Systemtest takes too much time!

[Inquisitor-201]

• System tests take excessively long (issue occurs in both local testing and CI)

  • Root causes:

    • Repositories/images (e.g., rootfs-img, Linux kernel, QEMU) need to be pulled from scratch every time.
    • Linux kernel and QEMU require manual building (only a kernel header and a QEMU executable are actually needed).

  • Optimization plans:

    • Promote containerization of tests, with a dedicated precompiled Docker image for testing.
    • Consider using GitHub CI cache.

  • Expected improvement:

    • Significant reduction in test duration (previously ~15 minutes).
    • Initial build: ~5 minutes.
    • Subsequent runs (no repeated builds needed): ~3 minutes.