An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Rachel Sibley, Senior Principal Software Quality Engineer at Red Hat, and Pablo Martin, Senior Software Qulaity Engineer at Red Hat on the topic “Useful Techniques for Qualifying a Linux Distro for ASIL-B“.
The session covered software testing techniques used by Red Hat to ensure a safe linux distribution targeting ASIL-B consumption. It also included traceability against requirements based coverage, code coverage approaches/frameworks to implement statement, branch, and function coverage analysis. In addition, characteristics of packages under test; instrumentation techniques, modifications for tests, and tests chosen based on the overall contribution to the coverage ratio including upstream testsuites.
Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.
An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Philipp Ahmann, Business Development Manager, Robert Bosch GmbH. He represents the ELISA project of the Linux Foundation as an ambassador and leads the automotive as well as systems work group.
Based on the proposal during the last ELISA virtual workshop, a new Systems Working Group was started within ELISA. During the ELISA Summit in September, Philipp gave an overview about the working group foundation, activities, ongoing projects and roadmap. He also provides a rough roadmap towards the beginning of 2023 and a first sketch on how the group can evolve over the next years.
Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.
An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on one of the most popular sessions presented by Gabriele Paoloni, Open Source Technical Leader (FuSa), Red Hat. During the session, he provided an update of the safety architecture, working group activities, including the Kernel STPA analysis in the context of the Telltale use case, and an overview of the goals for the next quarter.
Watch the video below :
For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about the Safety Architecture Working Group or to join the community, click here.
An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community presented best practices and overviews on emerging trends and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on a popular sessions presented by Steve VanderLeest, OS Cert Technical Lead and Matt Kelly, Chief Software Engineer, ESPC Operating Systems, from The Boeing Company, titled “Call for an ELISA Aerospace Working Group.” Steve and Matt gave an overview and proposal for a new ELSIA working group, that would be focused on aerospace. The goal is to create new use case that highlights some of the unique needs of aerospace.
Although some needs for safety-critical software are common across industries, each has unique elements. The two existing industry-focused working groups within ELISA (Automotive and Medical Devices) are formulating use cases that will influence the direction of the technically-focused working groups. While there is broad commonality of concepts and methodology across the safety-critical domains, it is likely that these use cases will miss some of the needs of aerospace. Thus a new industry-focused working group is needed, one that focuses on avionics flight software and ground equipment such as air traffic management systems.
The video depicts the proposed mandate and description of the new working group, comparing to the existing mandates for the Medical devices and Automotive working groups.
Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.
For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about how to join the new Aerospace Working Group, click here.
An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community, presented best practices and overviews on emerging trend and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on one of the most popular sessions presented by Kate Stewart, VP of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation, and Shuah Khan, Kernel Maintainer and Fellow at the Linux Foundation. They kicked off the Summit with a session titled, “Welcome & Strategy,” where they gave an overview of ELISA Project and its Technical Strategy. This video is an introductory session for new comers and ELISA members that aren’t regular participants in the Working Groups.
Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.
For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about any of the working groups or to join the community, click here.
Written by Igor Stoppa, Senior Software Architect at Nvidia
For more than two decades, Linux has made inroad in new fields of applications, from data centres, to embedded. We see now a growing demand for Linux in safety critical applications, ranging from automotive to robotics, to medical appliances.
However, Linux was not designed with these applications in mind, and unsurprisingly it is not an ideal fit, at the moment.In particular, one major pain point is the very limited resilience to spatial interferences originating from within the kernel itself.
Furthermore, the code base if much larger than what can be found in other operating systems traditionally found in safe applications. This is also compounded by the fact that Linux does not follow the processes traditionally in use for Functional Safety.
Summary
In the video, I describe my ongoing experiment of modifying the Linux kernel, to introduce a form of Address Space Isolation, meant to provide a mechanism enforcing freedom from interference. The presentation describes the problems, possible means to address it, and the current progress with the implementation. You’ll see a methodology for the safety analysis of a Linux system and mechanism for improving the safety of selected components.
This presentation ties both into the scope of the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group and the Critical SW track at Open Source Summit Europe. Though this work is not formally sponsored nor endorsed by ELISA, it is something I shared with the community for brainstorm and discussion purposes.
If you’d like to learn more about the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group or you’d like to continue this conversation, please join the mailing list or a WG meeting here.
Written by Philipp Ahmann, an ELISA Ambassador, Chair of the Automotive Working Group, Chair of the Systems Working Group, and Technical Business Development Manager at Bosch
One of ELISA’s industry partners Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL), which is the leading competence network providing services to use Open Source Software in industrial products, is hosting a survey to get a better picture on demands and pain points of industrial use of embedded Linux.
Their mission is to:
Support with services and products to use Open Source Software in industrial products sustainably.
Provide broad knowledge and a wide network of experts to accompany your product development throughout all stages.
Assist in complying with legal requirements, safety and security standards and we certify your products and processes.
Defend the interests of our members and those of the Open Source community.
They are independent and invite any interested party to join. Currently, they are asking for help in a survey until the end of September: https://www.osadl.org/Linux4Industry.
The idea behind the survey is simple:
The landscape of Linux distributions currently in use is very heterogeneous. A way forward can be to pick one or more existing distributions that come closest to an ideal industry-grade Linux and enhance them by adding missing components. In this way the current (unsatisfactory) situation of Linux distributions for embedded systems in industry applications can be significantly improved. The survey should help to identify these potential distributions, missing components and key additions needed.
The results will be published to those who participated in the survey. Fill out the survey today by September 30 here: https://www.osadl.org/Linux4Industry.
Live at Open Source Summit Europe today, it was announced that Linux Foundation Europe launches with a dozen founding members that intend to collaborate to form a disruptive inaugural project, and original research offering new insights into the European dynamics of open source. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Linux Foundation Europe is led by Gabriele Columbro as General Manager. Columbro will continue to serve as the Executive Director of the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS).
Linux Foundation Europe’s mission is to accelerate the growth of thriving open collaborative efforts focused on challenges and opportunities of all European constituencies, from individuals to public and private sectors, while providing an on-ramp for European projects and companies to succeed and collaborate on a global scale.
Gabriele Columbro, general manager, Linux Foundation Europe live at Open Source Summit Europe
“The Linux Foundation has done a phenomenal job bringing together the private sector and individual contributors on a global scale over the last two decades. As a native-born Italian raised in the thriving European open source community of the early 2000s, I am thrilled to focus our attention on long-standing challenges and opportunities we can help unlock in Europe through open collaboration,” said Gabriele Columbro, general manager, Linux Foundation Europe.
Inaugural members of Linux Foundation Europe include at Platinum level: Ericsson; at Gold Level: Accenture; at Silver level: Alliander, Avast, Bosch, BTP, esatus, NXP Semiconductors, RTE, SAP, SUSE, and TomTom; Associate level: Bank of England, OpenForum Europe, OpenUK and RISE Research Institute of Sweden. Participation in Linux Foundation Europe is open to any organization and free for existing Linux Foundation members.
This year, Open Source Summit North America was held as an umbrella conference, composed of a collection of 14 events covering the most important technologies, topics, and issues affecting open source today in June. There were a total of 2,771 attendees with 1,286 of those attending in person in Austin, from 1,041 organizations across 68 countries around the globe. The event attracted a diversified mix of open source community members from across the ecosystem. 54% of attendees were in technical positions, and developers comprised more than a quarter of attendees. You can read the post-event report here. You can also view all of the event playlists on the Linux Foundation Youtube Channel.
The ELISA Project was featured in several sessions and represented by ambassadors and community members at the conference. If you missed these presentations, you can watch the videos below:
Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (panel discussion) – Gabriele Paoloni, Red Hat (ELISA board chair) Kate Stewart, Linux Foundation (ELISA Executive Director) Paul Albertella, CodeThink (Open Source Engineering Process) Elana Copperman, Intel (Linux Features) Philipp Ahmann, Bosch GmbH (Automotive) Milan Lakhani, Codethink (Medical Devices)
Meeting business and safety objectives while building safety critical applications is a huge challenge for any industry, particularly those who have not had previous experience with open source and Linux. ELISA’s charter is to help industries navigate technical and non-technical challenges in order to bring the benefits of open source to safety applications and help organizations provide the rigor needed for certification. This panel features ELISA working group leads who will share their vision of making Linux a prominent player for FuSa applications in several industries. Join us to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to the community’s overall success.
Linux is used for many embedded device classes today. However, it is increasingly desirable to connect these devices with each other and with the cloud. Embedded container technology can be used to make this easier by merging server/cloud and embedded technologies. However, it also leads to more challenges e.g. in respect to security, safety, traceability, and SBOMs. Using Linux across multiple device classes and product lines, and adding cloud technology, causes the complexity and efforts to explode.
In this talk, we describe how Bosch, and others, use embedded containers and “reference systems” to avoid redundant work and get a large number of embedded projects under control.
A reference system is an adjustable compilation of tools along with a pre-configured bundle of packages for a common use case and defined set of devices. This reuse significantly reduces development and maintenance costs, and speeds up the time to market. In this way, reference systems can form the base for your product lines.
Bosch uses the in-house Debian-based embedded distribution “Apertis” as the basis for several reference systems, e.g. for automotive infotainment systems. In doing so we push as many efforts as possible from individual projects into Apertis, as the meta-layer. Thereby, the users can focus more on the actual functionality and applications. e.g. one issue that we have addressed in the context of software management is the handling of GPLv3 in embedded devices. Another topic has been mainline support for kernel drivers.
BOF: SBOMs for Embedded Systems: What’s Working? What’s Not? – Kate Stewart
With the recent focus on improving Cybersecurity in IoT & Embedded, the expectation that a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) can be produced, is becoming the norm. Having a clear understanding of the software running on an embedded system, especially in safety critical applications, like medical devices, energy infrastructure, etc. has become essential. Regulatory authorities have recognized this and are starting to expect it as a condition for engagement. This BOF will provide an overview of the emerging regulatory landscape, as well as examples of how SBOMs are already being generated today for embedded systems by open source projects such as Zephyr, Yocto and others, followed by a discussion of the gaps folks are seeing in practice, and ways we might tackle them.
Static Partitioning with Xen, LinuxRT, and Zephyr: A Concrete End-to-end Example – Stefano Stabellini, AMD
Static partitioning enables multiple domains to run alongside each other with no interference. They could be running Linux, an RTOS, or another OS, and all of them have direct access to different portions of the SoC. In the last five years, the Xen community introduced several new features to make Xen-based static partitioning possible. Dom0less to start multiple static domains in parallel at boot, and Cache Coloring to minimize cache interference effects are among them. Static inter-domain communications mechanisms were introduced this year, while “ImageBuilder” has been making system-wide configurations easier. An easy-to-use complete solution is within our grasp. This talk will show the progress made on Xen static partitioning. The audience will learn to configure a realistic reference design with multiple partitions: a LinuxRT partition, a Zephyr partition, and a larger Linux partition. The presentation will show how to set up communication channels and direct hardware access for the domains. It will explain how to measure interrupt latency and use cache coloring to zero cache interference effects. The talk will include a live demo of the reference design.
RTLA: Real-time Linux Analysis Toolset – Daniel Bristot De Oliveira, Red Hat
Currently, Real-time Linux is evaluated using a black-box approach. While the black-box method provides an overview of the system, it fails to provide a root cause analysis for unexpected values. Developers have to use kernel trace features to debug these cases, requiring extensive knowledge about the system and fastidious tracing setup and breakdown. Such analysis will be even more impactful after the PREEMPT_RT merge. To support these cases, since version 5.17, the Linux kernel includes a new tool named rtla, which stands for Real-time Linux Analysis. The rtla is a meta-tool that consists of a set of commands that aims to analyze the real-time properties of Linux. Instead of testing Linux as a black box, rtla leverages kernel tracing capabilities to provide precise information about latencies and root causes of unexpected results. In this talk, Daniel will present two tools provided by rtla. The timerlat tool to measure IRQ and thread latency for interrupt-driven applications and the osnoise tool to evaluate the ability of Linux to isolate workload from the interferences from the rest of the system. The presentation includes examples of how to use the tool to find the root cause analysis and collect extra tracing information directly from the tool.
It’s the time of year that kids around the world are heading back to the classroom. This is great timing to jump on the opportunity to improve your own knowledge and gain the skills to pursue a lucrative career in open source technology. The recently released 10th Annual Open Source Jobs Report from the Linux Foundation and edX found 93% of hiring managers are having difficulty sourcing candidates with open source technology skills, and nearly six in ten are giving open source professionals higher salary increases than other roles.
There are a lot of different open source technologies in high demand, but the skillsets most sought after are cloud computing/containers, DevOps and Linux. This is not surprising as to make the most of a cloud deployment, you need to understand at least basic Linux operations and commands, as well as DevOps practices which are used for developing and operating cloud deployments. In addition to gaining these skills, verifiable certification exams like the popular Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) enable you to demonstrate those skills to employers.
Linux Foundation Training & Certification provides comprehensive training in all of these and many other open source technologies including blockchain, web development, networking, cybersecurity and more. To make this training more accessible to everyone, we’re offering a FREE companion training course with a certification exam purchase through August 30, 2022. This means if you purchase a CKA exam, you will receive access to the Kubernetes Fundamentals training course at no additional cost.
Be sure to use code BACK2SCHOOL at checkout to save.
