Long-Term Maintenance, or How to (Mis-)Manage Embedded Systems for 10+ Years

Long-Term Maintenance, or How to (Mis-)Manage Embedded Systems for 10+ Years - Jan Lübbe, Pengutronix e.K.

The technical side of how to build embedded Linux systems solved by now: Take the kernel, a build system, add some patches, integrate your application and you're done!

In reality though, most of the embedded systems we build are connected to the Internet and run most of the same software as servers or desktops.

Unlike these however, our systems are not regularly maintained an administrator and don't run a standard distribution.

In this presentation, Jan Lübbe will explain why apparently reasonable approaches to long-term maintenance fail and how to establish a sustainable workflow instead.

By mainlining required features early, aligning to the upstream support cycles and having a predictable maintenance and testing schedule, it is easy to respond to the inevitable (security) problems quickly and with controlled risk.

About Jan Lübbe

After building Linux smartphones with OpenMoko in 2008 and deploying open source GSM networks to cruise ships, Jan Lübbe joined Pengutronix in 2012 as a kernel hacker. Since then he helped customers from many different markets understand how Linux can solve their problems and how to benefit from mainline development. While not hacking at work, Jan builds atomic clocks and other cute embedded non-sense at the Stratum 0 hacker space in Brunswick. Recently he presented at FOSDEM, the Linux Days in Chemnitz and the OSADL Networking Days. His current interests are testing embedded systems automatically, reverse engineered video and graphics acceleration, distributed systems and verified booting/updating.