Accelerate your Production-Grade Journey with Linaro Reference Images
See the Quick Start Guide.
Linaro Reference Images are built on our production-grade Linux distribution to fast-track your prototyping on different vendor reference hardware. They offer a seamless upgrade path to a secure, production-ready system tailored to your custom hardware.
Linaro’s production-grade Linux distribution is developed by experts in ARM-based embedded development and offers an extensible foundation for embedded applications across various industries. Linaro also can provide comprehensive support from initial concept to market release.
Whether you’re prototyping, validating hardware, or preparing for deployment, Linaro Reference Images provide a solid and secure starting point.
Supported Reference Hardware
Reference Hardware |
SoC |
Architecture |
Documentation |
|---|---|---|---|
Qualcomm RB3gen2 |
Qualcomm QCS6490 |
ARM64 |
|
QEMU ARM64 |
n/a |
ARM64 |
|
QEMU x86-64 |
n/a |
x86_64 |
|
Raspberry Pi 4 |
Broadcom BCM2711 |
ARM64 |
|
NXP i.MX8MQ EVK |
NXP i.MX8MQ |
ARM64 |
Key Features of Linaro’s Production-Grade Linux distribution
Production-grade designed to meet real-world reliability and long-term support needs.
Secure and minimal footprint preconfigured with security best practices and minimal bloat.
Customisation ready easily extended to meet your platform or product-specific requirements.
Standards compliant to meet Cybersecurity Resilience Act (CRA) compliance.
Open-source licence compliance automated tooling and processes to ensure images stay compliant with key open-source licences.
Vulnerability tracking integrated CVE monitoring and reporting to help you stay ahead of known security issues and maintain a secure software stack over time.
Optional Features for Production-Ready Deployment
Linaro’s Reference images are ideal for evaluation and prototyping on vendor development boards, but production deployments often require tighter security, update mechanisms and regulatory compliance. These optional features are designed to help bridge the gap between prototype and production-grade systems.
Linaro can support your transition from reference hardware to custom platforms by providing expertise in board bring-up, secure boot integration, OTA update support, kernel customisation and long-term maintenance to ensure your embedded Linux system is hardened, reliable and production-ready.
Reach out to sales@linaro.org to discuss your customisation requirements in more detail.
Hardware-specific Flashing/Testing Instructions
Platform-specific flashing guides are provided for each supported board in the table above. Please see the “More Information” link for the specific hardware.
Build Instructions
Platform-specific build instructions are provided for each supported board in the table above. Please see the “More Information” link for the specific hardware.
Custom Solutions
Looking for a tailored embedded Linux platform for your hardware or product?
We help customers customise, optimise, and deploy embedded Linux solutions based on Linaro Reference Images. Whether you need board bring-up, kernel integration, long-term support, or a hardened secure system — we can help.
Reach out to sales@linaro.org to discuss your use-case or request support for your hardware.