I'm tasked with maintaining some software for an old i486 device running Linux 2.6.18.
I managed to compile the source code on an up to date Linux system but when I run it on the device it crashes. Running strace shows that the futex operation FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE is not implemented. Makes sense since it was added in Linux 2.6.22.
What would be the reasonable way of maintaining this software? Sure I can find an old image of a Linux distro but that would lock me into an environment that has no support and hard to find the packages I need.
I ended up installing Debian 4.0 in a VM. I edit the code on the host OS and ssh into the Debian 4.0 VM to compile.