Hi, random, _crazy_ idea.
I've found two [1] [2] interesting artifacts from WebOS. We could consider using them as adb replacements for ubuntu. This could allow us to control master/test images with minimal footprint and without installing python (to do just that, we may still need python for other workloads).
It seems to be able to connect over plain USB as well as over TCP/IP.
[1] https://github.com/openwebos/novacomd [2] https://github.com/openwebos/novacom
Best regards ZK