Buildroot, embedded Linux made simple

The problem:

• Carry only one device rather than two (a laptop and a braille display)
• Have Linux with me all the time
• Be able to upgrade the distribution easily and version-control the list of installed software and their configuration
• Fast boot

Solution: buildroot, a Linux distribution for embedded systems

How it works:

• Clone buildroot’s repository
• Configure the distribution (Linux kernel-like configuraiton interface)
• Cross-compile everything you need (bootloader, kernel, packages)
• Burn your image to a memory card and boot your device

Your own customizations can be kept in a separate tree that will be copied to the final file system (layered file system)

Consequences:

• Installing packages on a running system is discouraged, rather add them to your configuration, so that the configuration always reflects what’s embedded in your device

Supported hardware devices: let’s see make menuconfig

Misc:

• Great documentation
• Well thought and designed,inspiring
• Uses interesting tools like ccache
• Packaging tools is well documented