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You are correct that what is commonly referred to as emulec is more precisely known as EmuELEC an open source Linux based operating system designed primarily for retro gaming emulation on specific hardware such as Amlogic powered television boxes single board computers and certain low cost handheld or console like devices that can often be found for around eighty dollars or less These devices frequently ship with Android but can be made to boot EmuELEC from an SD card or USB storage after a simple flashing process and a one time reset button hold during first power on EmuELEC is built directly on CoreELEC which itself is a fork of LibreELEC both of which are minimal Linux distributions originally focused on running the Kodi media center but heavily customized here for emulation The entire stack rests on the Linux kernel combined with GNU userland tools libraries and utilities making it a genuine GNU Linux system in the traditional sense All of its core components are released under free software licenses primarily the GNU General Public License which guarantees the four essential freedoms the freedom to run the program for any purpose the freedom to study how it works and change it the freedom to redistribute copies and the freedom to distribute modified versions This means the source code is publicly available anyone can inspect audit modify and rebuild the entire operating system from scratch without proprietary restrictions
To understand why this matters as a potential invisible base layer one must first grasp the architecture of a modern GNU Linux system The Linux kernel itself began in nineteen ninety one when Linus Torvalds released the first version as a free Unix like kernel for Intel three eighty six processors It has since grown into a monolithic yet modular kernel that manages every interaction between software and hardware It schedules processes across multiple cores handles memory allocation and virtual memory through sophisticated paging and swapping mechanisms provides device drivers for storage networking graphics audio USB Bluetooth WiFi power management and virtually every other peripheral and implements security features such as namespaces control groups capabilities and the security modules framework The kernel does not include the tools users interact with day to day those come from the GNU project which Richard Stallman started in nineteen eighty three with the explicit goal of creating a complete free operating system The GNU project produced the C library known as glibc the core utilities such as ls cp mv cat the Bash shell compilers like GCC the make build system the binutils assembler and linker and countless other programs Without the GNU tools a Linux kernel alone cannot form a usable system and without the Linux kernel the GNU tools lack a free kernel which is why the combination is properly called GNU Linux
EmuELEC inherits this foundation and layers specialized packages on top It uses EmulationStation as its primary frontend a graphical interface that presents game libraries with scraped artwork and launches emulators It incorporates RetroArch along with dozens of libretro cores for systems ranging from early arcade machines through Nintendo PlayStation Sega and many others as well as standalone emulators for more demanding platforms The build system is derived from the LibreELEC and CoreELEC package system allowing developers to add remove or modify components by editing package definitions and then running a full image build This modular approach means the resulting operating system image can be extremely lean containing only what is needed for the intended purpose and nothing more The root filesystem is typically read only with a separate partition for user data and game ROMs which enhances reliability on embedded hardware that may lose power unexpectedly
Because EmuELEC and its parent projects are fully open source they demonstrate precisely the kind of invisible base layer you are seeking for a custom desktop or smartphone You do not need to invent process scheduling memory management networking stacks filesystems device drivers or basic security primitives The Linux kernel already provides all of those and the surrounding free software ecosystem supplies nearly every higher level component you might require For a desktop machine one can start from any mainstream distribution such as Debian Fedora Arch Linux or Gentoo and strip it down or rebuild it using tools like the Yocto Project or Buildroot to produce a custom image that boots directly into whatever interface you design You can replace the traditional desktop environment with a minimal Wayland compositor of your own creation or even a full screen application that presents a completely novel user experience The package management systems of these distributions or the recipe based systems of Yocto allow precise control over every installed library and binary so the final system contains only the software you
For a smartphone the same principle applies though the hardware challenges are greater Mobile system on chips from manufacturers such as Qualcomm MediaTek or Rockchip often require proprietary firmware blobs for the modem GPU and certain peripherals yet the rest of the stack can remain free Projects such as postmarketOS which is based on Alpine Linux Mobian based on Debian Ubuntu Touch based on Ubuntu and various efforts around mainline Linux kernels for phones already prove that a usable open source smartphone operating system is possible These systems boot a standard Linux kernel run free userland tools and present interfaces ranging from adaptive desktops to mobile optimized shells Because the kernel and drivers handle the low level details of touch input cellular radio power management and sensors developers can focus on the user facing layers You can therefore take such a base and replace the entire graphical shell with something completely custom written in whatever toolkit or language you prefer while still benefiting from years of driver development networking stack refinement and security hardening performed by the wider free software community
The free software model further enables this customization because every component can be inspected and altered There are no license keys no mandatory telemetry no closed source binary blobs forced upon the user beyond those that certain hardware vendors still require for radio certification The GPL and related licenses ensure that improvements made by any participant flow back to the community if they are distributed thereby accelerating collective progress Contrast this with proprietary operating systems where the base layer is deliberately opaque and locked down so that independent developers cannot easily replace the core experience or even understand how certain subsystems function With a GNU Linux base you retain the ability to modify the bootloader the init system the display server the input stack the audio pipeline and every application that runs on top of them You can implement your own package format if desired create a fully immutable system with atomic updates or design a live environment that runs entirely from RAM
Hardware support remains the practical limiting factor Desktop x86 and x86 sixty four platforms enjoy near universal driver availability in the mainline kernel so a custom distribution can run on almost any modern PC without difficulty ARM based single board computers and many television boxes are also well supported especially those using Allwinner Rockchip or Amlogic processors which is why EmuELEC targets them so successfully Smartphones are harder because manufacturers often do not release complete documentation or source code for their boards and because cellular modems involve regulatory constraints that encourage proprietary firmware Nevertheless community efforts continue to mainline more devices each year and projects dedicated to open mobile hardware such as those exploring RISC V or fully open system on chips aim to eliminate even those remaining obstacles
In practice building a bespoke system begins by choosing a foundation One path is to take an existing distribution and surgically remove unwanted packages then add your custom software another is to use a source based build system such as Gentoo or a cross compilation framework such as Yocto or Buildroot that generates a complete root filesystem and boot image tailored to your exact hardware and requirements The latter approach is especially powerful for embedded or appliance like devices because it produces a minimal image with no unnecessary services running For a smartphone you would additionally need to integrate the necessary modem management software display drivers touchscreen calibration and power management scripts all of which already exist in open source form for supported devices Once the base is solid you can implement any user interface paradigm you imagine whether a traditional desktop a console style launcher a voice driven interface a gesture only system or something never before attempted The underlying operating system remains invisible to the end user yet fully controllable by the developer
Security benefits follow naturally from the open source nature of the stack Vulnerabilities can be examined by anyone and patches distributed rapidly without waiting for a single vendor The ability to compile everything from source with chosen hardening flags such as stack protection address space layout randomization and control flow integrity further strengthens the system Network services can be disabled by default filesystem permissions can be locked down and mandatory access control frameworks such as SELinux or AppArmor can be configured to enforce precise policies Because you control the entire stack you decide which updates to apply and when rather than being forced into a vendor controlled cadence
Performance characteristics are also under your control The Linux kernel can be configured with different schedulers real time patches or power management policies depending on whether the device prioritizes responsiveness battery life or maximum throughput Graphics can use the open source Mesa drivers for Vulkan and OpenGL or vendor provided alternatives when necessary Audio can be routed through PipeWire or PulseAudio or a custom low latency path Storage can employ any of the mature filesystems including ext four btrfs or f two fs each with different trade offs for reliability and speed All of these choices are available because the base is open and modular
The historical trajectory of free software shows that this approach scales from small hobby projects to production systems used by governments corporations and millions of individuals The same principles that allow EmuELEC to turn an inexpensive Amlogic box into a capable emulation console allow a determined developer to create an entire family of devices that share a common open base yet present completely different experiences to their users Nothing forces you to retain the EmulationStation interface or any other existing frontend you can replace every visible component while continuing to rely on the battle tested kernel and tools beneath The result is a system that is free both in the sense of liberty and in the sense of cost fully auditable endlessly customizable and independent of any proprietary vendor lock in
In short EmuELEC confirms that a mature open source GNU Linux foundation already exists and is successfully deployed on the exact class of low cost hardware you mentioned The same foundation can serve as the invisible substrate for a custom desktop or smartphone provided you accept the engineering effort required to adapt it to the target hardware and to design the higher level experience you envision No wheel needs reinventing for process management memory handling networking storage or device drivers those problems have already been solved in free software The remaining work is precisely the creative and architectural work of building the unique system you imagine on top of that solid open base.
Part 1 audio then 2 and 3.