Generic System for Safe Rootfs/Kernel Upgrades without Single-Point of Failure
summary
Legacy ARM5 devices with 1 GB RAM and 64 MB flash (some constrained to 256 MB) get a minimal kexec/initramfs pipeline that streams rootfs over HTTPS, verifies with GPG-verified streaming over HTTPS, and flashes on the fly so no single write can brick the device. Kernel selection uses drop-in bootloader-spec files; rescue boots first and can fetch a default image. Implementation is shell scripts + busybox, wrapped in unit-tested shell pipeline mocks, works on low-RAM targets and supports safe retries and rollback.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:42First solution
- 3:01Second solution
- 6:10What is danger
- 7:37What we present
- 11:04Refresh request
- 14:10Boot order
- 16:40Upgrade method
- 17:45Upgrade process
- 19:28Colonel upgrades
- 20:57Questions
- 27:13Unit Tests
- 32:27Resources
- 32:57Next Steps
- 38:47Yocto
- 39:52Unit Test
- 47:57Key Rotation
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