SkiffOS: Minimal Cross-compiled Linux for Embedded Containers

SkiffOS is a config package system for the Buildroot OS cross-compiler.

• Run any distribution anywhere: decouples hardware support from user distro environments.
• Reliable: minimal read-only host system for unbreakable boot-ups and over-the-air updates.
• Reproducible: offline builds, pinned package versions, source-controlled custom configs.

Configuration packages are merged together to configure the system:

• SKIFF_CONFIG=pi/4,core/debian - run Debian desktop on a Raspberry Pi 4.
• SKIFF_CONFIG=odroid/xu4,core/fedora - run Fedora desktop on a Odroid XU4.
• SKIFF_CONFIG=virt/qemu,custom/config - run a custom config in a Qemu VM.

There is a project template you can use for version-controlled customizations.

Linux devices have varying requirements for kernel, firmware, and other hardware support packages. SkiffOS decouples this support from the containerized environments. The containers are portable across devices with the same CPU architecture, while ordinary OS images (Board Support Packages) are not.

Supports any Linux-compatible computer, ranging from RPi, Odroid, NVIDIA Jetson, to Desktop PCs, Laptops (i.e. Apple MacBook), Phones, Cloud VMs, and even Web Browsers.

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This release corresponds to Buildroot 2024.05.

Fixes and improvements:

• buildroot: security bump go 1.22.5 (425a6dcb)
• skiff-core-nixos: update to latest (b98770b8)
• buildroot: security updates to openssh (d024c102)
• pi: arm32 kernel dts files were moved (0f6f5e5d)
• buildroot: fix rpi-firmware for arm32 (fc89464c)
• configs: drop core/dietpi (4637762d)
• buildroot: bump containerd to v1.7.18 (cd966be1)
• builroot: update docker to v27.0.2 (5e0f6ca4)
• configs-base: update kernel to 6.9.7 (891d1d09)
• fix: also use build os in cache matrix (caffe4f0)
• fix: use better caching keys for github actions (9b3b29cb)
• configs-base: update kernel to 6.9.6 (df05edca)
• pi/common: bump kernel to rpi-6.6.34 (808c2eac)
• buildroot: prepare for 2024.05 release (c5696456)
• buildroot: fix systemd build (eb3326e1)
• chore: update gitignore (2310b082)
• skiff-core-defconfig: check if pkgs are available and use cross-platform manifest (ac3d696f)
• skiff-core-defconfig: use debian sid (c2738ae9)
• pi/common: bump kernel to 6.6.33 (70306c4b)
• buildroot: update systemd 256 and upstream (85d3b61f)
• buildroot: update embiggen-disk (1a463c0a)
• buildroot: update rtl8812au-aircrack-ng (c7541fa9)
• buildroot: update systemd to v256-rc2 (0e75cadd)
• buildroot: update docker-compose (f0d22c55)
• skiff-core: update to v1.13.0 (06447c5b)
• buildroot: update to upstream (d089e4be)
• pi/common: bump kernel to rpi-6.6.30 (ee9ebcbe)
• buildroot: fix mdadm build failure (fae2404e)
• buildroot: fix linux-firmware hash (4ce435fc)
• buildroot: update go and buildroot to 2024.02.2 (bc143050)

Full Changelog: https://github.com/skiffos/SkiffOS/compare/2024.02.1...2024.05