Blog Archives

Oct 09

Open Source Summit Europe 2024 Recap

By spema Blog, Safety-Critical Software Summit

Last month, the ELISA Project members had the exciting opportunity to attend and speak at both the Open Source Summit Europe and the Linux Plumbers Convention. During these events, we engaged with fellow speakers by asking a series of thought-provoking questions to uncover their insights and experiences within the open source community. Here’s what we found out: from the challenges they faced in their projects to the unique ways they foster collaboration and innovation, the responses painted a vibrant picture of the passion and dedication driving our community forward.

ELISA Project member Alessandro Carminati from Red Hat presented his session, “Addressing Duplicated Symbol Names in kallsyms: Introducing kas_alias for Symbol Differentiation,” at the Linux Plumbers Convention for the first time and also attended the Open Source Summit Europe. He shared, “Both conferences were memorable to me as they were my first experiences at such events.” These events provided valuable opportunities for individuals in the open source community to connect and engage with one another. Alessandro noted, “The networking at Plumbers was extraordinary. Suddenly, all the names I had been seeing on mailing lists became real people. While this might be expected for most, it really amazed me.”

To learn more about Alessandro Carminati and the ELISA Project, we invite you to explore our ongoing initiatives and community engagements. The insights gained from the Open Source Summit Europe and the Linux Plumbers Convention will undoubtedly shape our future collaborations and projects. As we continue to foster connections and share knowledge within the open source community, we remain committed to empowering individuals and driving innovation together. Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to engage with us as we build a stronger, more inclusive ecosystem for everyone involved.

Incase you missed other ELISA Project sessions from OSS Europe, you can watch all of the session here:

Application of the Upcoming SPDX Safety Profile – Nicole Pappler, AlektoMetis.com
Traceability and Automation Examples With Basil an Open Source Software for Quality Management – Luigi Pellecchia & Gabriele Paoloni, Red Hat
Enhancing Kernel Functional Safety Analysis with KS-nav – Alessandro Carminati & Gabriele Paoloni, Red Hat
Cross Industry Demands and Collaboration Opportunities in Open Source for Safety Critical Systems – Philipp Ahmann, Robert Bosch GmbH & Olivier Charrier, Wind River
Bridging the Gap: Incorporate OpenSource In Product Managers Toolbox – Philipp Ahmann, Robert Bosch

Stay tuned by subscribing to the ELISA Project newsletter or connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn or mailing lists to talk with community and TSC members.

Sep 25

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Measuring Code Coverage of the Linux Kernel in Accordance with RTCA DO-178C Considerations

By ELISA Blog, Safety-Critical Software Summit

The Embedded Open Source Summit (EOSS) serves as a pivotal event for the open source embedded projects and developer communities. This umbrella event brings together various micro conferences, including the Embedded Linux Conference, Zephyr Developer Summit, and Safety-Critical Software Summit, offering a comprehensive platform for collaboration, discussions, and education. If you missed the Safety-Critical Software Summit, you can watch the videos on the ELISA Project Youtube Channel here.

This session titled, “Measuring Code Coverage of the Linux Kernel in Accordance with RTCA DO-178C Considerations,” focuses on the code coverage requirements of RTCA DO-178C and how Boeing plans to meet them using the open-source LLVM coverage tools to measure the Linux kernel. Boeing is working to use Linux in numerous safety-critical avionics applications, which involves assuring the software in accordance with DO-178C considerations. Among these considerations are requirements on code coverage, which vary depending on the criticality of the system. These requirements will be discussed, accompanied by code examples to help illustrate what must be measured. Collaborating with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), llvm-cov was selected as the tool to collect coverage data. The speaker, Andrew Oppelt, is a Real-Time Software Engineer at The Boeing Company, focusing on real-time and safety-critical applications.

However, as it stands today, llvm-cov cannot generate the data needed to meet DO-178C requirements. Boeing is working with UIUC and the open-source community to enhance llvm-cov to meet its certification needs. Currently, llvm-cov supports statement and decision coverage, with an open merge request for modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC). In addition to these existing features, object code coverage and design coupling and control coupling (DCCC) are necessary to fulfill DO-178C objectives.

Find about more about the Linux Kernel here.

Sep 11

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Meet the New KernelCI

By spema Blog, Seminar Series

KernelCI started 10 years ago as a small project to test the kernel on Arm devices. The project grew over the years and today a new architecture is in place. In this video, Don Zickus, Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat and Gustavo Padovan, Kernel Lead at Collabora will present you the new KernelCI. The KernelCI community put a lot of effort recently to design and implement its new testing architecture with a focus on facilitating the kernel community and industry engagement as much as possible.

Our new KernelCI Architecture (1) allows different services (such as patchwork, b4, etc), multiple CI services, and users to send request to test patches; (2) supports all sorts of testing platforms and hardware labs, not just embedded hardware; (3) focus on quality of test run, rather than quantity; (4) brings common database for all CI systems with automatic post-processing of regressions.

Speakers: Gustavo Padovan, Kernel Lead at Collabora and Don Zickus, Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat

Don and Gustavol offer the ELISA community an overview of KernelCI and look for potential areas of collaboration between both projects. Watch the video:

The ELISA Seminar Series focuses on hot topics related to ELISA’s mission to define and maintain a common set of elements, processes and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Speakers are members, contributors and thought leaders from the ELISA Project and surrounding communities. Each seminar comprises a 45-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A, and it’s free to attend. You can watch all videos on the ELISA Project Youtube Channel ELISA Seminar Series Playlist here.

If you missed this ELISA Seminar, Don and Gustavo will be presenting about KernelCI at the Linux Plumbers Conference in Vienna, Austria on September 18-20. Learn more about their session in the Linux Kernel Testing Microconference.

Sep 04

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BASIL an Open Source Software for Quality Management

By ELISA Blog, Safety-Critical Software Summit

Among these, the Safety-Critical Software Summit stood out with significant attendance. Held under the EOSS, the summit drew more than 860 participants, with 79% holding technical positions. This high level of engagement underscores the importance of safety-critical software in the embedded systems landscape and the ultimate goal of advancing secure and reliable solutions through open source collaboration.

As part of the Safety-Critical Software Summit, Luigi Pellecchia, Senior Software Quality Engineer & Gabriele Paoloni, Sr SW Principal Engineer from Red Hat presented about “BASIL: The FuSa Spice,” which is an open source tool that facilitates software quality management by supporting traceability and completeness in analysis, including management of requirements and test cases. Developed by Red Hat and introduced to the ELISA Project community in June 2023, it was released as open source on GitHub in October 2023. If you missed this session, you can join them in Vienna on Monday September 16th at 12:15. Luigi and Gabriele will be on sire at OSSummit Europe with an updated version. tune into the updates coming this month for OSSummit Europe. Learn more: https://sched.co/1ejIi

To see all of the videos from the Summit, visit the ELISA Youtube Channel and click on the Safety-Critical Software Summit Playlist.

Aug 26

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The SEooC concept driven into extreme

By ELISA Blog, Seminar Series

For quite a few years, ISO 26262 has supported a component/element-based approach to ISO 26262, SEooC or Safety Element out of Context. This has simplified the argumentation and integration for specific elements into a larger system. However, as we see more and more complex systems being introduced, such as highly automated cars, we foresee that the importance of the SEooC concept will grow. The how-to will be developed at the same time. This topic will be further explored by speaker Håkan Sivencrona, Senior Technical Leader @ SVA Safe Vehicle Automation, Volvo Cars.

The presentation will introduce the SEooC concept, the usage and possible extensions and supporting argumentation for use of for example SW components in a CI/CD framework. And a lot more.

Aug 21

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Cregit: token-level history of Linux

By ELISA Blog, Seminar Series

One of the major disadvantages of git’s blame command is that the minimum unit of change it tracks is the line of text. As past of the ELISA Seminar series, Daniel German, Professor of Computer Science at University of Victoria helps address this issue. They’ve developed Cregit, a set of tools the permits that traceability of each token of the source code of a git repository.

For more ELISA Project updates, subscribe to @ProjectElisa or our LinkedIn page or our Youtube Channel.

Jul 31

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The Limits of Safety Engineering and the Cinderblock Problem

By ELISA Blog, Safety-Critical Software Summit

Embedded Open Source Summit (EOSS) is an umbrella event for open source embedded projects and developer communities to come together under one roof for important collaboration, discussions and education. The event is composed of different micro conferences including Embedded Linux Conference, Zephyr Developer Summit, and Safety-Critical Software Summit.

The Safety-Critical Software Summit took place under the Embedded Open Source Summit, where more than 860 individuals attended in-person at the event with 79% holding technical positions.

At the Safety-Critical Software Summit, Chuck Wolber, Associate Technical Fellow at The Boeing Company, gave a presentation titled, “The Limits of Safety Engineering and the Cinderblock Problem.”

This presentation uses practical examples to teach developers how to think about software in a safety critical context. It identifies the limitations of safety engineering and give developers a conceptual foundation for working within those constraints. At the heart of these limitations is the introduction of the “Cinderblock Problem.” Chuck uses this problem as a proposed shorthand for expressing the limitations of safety engineering in the context of software design and development.

To see all of the videos from the Summit, visit the ELISA Youtube Channel and click on the Safety-Critical Software Summit Playlist.

Jul 24

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Safety Frontier: A Retrospective on ELISA

By ELISA Ambassadors, Blog

This is an abstract of a blog “Safety Frontier: A Retrospective on ELISA” originally published on Codethink by Paul Albertella. ELISA (Enabling Linux In Safety Applications) is an open source project that brings together functional safety practitioners, software engineers, and open source software contributors. The project aims to tackle the substantial challenge of integrating Linux into safety-critical systems, which include applications such as those found in vehicles, medical devices, and even aircraft, traditionally relying on bespoke software developed with rigorous controls.

As technologies in these areas evolve, there’s a growing inclination to utilize general-purpose and open source software. ELISA confronts the complexities of Linux, which consists of nearly 30 million lines of code, to establish methodologies that ensure its safe application. This involves creating safety arguments and conducting detailed safety cases backed by robust engineering and quality management processes.

Paul reflects on the collaborative journey of ELISA, emphasizing its community-driven approach. He discusses the difficulty in using a general-purpose OS like Linux in safety-critical environments, where each application requires specific adaptations and rigorous testing. The blog also touches on the ongoing initiatives within ELISA to outline essential Linux components for safe usage and to identify its limitations and risks.

The most recent ELISA workshop in Lund, Sweden, serves as a testament to the project’s vibrant collaboration and shared expertise, addressing the continuous challenges of integrating advanced software systems safely. Albertella’s narrative captures the essence of ELISA’s mission to not just adapt Linux for safe use but to foster a safety culture that benefits from and contributes to the open source community.

This abstract captures the essence of the themes explored in the original blog, making it an essential read for those involved in software engineering, safety standards, or open source projects interested in the intersection of open source software and functional safety. For more detailed information, you can read the original content on the Codethink blog.

Jul 17

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The ELISA Project – Enabling Open Source in Safety-Critical Applications

By ELISA Blog, Industry Conference, Safety-Critical Software Summit

The Safety-Critical Software Summit took place under the Embedded Open Source Summit, where more than 860 individuals attended in-person at the event with 79% holding technical positions.

At the Safety Summit, Philipp Ahmann, ETAS presented on the ELISA Project, which focuses on enabling open source software in safety-critical applications. The growing need for safety integrity standards in open source projects offers both challenges and opportunities to enhance software quality, particularly in testing, documentation, robustness, and dependability. ELISA aims to be a central hub for safety-critical workloads, collaborating with projects such as Xen, Zephyr, Yocto, and SPDX.

Philipp’s session began with an overview of ELISA’s goals and activities. The focus then shifted to an open discussion on elements, processes, and tools that can enhance trust in open source software for safety, paving the way towards potential certification. The session emphasized the importance of community involvement and collaboration to address the challenges and opportunities in making open source software safety-certifiable.

Key points of the presentation included the focus on various open source projects and their relationship to functional safety. For instance, the Zephyr project integrates safety from the design phase, with premium members having access to comprehensive safety documentation and testing materials. In contrast, Xen prioritizes security and industrial-grade operations, offering rigorous quality processes and strong traceability from initial commit to testing pipelines. Philipp emphasized the importance of community involvement, noting that premium members, like AMD, drive the safety certification efforts for Xen.

The ELISA project distinguishes itself by not directly delivering a “safe Linux,” but by supporting integrators and system creators in making Linux-based systems safety-certifiable. Key members include Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, Wind River, and Elektrobit, among others. ELISA focuses on creating reproducible systems with CI pipelines that cover documentation, testing, and error detection, enabling users to hook into various stages of the process.

Philipp also discussed the complexity of certifying Linux-based systems due to their inherent flexibility and configurability. He highlighted the challenges of aligning Linux with traditional safety-critical operating systems, which are typically small, fixed, and non-configurable. The presentation also covered the broader scope of ELISA’s work, which includes interactions with various standards bodies and the development of reference systems to demonstrate safety applications.

The ELISA project promotes best practices and aims to ensure that its work is accepted by the open source community. This includes contributions to the Linux kernel and related projects, as well as interactions with other initiatives like CIP and SOAFEE. He also mentioned ongoing efforts to develop use cases and practical applications, such as electric vehicle charging stations and medical devices, to better understand and address the safety needs of different industries.

In conclusion, the ELISA Project is committed to enabling the use of open source software in safety-critical applications through collaboration, comprehensive documentation, robust testing, and continuous improvement. The project seeks to engage the broader community in its efforts, recognizing that the collective expertise and contributions of its members are essential to achieving its goals. The presentation underscored the importance of open communication, shared best practices, and a commitment to safety in driving the project forward.

You can find the presentation slides here

To see all of the videos from the Summit, visit the ELISA Youtube Channel and click on the Safety-Critical Software Summit Playlist.

Learn more about the ELISA Project by:

Joining a Working Group
Following us on X at @ProjectElisa
Connecting with our LinkedIn page
Subscribing to our Youtube Channel

Jul 10

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Xen Project’s Progress Toward Safety Certification – Stefano Stabellini, AMD

By ELISA Blog, Industry Conference, Safety-Critical Software Summit

The Safety-Critical Software Summit took place under the Embedded Open Source Summit, where more than 860 individuals attended in-person at the event with 79% holding technical positions.

embedded open source summit 2024 - ELISA Project

At the Safety Critical Software Summit, Stefano Stabellini, AMD provided a comprehensive update on the Xen Project’s advancements toward achieving safety certification. The Xen Project is an open source, static partitioning hypervisor designed for embedded and automotive applications. It ensures strict isolation between domains, making it a prime candidate for the highest levels of safety certification, such as ISO 26262 for automotive and IEC 61508 for industrial applications.

Stefano detailed the collaborative efforts between AMD and the Xen Community, initiated in 2023, to make Xen safety-certifiable across AMD x86 and ARM architectures. Over nine months, the team has integrated 80% of the relevant MISRA C rules into Xen’s coding standards and resolved numerous MISRA C violations. The introduction of MISRA C checkers into the upstream Xen CI loop has been a critical step in maintaining code quality by preventing new violations from entering the codebase.

The talk emphasized the Xen Project’s rigorous approach to safety certification, highlighting the adoption of a flexible and adaptable MISRA C compliance strategy. This approach included deviating certain MISRA rules that were too restrictive or not entirely applicable to Xen’s mature codebase, while still leveraging MISRA’s robust guidelines to improve code safety and quality.

Stefano also discussed the development of software safety requirements, a key component of the certification process. These requirements are structured hierarchically into market requirements, product requirements, and detailed software safety requirements, each linking to specific tests and traceable through tools like OpenPASS Trace.

The presentation emphasized the importance of integrating MISRA C scanning into the continuous integration (CI) process to detect and address violations early. Additionally, it highlighted the need for using modern tools and methodologies for writing and managing safety requirements, aligning them with open-source community practices.

Stefano concluded by outlining the next steps, including the ongoing upstreaming of safety requirements and further development of the testing infrastructure.

You can find the presentation slides here.

To see all of the videos from the Summit, visit the ELISA Youtube Channel and click on the Safety-Critical Software Summit Playlist.

Learn more about the ELISA Project by:

Joining a Working Group
Following us on X at @ProjectElisa
Connecting with our LinkedIn page
Subscribing to our Youtube Channel