SkiffOS: Minimal Cross-compiled Linux for Embedded Containers

This mainline release corresponds to Buildroot 2022.08.

---

Changes since SkiffOS 2022.05.2:

• Buildroot: see Release notes
• browser/v86: enable options for better memory efficiency
• jetson/{tx2, nano}: move to linux4tegra-legacy
• Security updates to docker, runc, containerd, etc.
• modalai/voxl2: numerous fixes & improvements
• intel/desktop: add rEFInd and cleanup EFI partition handling
• allwinner/d1: bump u-boot to 2022.07-rc3
• core/fedora: add warning if targeting invalid architecture

New devices:

• jetson/agx: add support for Jetson AGX Orin and Xavier

---

SkiffOS is a lightweight operating system for 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. It is:

• Familiar: uses simple Makefile and KConfig language for configuration.
• Flexible: supports any OS distribution inside containers w/ ssh drop-in.
• Portable: replicate the exact same system across any hardware or arch.
• Reliable: read-only minimal in-RAM host system boots reliably every time.
• Reproducible: offline and deterministic builds for reproducible behavior.

SkiffOS adds a configuration package system to the Buildroot cross-compiler, which makes it easy to re-target applications to new hardware. Packages are merged together as specified in the SKIFF_CONFIG comma-separated environment variable. For example: SKIFF_CONFIG=pi/4,core/gentoo will run Gentoo on a Raspberry Pi 4.

Most Linux devices have a unique set of requirements for kernel, firmware, and hardware support packages. The SkiffOS host OS separates hardware-specific support from the containerized user environments, simplifying management of updates across multiple hardware combinations.