Ottawa Linux Symposium 2006

Here is information about CE Linux Forum's involvement and participation in Ottawa Linux Symposium 2006.

Table Of Contents:

CELF had big involvement in OLS 2006. CELF was a sponsor of OLS and we had a number of meetings at and around the event. There were presentations and BOFs by many CELF members. Also, we continued our tradition of handing out prizes at the closing keynote address.

Here are some of notes and presentations from the event.

Embedded Linux BOF
In this BOF, Tim gave his "State of Embedded Linux" talk. He described some what's happened with Linux in the last year, related to its use in embedded devices. This includes an overview of things recently mainlined (like Linux-tiny patches), as well as ongoing work and research in areas like power management for embedded devices, system memory size, bootup time improvements, realtime, measurement tools, etc.
 * Wednesday, July 19, 5:00 pm to 5:45 pm, Congress Centre, Room C

Here is Tim's presentation: [[Media:OLS2006-Embedded-BOF-2.ppt]]

Here are PORTIONS of Tim's presentation, with links to relevant articles (mostly on lwn.net) /\ - please see the file for the full presentation.
 * Realtime
 * hrtimers (2.6.18?)
 * clock sources (2.6.18)
 * HR timer API
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/167315/
 * ktimers explanation:
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/152436/
 * Generic IRQ (2.6.18)
 * Tickless Idle coming
 * Rt-Preempt
 * Mainline status
 * Most stuff in, only need:
 * sleeping spinlocks
 * threaded IRQs
 * Priority Inheritance (2.6.18)
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/177838/
 * Latency tracer
 * Unit-at-a-time Compilation
 * Ingo Molnar patch to utilize gcc 4 unit-at-a-time compilation
 * http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/12/28/68
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/165354/
 * inline reduction
 * New _always_inline_ attribute:
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/167315/
 * http://lwn.net/Articles/165354/
 * Size Testing
 * Bloatwatch - http://testlab.celinuxforum.org/bloatwatch/
 * Config size testing - Presentation at CELF Project BOF
 * Security
 * AppArmour
 * Lighter than SELinux
 * Good enough for embedded work??
 * LSM in peril?
 * Bootup Time
 * XIP - Execute in Place
 * Old info: http://lwn.net/Articles/135472/
 * XAFS - new file system specifically for XIP
 * Jared Hulbert (Intel) posted for comments: http://lwn.net/Articles/182337/
 * Power Management
 * User-space software suspend
 * Latest kerfluffle over suspend phases
 * Linus has posted a new patch, showing his method.
 * See lwn.net: http://lwn.net/Articles/189467
 * Linux PM summit - http://lwn.net/Articles/181687
 * Audio/Video/Graphics
 * Big direct rendering update - http://lwn.net/Articles/167315/
 * New CELF AVG Spec. (2.0)
 * DirectFB, ALSA, OpenGL/ES, UHAPI
 * Mobile phone stuff
 * CELF specification still in-progress
 * Many orgs: CELF MPPWG, OSDL MLI, LiPS Forum, the new foundation
 * Tools
 * Tracing - LTTng just recently re-added lots of architecture support
 * Memory Leak Tracker
 * Function re-ordering - http://lwn.net/Articles/173657/

Some of the major discussion items were:
 * standardization of GUI
 * Why can't CELF standardize on a single embedded GUI? The answer is that the space is already fragmented, and getting product vendors to switch UIs will be very difficult.  Different capabilities of the existing solutions in this area (Qt, GTK, and X), as well as different capabilities for related software (such as apps) led to this fragmentation.
 * There's not an easy answer, but maybe if the field tilts towards one platform, it will then begin to dominate.
 * mobile phone forum fragmentation
 * CELF is working with the LiPS Forum and OSDL/MLI, don't know much about the new organization. So far, organizations are cooperating and avoiding conflicts.
 * size issue
 * Tim took an informal survey of the audience, asking what was the number one problem using Linux: About 90% answered "size".  Power management and bootup time were also considerations.
 * Many linux-tiny patches have been merged over the last year.
 * There's a new system called "bloatwatch", where kernel size is automatically tested each new release. Developers can examine the results to see the size of subsystems and symbols. Sizes can be compared between versions, and are graphed over time.  See
 * corporate developer participation in community
 * Developers from corporations often don't participate effectively in the open source community Several issues contribute to this: 1) product treadmill, 2) getting stuck on old versions, 3) not enough time budgeted by company for this activity, and 4) product deadlines leading to (ahem) less-than-mainlineable code. There are no clear answers, but CELF will continue encouraging direct participation in open source by its members.
 * Tim took an informal (show of hands) survey, and very few respondents have yet to ship a 2.6-based product. Some companies are still working on 2.4 or previous kernels.

CELF Project BOF

 * Friday, July 21, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Les Suites Hotel

At this meeting we discussed some of CELF's initiatives and member company projects.

The following presentation introduced the topics, and had information about the CELF Test Lab: [[Media:CELF-Projects-BOF.ppt]]

Quickie CELF Initiatives Overview

 * Tim described some of the initiatives and projects that CELF is directly managing and funding:
 * Linux-tiny mainlining, and bloatwatch (via Selenic Consulting - Matt Mackall)
 * UHAPI/DirectFB integration (via Dennis Kropp)
 * CELF Open Test Lab (via Nomad Global Solutions)
 * Embedded Linux Conference - to be held April 17,18,19, 2007 in San Jose, California, USA

CELF Test Lab Introduction and Demonstration
By Tim Bird, Sony Electronics
 * Basic lab infrastructure is now set up, and tests can be run remotely on multiple boards.
 * Tim demonstrated running a test in the lab using the web interface, as well as showed interactive use of the lab via ssh to a host and target in the lab.

See more about the lab in the BOF slides (see above).

Config Weight Size Test
By Munehiro Ikeda, NEC
 * Ikeda described his examination to make clear the size impact (image size and memory effect) of different kernel config options.
 * Examination tool named "Kconfig Size"
 * Current examination result summary
 * New
 * Further works plan
 * Presentation material : [[Media:size_exam_celf_2006-07-21.pdf]]

CABI (CPU Resource Management)
By Midori Sugaya, Waseda University
 * Sugaya described the requirements of embedded system especially about resource managements in Linux, then proposed CABI and showed its function, architecture and enhancements (CPU Reservation). The contents of the presentation are following.
 * Resource management requirements of embedded system
 * Limitations of Linux scheduler
 * Proposed system : CABI (CPU Accounting and Blocking Interfaces)
 * The accounting model and architecture
 * CPU Reservation (priority boost approach)
 * Presentation material : [[Media:2006_0721_LinuxSympoisum_clinux_bof_CABI_pdf.pdf]]

Annual CELF "Challenge" Item
Discussion led by Tim.
 * We discussed CELF's proposal for creating a list of technology projects to focus on for the year
 * How can CELF push the projects forward?
 * Incentives - support, hardware, prizes, funding, labor?
 * What projects deserve focused CELF attention??
 * Does anyone need hardware that CELF or it's members can provide?
 * Should we do a "hackfest"?

Hi-definition camera demonstration by Lumenera
[need to put info here]

Jamboree Report
By Satoru Ueda, Presentation material:
 * Ueda-san talked about CELF's regional Jamborees being held in Asia (primarily Japan).
 * see Japan Technical Jamboree Guidance, Japan Technical Jamboree 8 and Japan Technical Jamboree 9
 * The next Japan Jamboree
 * August 25, in Tokyo
 * Detail is described in Japan Technical Jamboree 10
 * [[Media:JapanJam_OLS2006.pdf]]

Architecture Group meeting

 * Tuesday, July 18, 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Les Suites Hotel

This meeting was open to CELF Architecture Group members and invited guests.

See Celf Pri Wiki:Ag July 2006Meeting for the presentation and meeting notes for this meeting.

OLS Sessions by (or including) CELF members
Employees of CELF member companies made a number of presentations this year at OLS. Also, we led or participated in a number of BOFS. Here is a list of presentations and BOFS where CELF members presented or discussed topics important for embedded developers:


 * A Reliable and Portable Multimedia File System - Jaekyoung Bae, Samsung, Wed. July 19 12:00, Room B
 * Power Management BOF - Mark Gross, Intel, CELF PMWG Chair, Wed. July 19, 7:00 pm, Room A
 * Tracing BOF - William Cohen, RedHat, (Tim Bird, Sony will also present), Wed. July 19 7:00 pm, Room D
 * Tim's presentation for this is here: [[Media:OLS2006-Tracing-BOF.ppt]]
 * The effects of filesystem fragmentation - Ard Biesheuvel, Philips, Thur. July 20, 10:00 am, Room A
 * Tutorial: Porting a 2.4.20 character driver for legacy hardware to 2.6.15 - Mark Gross, Intel, Thur. July 20, 10:00 am, Room A
 * Improving Linux Startup Time Using Software Resume (and other techniques) - Hiroki Kaminaga, Sony, Fri. July 21, 10:00 am, Room A
 * Presentation material is here: [[Media:snapshot-boot-final.pdf]]
 * Demonstration Video: /\ Large size files (AVI). MP4 files are iPod(TM) compatible.
 * startup using Resume From Disk: [[Media:SWSUSP.AVI]] (14.5MB) / [[Media:SWSUSP.MP4]]
 * Proposed Snapshoot Boot: [[Media:SSBOOT.AVI]] (8.0MB) / [[Media:SSBOOT.MP4]]
 * Linux Bootup Time Reduction for Digital Still Camera - ChanJu Park, Samsung, Sat. July 22, 12:00 pm, Room A

The full conference schedule is available at: http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2006/schedule.php [Should change this to link to proceedings, when they are online]

/\ Please note that several other sessions at OLS reflect work that is sponsored or funded (in whole or in part) by CELF member companies.

Categorized Session List
CELF produced a guide to OLS sessions for embedded developers]. This might help you look through the OLS 2006 proceedings for presentations of interest. The Proceedings are available at: http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2006/proceedings.php

Demos

 * July 19, 10:45 am to 6:00 pm, Congress Centre, 1st floor

CELF members showed a number of demos of their current open source projects. Come see live demonstrations of technology developed for using and customizing Linux in Consumer Electronics products.


 * See OLS2006Demos for details.
 * ;)) Photos uploaded

Prizes
CELF had several prizes to hand out again, as a way of saying "Thank You" to the open source community.


 * Philips settop box development platform
 * Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

The prizes were handed out by Tim Bird at the final keynote:
 * Date: Saturday, July 22
 * Time: ~5:00 pm (Keynote starts at 4:00)
 * Place: Congress Centre, Room A