TechnicalQualifying Linux for ISO 26262: Pinning the Open-Source Element
You cannot qualify Linux. You can qualify one build of it. ISO 26262 allocates requirements to elements, and an element has to hold still. A mainline kernel does the opposite. Open source gives you more visibility than any commercial supplier will. What it does not give you is traceability from a safety requirement to the test that shows it is met. So the first work product is not a gap analysis. It is a definition: exact source revision, vendor patches, reviewed configuration, toolchain, build recipe. Hand those to an engineer who was not in the room. If they cannot arrive at your binary, or explain every difference, you do not have an element. New article on the prerequisites, and why no qualification route can be chosen before the element exists.