diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index c28fa40ae2..f5aa3a60b7 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -35,3 +35,11 @@
 [submodule "meta-security"]
 	path = meta-security
 	url = https://git.yoctoproject.org/git/meta-security
+[submodule "meta-flatpak"]
+	path = meta-flatpak
+	url = https://github.com/klihub/meta-flatpak
+	branch = intel-iot-refkit/flatpak
+        ignore = untracked
+[submodule "meta-gplv2"]
+	path = meta-gplv2
+	url = https://git.yoctoproject.org/git/meta-gplv2
diff --git a/docker/build-project.sh b/docker/build-project.sh
index f00fd31bd0..66370a78b1 100755
--- a/docker/build-project.sh
+++ b/docker/build-project.sh
@@ -82,6 +82,8 @@ if [ -z "$BUILD_TARGET" ]; then
     (REFKIT_CI_SDK_TARGETS) _sufx=":do_populate_sdk" ;;
     (REFKIT_CI_ESDK_TARGETS) _sufx=":do_populate_sdk_ext" ;;
     (REFKIT_CI_TEST_EXPORT_TARGETS) _sufx=":do_test_iot_export" ;;
+    (REFKIT_CI_FLATPAK_RUNTIME_TARGETS) _sufx="-flatpak-runtime:do_test_iot_export" ;;
+    (REFKIT_CI_FLATPAK_SDK_TARGETS) _sufx="-flatpak-sdk" ;;
     (*) continue;;
     esac
     for img in `grep ${ci_var} ${WORKSPACE}/refkit_ci_vars | perl -pe 's/.+="(.*)"/\1/g; s/[^ a-zA-Z0-9_-]//g'`; do
diff --git a/meta-flatpak b/meta-flatpak
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000..ccb6b12053
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-flatpak
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit ccb6b12053af692fcf005e4a52d7c228ee190406
diff --git a/meta-gplv2 b/meta-gplv2
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000..de001bd6bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-gplv2
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit de001bd6bfcec943d274b649c62be6848cc9c3e6
diff --git a/meta-refkit/classes/refkit-image.bbclass b/meta-refkit/classes/refkit-image.bbclass
index 8c9e308b07..6b71a395c0 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/classes/refkit-image.bbclass
+++ b/meta-refkit/classes/refkit-image.bbclass
@@ -192,6 +192,9 @@ FEATURE_PACKAGES_tools-debug_append = " valgrind"
 FEATURE_PACKAGES_computervision = "packagegroup-computervision"
 FEATURE_PACKAGES_computervision-test = "packagegroup-computervision-test"
 
+inherit ${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'flatpak', \
+                             'flatpak-image', '', d)}
+
 IMAGE_LINGUAS = " "
 
 LICENSE = "MIT"
@@ -436,7 +439,11 @@ ROOTFS_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND += "refkit_image_patch_os_release; "
 # Instead we pre-configure some defaults in the image and can remove
 # the useless service.
 refkit_image_disable_firstboot () {
-    for i in /etc/systemd /lib/systemd /usr/lib/systemd /bin /usr/bin; do
+    SEARCH_DIRS='/etc/systemd /usr/lib/systemd /usr/bin'
+    if [ "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '1', '0', d)}" = "0" ]; then
+        SEARCH_DIRS=$SEARCH_DIRS' /lib/systemd /bin'
+    fi
+    for i in ${SEARCH_DIRS}; do
         d="${IMAGE_ROOTFS}$i"
         if [ -d "$d" ] && [ ! -h "$d" ]; then
             for e in $(find "$d" -name systemd-firstboot.service -o -name systemd-firstboot.service.d -o -name systemd-firstboot); do
@@ -494,3 +501,43 @@ EOF
     fi
 }
 ROOTFS_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND += "refkit_image_system_serialgetty; "
+
+#  Prepare the symlinks required for merged /usr at the time of rootfs creation.
+
+# The links created in rootfs are:
+#/bin --> /usr/sbin
+#/sbin --> /usr/sbin
+#/lib --> /usr/lib
+#/lib64 --> /usr/lib64
+
+# We cannot make these symlinks as part of 'base-files' or some other package.
+# Because at rootfs creation, installation of the package(say kernel) that
+# depends on these root folders/links fails, if package manager installs this
+# package prior to base-files.
+
+# These symbolic links in top level folder should present as long as
+#   - kerenl tools use /lib/{module,firmware}
+#   - shell scripts uses
+#upstream commit waiting for review: 
+# http://lists.openembedded.org/pipermail/openembedded-core/2017-February/133151.html
+create_merged_usr_symlinks() {
+    install -m 0755 -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${base_bindir}
+    install -m 0755 -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${base_sbindir}
+    install -m 0755 -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${base_libdir}
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${base_bindir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/bin
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${base_sbindir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/sbin
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${base_libdir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${baselib}
+
+    if [ "${nonarch_base_libdir}" != "${base_libdir}" ]; then
+       install -m 0755 -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${nonarch_base_libdir}
+       lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${nonarch_base_libdir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/lib
+    fi
+
+    # create base links for multilibs
+    multi_libdirs="${@d.getVar('MULTILIB_VARIANTS')}"
+    for d in $multi_libdirs; do
+        install -m 0755 -d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${exec_prefix}/$d
+        lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${exec_prefix}/$d ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/$d
+    done
+}
+ROOTFS_PREPROCESS_COMMAND += "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', 'create_merged_usr_symlinks; ', '',d)}"
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/bblayers.conf.sample b/meta-refkit/conf/bblayers.conf.sample
index 78dbbceb32..cb49d1139d 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/conf/bblayers.conf.sample
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/bblayers.conf.sample
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ REFKIT_LAYERS = " \
   ##OEROOT##/../meta-security-isafw \
   ##OEROOT##/../meta-intel-realsense \
   ##OEROOT##/../meta-clang \
+  ##OEROOT##/../meta-flatpak \
+  ##OEROOT##/../meta-gplv2 \
   "
 
 # REFKIT_LAYERS += "##OEROOT##/../meta-openembedded/meta-efl"
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/conf-notes.txt b/meta-refkit/conf/conf-notes.txt
index 4b8b31140d..20199f89df 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/conf/conf-notes.txt
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/conf-notes.txt
@@ -9,3 +9,11 @@ Common targets are:
     refkit-image-gateway        (when building an image with tools and
                                  configuration for acting as an IoT sensor 
                                  gateway)
+
+If you enable flatpak applications (see the comments in local.conf on how to
+do this), you can build two additional image variants:
+    <image>-flatpak-runtime     flatpak-enabled version of <image>
+    <image>-flatpak-sdk         flatpak SDK runtime (OSTree repo) for the above
+
+You can use a -flatpak-sdk image variant on your (flatpak-enabled) host
+to build flatpaks for the -flatpak-runtime image variant.
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/refkit-ci.inc b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/refkit-ci.inc
index ae19c4eea0..8cada832d7 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/refkit-ci.inc
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/refkit-ci.inc
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ require conf/distro/include/refkit-development.inc
 # If we can access /dev/kvm, then let's use it.
 QEMU_USE_KVM = "${@ 'intel-corei7-64 intel-core2-32 qemux86 qemux86-64' if os.access('/dev/kvm', os.R_OK|os.W_OK) else '' }"
 
+# Enable flatpak application support.
+require conf/distro/include/flatpak-applications.inc
+
 REFKIT_VM_IMAGE_TYPES = "wic.xz wic.zip wic.bmap wic.xz.sha256sum"
 
 #
@@ -72,6 +75,17 @@ REFKIT_CI_SDK_TARGETS=""
 # Uses the fully-populated image to ensure that the eSDK is as complete
 # as possible.
 REFKIT_CI_ESDK_TARGETS=""
+# We'll automatically enable flatpak runtime/SDK support for the
+# following targets if flatpak support is enabled (by commenting out
+# the corresponding require above.
+REFKIT_CI_FLATPAK_RUNTIME_TARGETS = " \
+  ${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'flatpak', \
+     'refkit-image-minimal', '', d)} \
+"
+REFKIT_CI_FLATPAK_SDK_TARGETS = " \
+  ${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'flatpak', \
+     'refkit-image-minimal', '', d)} \
+"
 # Following targets would be executed with do_test_iot_export task
 REFKIT_CI_TEST_EXPORT_TARGETS="refkit-image-common refkit-image-computervision refkit-image-gateway"
 # Execute automatic tests for following images with corresponding
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/usrmerge.inc b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/usrmerge.inc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ea85f2321
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/include/usrmerge.inc
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+
+#enable merged /usr
+REFKIT_DEFAULT_DISTRO_FEATURES += "usrmerge"
+
+export base_bindir = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${exec_prefix}/bin', '${base_prefix}/bin', d)}"
+export base_sbindir = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${exec_prefix}/sbin', '${base_prefix}/sbin', d)}"
+export base_libdir = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${exec_prefix}/${baselib}', '${base_prefix}/${baselib}', d)}"
+export nonarch_base_libdir = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${exec_prefix}/lib', '${base_prefix}/lib', d)}"
+
+#nativesdk
+base_bindir_nativesdk = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${bindir_nativesdk}', '/bin', d)}"
+base_sbindir_nativesdk = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${sbindir_nativesdk}', '/sbin', d)}"
+base_libdir_nativesdk = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${libdir_nativesdk}', '/lib', d)}"
+
+DISTRO_FEATURES_remove = " gobject-introspection-data"
+
+
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/distro/refkit.conf b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/refkit.conf
index 3fa00d36e1..93d1ed715a 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/conf/distro/refkit.conf
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/distro/refkit.conf
@@ -356,3 +356,5 @@ INHERIT += "uninative"
 # necessary patch "net-tools: enable native and nativesdk variant"
 # is in OE-core): swtpm_setup.sh needs netstat command.
 DEPENDS_append_pn-swtpm-wrappers-native = " net-tools-native"
+
+require conf/distro/include/usrmerge.inc
diff --git a/meta-refkit/conf/local.conf.sample b/meta-refkit/conf/local.conf.sample
index 85c69550a6..8753e3c5ea 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/conf/local.conf.sample
+++ b/meta-refkit/conf/local.conf.sample
@@ -283,6 +283,21 @@ PACKAGE_DEBUG_SPLIT_STYLE = "debug-without-src"
 #
 #require conf/distro/include/refkit-production.inc
 
+# If you'd like to enable support for flatpak applications and building 
+# flatpak SDK runtime repositories, which you can use on your flatpak-
+# enabled host to build flatpak applications for a flatpak-enabled version
+# of an image, enabled the require line below. You can build a flatpak-
+# enabled version of an image by appending '-flatpak-runtime' to the image
+# name. Simiarly you can build a flatpak SDK runtime for such an image
+# by appending '-flatpak-sdk' to the image name.
+#
+# For instance, to build a flatpak-enabled version of the minimal image and
+# a flatpak SDK runtime for it, use
+#
+#   bitbake refkit-image-minimal-flatpak-runtime refkit-image-minimal-flatpak-sdk
+#
+#require conf/distro/include/flatpak-applications.inc
+
 # systemd-bootchart is a useful tool to analyze and optimize a system
 # boot time. The tool is available in IoT Reference OS Kit and needs to be activated
 # by a kernel command-line parameter which requires to build a new
diff --git a/meta-refkit/recipes-core/busybox/busybox_%.bbappend b/meta-refkit/recipes-core/busybox/busybox_%.bbappend
index 9089d539f7..2234b2a0c1 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/recipes-core/busybox/busybox_%.bbappend
+++ b/meta-refkit/recipes-core/busybox/busybox_%.bbappend
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@ RRECOMMENDS_${PN}_remove = "${PN}-syslog"
 SRC_URI_append = "\
     file://refkit.cfg \
 "
+
+RPROVIDES_${PN} += "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '/bin/sh', '', d)}"
diff --git a/meta-refkit/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_%.bbappend b/meta-refkit/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_%.bbappend
index 160208686f..4cbc5cd667 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_%.bbappend
+++ b/meta-refkit/recipes-core/systemd/systemd_%.bbappend
@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@
 # systemd-getty-generator (instead of the Yocto default
 # systemd-serialgetty that creates everything in do_install).
 PACKAGECONFIG_append = "serial-getty-generator"
+
+#usrmege supported changes
+EXTRA_OECONF_append = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', ' --disable-split-usr', ' --enable-split-usr', d)}"
+rootprefix = "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '${exec_prefix}', '${base_prefix}', d)}"
diff --git a/meta-refkit/recipes-extended/bash_%.bbappend b/meta-refkit/recipes-extended/bash_%.bbappend
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..29b2b8f4c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-refkit/recipes-extended/bash_%.bbappend
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+RPROVIDES_${PN} += "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', '/bin/sh /bin/bash', '', d)}"
diff --git a/meta-refkit/recipes-image/images/refkit-initramfs.bb b/meta-refkit/recipes-image/images/refkit-initramfs.bb
index 0a269987b6..302f2591e7 100644
--- a/meta-refkit/recipes-image/images/refkit-initramfs.bb
+++ b/meta-refkit/recipes-image/images/refkit-initramfs.bb
@@ -67,3 +67,12 @@ IMA_EVM_ROOTFS_SIGNED = "-maxdepth 0 -false"
 IMA_EVM_ROOTFS_HASHED = "-maxdepth 0 -false"
 IMA_EVM_ROOTFS_CLASS = "${@bb.utils.contains('IMAGE_FEATURES', 'ima', 'ima-evm-rootfs', '',d)}"
 inherit ${IMA_EVM_ROOTFS_CLASS}
+
+create_merged_usr_links() {
+    mkdir -p ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${libdir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${bindir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sbindir}
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${libdir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/${baselib}
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${bindir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/bin
+    lnr ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}${sbindir} ${IMAGE_ROOTFS}/sbin
+}
+ROOTFS_PREPROCESS_COMMAND += "${@bb.utils.contains('DISTRO_FEATURES', 'usrmerge', 'create_merged_usr_links;', '', d)}"
+