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.

This release corresponds to Buildroot 2025.11.

Highlights:

• core/steam: New SteamOS core config for Steam Deck
• core/cachyos: New CachyOS config layer
• amd/zen4: New AMD Zen4 configuration layer
• core/nixos: Update to NixOS 25.05
• buildroot: Update to 2025.08, Go 1.24.x

Fixes and improvements:

- configs-base: update kernel to 6.18.5
- buildroot: update to upstream
- apps/docker: add netfilter/iptables kernel config
- core/nixos: update to nixos-25.05
- amd/zen4: new configuration layer
- configs-base: prevent deadlock in mount-all.sh
- core/alpine, core/ubuntu: neofetch -> fastfetch
- pi/common: bump kernel to rpi-6.12.51
- buildroot: update to 2025.08
- skiff/core: bump skiff-core to v1.14.0
- valve/deck: update kernel to valve-6.11.11
- intel/x64: add bpf lsm support, more wifi firmware
- configs-base: add ntfs3 kernel module
- core/cachyos: new config
- intel: add amd ucode firmware
- buildroot: add go-bootstrap-stage4 for go1.24
- bananapi/common: bump uboot to 2025.01
- buildroot: containerd v2, runc, docker-engine updates
- core/steam: new steamos core config

Full Changelog: https://github.com/skiffos/SkiffOS/compare/2025.02...2026.01