Introduction
Preempt_RT is a patch for the Linux kernel maintained by Ingo Molnar. It modifies the kernel so that it becomes (almost) completely preemptive. The classic kernel spinlocks are replaced by mutexes which support priority inheritance. In addition, the handling of all interrupts is outsourced to separate kernel threads. The presentation Linux und Echtzeit (German) by Jan Altenberg offers a very good and short summary about Preemt-RT and Xenomai.
Quicklinks
Getting started
Choose a machine. See Tested devices for reference
Install a Linux distribution. You can use UNetbootin to create an bootable Live USB drive.
To test the best possible RT performance Build a Preempt-RT Kernel with minimal configuration
If you are not satisfied with the performance of your system, tune your system.
Links
https://www.toradex.com/community/questions/486/how-to-build-real-time-kernel-for-apalis-imx6.html