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The Mindset Behind Hard Debugging
Hard debugging is rarely defeated by a lack of tools. It is defeated by three quiet habits: assuming the fault is where…
RB Aug 6 · 6 min
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Field notes from the Linux trenches
Deep dives, debugging war-stories and career guidance for engineers who work where the kernel meets real hardware.
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InsightsInsights
The Kernel Maintainer Bottleneck and What It Means for Upstreaming
The kernel maintainer bottleneck is slowing patch review even as contributions hit record highs. What it means for embedded teams upstreaming code.
RB Aug 6 · 8 min
System DesignSystem Design
Yocto vs Buildroot: Choosing a Build System for Your Product
Yocto vs Buildroot for embedded Linux products: how the two build systems differ, when each wins, and what your choice costs you…
RB Aug 5 · 8 min
Edge AIEdge AI
Speculative Decoding: Faster On-Device LLMs
Speculative decoding speeds up on-device LLM inference by amortizing the memory-bandwidth cost of decoding. Here is how it works and where it…
RB Aug 5 · 8 min
NewsNews
Kernel & Embedded News: Linux 7.2 Nears Release; Swap I/O Rework
The Linux 7.2 release is expected 16 August 2026; this edition also covers a kernel swap I/O rework, Buildroot support windows, and…
RB Aug 4 · 6 min
TutorialsTutorials
The cachestat() Syscall: Reading Linux Page-Cache Stats from User Space
The cachestat syscall, added in Linux 6.5, reports page-cache residency for a file from user space. Call it with a worked C…
RB Aug 4 · 9 min
Deep DivesDeep Dives
dm-verity: How a Read-Only Rootfs Stays Verified
dm-verity gives an embedded device a tamper-evident read-only rootfs. Learn how per-block hash-tree checking works and why the root hash must be…
RB Aug 3 · 11 min
NewsNews
Kernel & Embedded News: Hazard Pointers Proposed for the Kernel
The kernel community weighs hazard pointers as an RCU alternative, a race-free way to open new directories, and gccrs progress toward compiling…
RB Aug 3 · 6 min
CareerCareer
Your Tests Passed. That Is Not the Same as Correct.
A passing test does not prove your code is correct, only that no failure was caught yet. Write tests that try to…
RB Aug 2 · 3 min
System DesignSystem Design
Architecting Mainline-Friendly Products
How to architect mainline-friendly products: connector design with DT overlays, a vendor checklist for tech leads, and the steps to upstream board…
RB Aug 2 · 11 min
Kernel SecurityKernel Security
Linux Kernel CVEs: What to Patch by Device (26 Jul – 1 Aug 2026)
33 Linux kernel CVEs published 26 July-1 August 2026, all fixed in stable. Critical remote NVMe/TCP, SMC and SCTP bugs, and the…
RB Aug 1 · 7 min
Deep DivesDeep Dives
Devres: How Managed Device Resources Work in the Linux Kernel
How managed device resources (devres) work in the Linux kernel: the devres list, devm_* APIs, release order on unbind, pitfalls, and CONFIG_DEBUG_DEVRES.
RB Aug 1 · 10 min
Kernel SecurityKernel Security
Open-Source Device CVEs: What to Patch by Vertical (July 2026)
Open-source device CVEs for July 2026: 22 patchable flaws in U-Boot, OpenSSH, curl, FFmpeg, GStreamer, containerd and Node.js, and what to patch…
RB Jul 31 · 11 min
TutorialsTutorials
How to Build an Embedded Linux Lab From Scratch
How to build an embedded Linux lab: from QEMU to a first board, serial console, and logic analyzer, and the skill each…
RB Jul 31 · 10 min
NewsNews
Kernel & Embedded News: Syscall Entry Reworked for 7.3; KVM MMU Split
Linux kernel features under review for 7.3 and beyond: reworked syscall entry, KVM's kvm_mmu split, a Reserved THP RFC, and a Raspberry…
RB Jul 30 · 7 min
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