Train your team

EMB-320 · Embedded Linux & BSP

Long-Term Maintenance Strategy

Keeping a shipped product secure and buildable for a decade, which is where most embedded programmes fail.

Advanced 2 days in person4 half-days online Max 14 in person

Who this course is for

Senior engineers and architects owning a shipped embedded product for its whole life — the people who will still be there when the kernel, the toolchain and the build host are all out of support.

Prerequisites

Experience shipping at least one embedded Linux productYocto or Buildroot fluencyFamiliarity with CVE tracking and stable kernel concepts

Course outline

Day 1 — Staying supported

  • LTS kernel selection: support horizons and what 'maintained until' really means
  • Stable cadence and the cost of falling behind
  • Tracking CVEs against your actual component set, not the distribution's noise
  • Triage records that survive audit: reachability, applicability, action
  • The hidden dependencies: toolchain, build host and third-party binaries

Day 2 — The decade plan

  • Backporting policy: when to take a stable point release vs a single fix
  • Regression risk management for a product in the field
  • Reproducible builds and archiving the toolchain so year eight builds like year one
  • Planning a distro version upgrade before you are forced into one
  • End-of-life policy: last-build, source escrow and telling customers

Hands-on labs

Labs follow the academy model — 35% principles, 20% guided investigation, 45% engineering studio. Every claim you make in a lab is backed by a trace, a counter or a measurement you captured yourself. How we teach

  1. Lab: Build a CVE-tracking worksheet from a real SBOM and triage a week's worth of kernel CVEs against it
  2. Lab: Rehearse a backport: take an upstream fix onto your product kernel, resolve the divergence and verify equivalence
  3. Lab: Archive a toolchain and build environment, then rebuild a year-old image from the archive and diff the results
  4. Lab: Draft a distro upgrade plan for a supplied legacy product: inventory, risk list, staged migration and rollback
  5. Lab: Run a 'year eight' exercise: the build host is gone, the vendor portal is down — reproduce your image from what you archived

Capstone project

Produce a long-term maintenance dossier for a supplied legacy product scenario: LTS and component support-horizon map, a CVE triage process with worked records, a backport and regression policy, an archived-and-verified reproducible build, and a timed distro upgrade plan — reviewed as a decision document your management could sign.

What you leave with

  • A support-horizon map for your kernel and key components
  • A CVE triage process tied to your real SBOM
  • A backport policy with regression controls
  • A verified archived toolchain and reproducible build
  • An upgrade plan written before the emergency, not during it

How it runs

Every course follows the same model: 35% principles, 20% guided investigation, 45% engineering studio. You leave with working code, raw measurements and an evidence-based report — not a certificate of attendance. Read the methodology or see a full sample lesson.

Material is adapted to your kernel version, hardware and workload before a private delivery. For public cohorts, the environment is provided and configured.

Questions

Who is this course for?

Senior engineers and architects owning a shipped embedded product for its whole life — the people who will still be there when the kernel, the toolchain and the build host are all out of support. It sits at advanced level within the Embedded Linux & BSP track.

What do I need to know already?

Specific prerequisites for this course: Experience shipping at least one embedded Linux product; Yocto or Buildroot fluency; Familiarity with CVE tracking and stable kernel concepts. We confirm levels before the cohort starts and adapt if a group is stronger or weaker than expected.

Can this run privately for my team?

Yes. Any course runs on-site at your offices anywhere, or live online for a distributed team, with labs adapted to your hardware and codebase.

What is the difference between in-person and online?

In person is 2 full days with hardware on your desk, capped at 14. Online is 4 half-day sessions across about two weeks so you can keep working, capped at 20, with remote lab access.

Do you invoice companies?

Yes. Purchase orders are accepted and invoicing is available in USD, EUR, GBP, SAR and CAD.

Upcoming dates

DatesWhereSeatsEarly birdRegular
22 Nov – 23 Nov 20262 full days RiyadhIn person · KAFD Conference Centre 5 of 14 SAR 5,400until 23 OctSAR 6,000
29 Nov – 30 Nov 20262 full days Kuwait CityIn person · Al Hamra Tower 10 of 14 KWD 450until 30 OctKWD 500
29 Nov – 30 Nov 20262 full days MuscatIn person · Knowledge Oasis Muscat 5 of 14 OMR 560until 30 OctOMR 620
6 Dec – 9 Dec 20264 half-days Gulf bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 GMT+3 17 of 20 US$1,040until 6 NovUS$1,150
7 Dec – 8 Dec 20262 full days OttawaIn person · Kanata North Tech Park 10 of 14 CAD 1,960until 7 NovCAD 2,180
14 Dec – 15 Dec 20262 full days TorontoIn person · MaRS Discovery District 5 of 14 CAD 1,960until 14 NovCAD 2,180
14 Dec – 15 Dec 20262 full days LondonIn person · Shoreditch Works 10 of 14 GBP 1,120until 14 NovGBP 1,250
14 Dec – 17 Dec 20264 half-days Europe bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 CET 6 of 20 US$1,040until 14 NovUS$1,150
14 Dec – 17 Dec 20264 half-days Americas bandLive online · 13:00–17:00 ET 11 of 20 US$1,040until 14 NovUS$1,150
21 Dec – 22 Dec 20262 full days BerlinIn person · Factory Görlitzer Park 5 of 14 EUR 1,320until 21 NovEUR 1,470

Dates shown for the next few months. If nothing fits, tell us where and when — cohorts are added on demand, and private delivery can be scheduled any week.

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