. Then we'll explain the theory: build environment (dependency management, reproducibility), native vs cross compiling (toolchain selection, libc selection, static vs dynamic), board bringup theory, kernel configuration, initramfs creation (and other root filesystem options), installing and booting, the init process and system bringup, hardware resource management and I/O categories, and running "your app" on its own dedicated device.

If there's time we'll go into software dependencies AGAIN (on target this time), add an example server (sshd), add a native toolchain to compile "hello world" on the target (build vs development environment), and some perspective on the online book "Linux From Scratch" for further reading (plus "what is a container".