For long-life industrial products and scalable embedded Linux platforms, a mainline-based development approach is the most sustainable solution. emlix supports companies in building secure, transparent, maintainable and reproducible Linux systems based on upstream components. This results in robust board support packages and embedded Linux platforms that can be maintained efficiently and safeguarded over the long term.
A mainline approach creates long-term investment security
Many embedded Linux-based industrial products use a Linux system that has not been composed specifically for the product – for example, one from the hardware manufacturer. This is a sensible first step to be able to start application development. Before the product is launched, however, the system should be hardened and updated. This is feasible regardless of the build system used (Yocto, Buildroot, …) and is necessary in order to meet current standards such as IEC 62443.
Where possible, we develop embedded Linux systems based on upstream components that are available over the long term. Many CPU and component manufacturers nowadays pursue a consistent mainline strategy, so that the processor or another hardware component is often supported by the mainline kernel quite promptly and is also maintained there. A key advantage of mainline components is that the respective community carries out security monitoring. Security issues are reported and security patches are usually made available quite promptly – without the indirection of a distribution.
Your benefits at a glance
■ High transparency and traceability of all components
■ Maintainable and updatable embedded Linux systems
■ Reduced dependency on proprietary vendor solutions
■ Security patches are provided by the community
■ Simplified and cost-effective security and lifecycle maintenance
■ Stability through mainline and upstream development
■ Efficient reuse across product families
■ participating in and helping to shape important component communities is possible
Our approach to mainline-based development
■ Defining suitable mainline components from the software requirements
■ Selecting a suitable mainline kernel (usually the most recent LTS version, but not always)
■ Qualifying relevant open source components
■ Building and maintaining our own repositories
■ Developing reproducible build processes
■ Integrating relevant security and vendor patches
■ Automated generation of a validatable SBOM
■ Automated testing and maintenance of the overall system
Those who rely on vendor kernels pay a high price over the long term: proprietary adaptations have to be maintained manually with every update, vulnerabilities are closed more slowly, and dependency on a single hardware manufacturer grows. A mainline-based approach breaks this cycle. Experience shows that maintenance effort drops considerably over a product lifecycle of five to ten years – while at the same time providing greater system transparency for certifications and audits.
BEST PRACTICE
Schaeffler Gruppe
Develop and maintain product variants reliably
The project focused on the goal of maintaining and supporting the Schaeffler Embedded Linux platform more efficiently through a customized software management and build system. In addition, it was intended to be economically feasible to develop and maintain product variants reliably based on a uniform software release.
