Systems & Embedded Linux Engineer — Barcelona · remote-friendly
Albert Casals.
I build things that boot: operating systems, build systems, and the clouds that run them.
For more than 25 years I have designed and shipped Linux distributions, cross-compilation toolchains and 24/7 CI/CD pipelines — from a first homegrown distro in 2012 to leading OS design at Kano Computing, and today operating Kubernetes infrastructure across three public clouds. I take systems from an empty repository to a product people rely on.
25+years shipping software
9Linux distributions built & released
24/7CI/CD pipeline designed & led
3public clouds operated (K8s, IaC)
01.
About
I am a systems engineer specialised in embedded Linux and build infrastructure. Since 2012 my work has centred on one question: how small can a complete, useful operating system be — and how much engineering can be automated around it? The answer became the pipaOS distribution family, later generalised into the image-engineering toolkit xsysroot, and eventually adopted into production at Kano Computing, where I led OS design for a computer used by thousands of children.
The through-line of my career is automation of the entire path from source to shipped image: QEMU-emulated cross-builds, Debian packaging, self-hosted repositories, and continuous pipelines that ran unattended around the clock. The same discipline now powers my infrastructure work — Kubernetes clusters and infrastructure-as-code with Terraform and Ansible, deployed across AWS, Azure and IBM Cloud.
I am a committed open-source citizen: upstream contributions to SDL2, packages accepted into Arch Linux, and community initiatives — including an offline-Wikipedia project developed with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Automation first
If a build runs twice by hand, it becomes a pipeline. Every distribution on this site was produced by unattended, repeatable builds.
Systems thinking
Kernel, toolchain, packaging, CI/CD and cloud are one continuum. I work across the whole stack, not at a single layer of it.
Ship, then refine
Nine releases with zero drama beats one perfect plan. Working software, delivered continuously, is the deliverable.
02.
Experience
OS Design Lead @ Kano Computing
2015 — 2018Educational computers · London-based, work delivered from Barcelona
- Led OS design for KanoOS, the Linux-based operating system of Kano's build-it-yourself computer kits shipped to families and classrooms worldwide.
- Designed and operated the production build system: 24/7 CI/CD, automated OS image builds, Debian package pipeline and self-hosted APT repositories.
- Prior community work — the PiCute QT5 distribution — was evaluated and adopted into KanoOS: the path that led to joining the company.
LinuxDebian packagingCI/CDPythonBashARM
Embedded Linux & Distribution Engineering @ Independent
2012 — presentCreator and maintainer of the pipaOS distribution family
- Built pipaOS, a minimal Raspbian-based distribution shipped weekly via fully automated builds for years — the base for every distribution that followed.
- Created KivyPie (the official Kivy distribution of its era, nine releases), PiCute (QT5), PiLove (Löve2D), RaspiMirror (MagicMirror with 100+ community modules) and KanoUbuntu.
- Authored xsysroot, the image-engineering toolkit behind all of the above (NBD + qcow2 snapshots + QEMU chroot); later packaged for Arch Linux.
- Today: Kubernetes clusters, Terraform and Ansible across AWS, Azure and IBM Cloud — the same automation discipline applied to cloud infrastructure.
Embedded LinuxCross-compilationQEMUKubernetesTerraformAnsible
Systems Engineering & QA Automation @ Earlier career
through 2012Two decades across product companies
- Systems engineering, test automation (SDET) and infrastructure work — the foundation under everything above. Details and references available on request.
QA / SDETAutomationInfrastructure
03.
Selected projects
▚Minimal, fast Raspbian-based distribution with weekly fully-automated releases over five years — the seed of the whole family and, eventually, of Kano's OS production line.
⚙Toolkit to mount, modify, snapshot and repack whole OS images from any x86 host: NBD, qcow2 snapshots and QEMU chroot in one tool. The engine behind every distribution here — and packaged for Arch Linux.
▤As OS Design Lead: the desktop OS and its 24/7 build pipeline behind a kids' computer sold worldwide — automated image builds, Debian packaging, self-hosted repositories.
◈The official Kivy distribution of its era: Python touch applications at native GPU speed, nine releases, download-and-boot.
☀Solar-powered single-board servers carrying the entire Wikipedia offline to places without infrastructure — developed with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation.
▣MagicMirror smart-mirror distribution with weekly unattended builds (rc=0 in ~24 minutes) and 100+ community modules bundled — a small forecast of image CI/CD everywhere.
More from the archive: PiCute (QT5, fed into KanoOS) · PiLove (Löve2D) · KanoUbuntu · SDL2 upstream fix · RPI Poweroff · run-kernel · PiHeat · NAT Terraform · RPI Tiny
04.
Skills
Languages
- Python
- C / C++
- Bash
- Lua
- QT5 / QML
Systems
- Embedded Linux
- Linux kernel
- Cross-compilation
- Debian packaging
- QEMU / device tree
Infrastructure
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- Ansible
- CI/CD · QA/SDET
Cloud
- AWS
- Azure
- IBM Cloud
- Git platforms & runners
- Open-source workflow