Efforts to use Debian on an ancient ARM netbook, including making Debian the firmware
The fastest and most practical way to build software for armel is to cross-compile on an x86_64 machine even for a Linux 2.6-series kernel
Around 2011 Android devices based on the WonderMedia 8xxx-series SoC (ARM v5) were being sold as netbooks. This article describes how to get Devuan Jessie running from SD card on one such: a Craig CLP281 Netbook.
This article describes using Devuan Jessie as the firmware on an originally Android-based Craig CLP281 netbook.