So You Want To Use Linux in Safety Applications? – A Primer

It is common sense that Linux has gained significant traction in the automotive industry. Now more OEMs and Tiers considering its usage also in safety-critical applications. This presentation explores the typical concepts and approaches taken by companies venturing into the space of "safety-critical Linux". It delves into use cases where Linux could be an option and highlights the challenges that need to be overcome for some other use cases.

The talk sheds light especially on Linux in ADAS and explores the role of other system elements such as containerization, virtualization, and RTOS in the introduction of Linux in the safety-critical space. Furthermore, it provides a high-level overview of safety integrity standards like ISO26262 and IEC61508, emphasizing the challenges they introduce.

By the end of the presentation, the audience will have a basic understanding of the different concepts involved in enabling Linux in safety applications. They will also gain insights into the companies driving these activities, identify commonalities in the approaches taken, and recognize the role of the ISO PAS 8926 as part of the ISO26262 3rd edition.

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

The increasing demand for safety integrity standards in open source projects presents both challenges and opportunities for improving the quality of software in areas such as testing, documentation, robustness, and dependability. The ELISA project aims to serve as a central hub for all topics related to safety-critical workloads and is already collaborating closely with projects such as Xen, Zephyr, Yocto, and SPDX.

This Birds of a Feather (BoF) session will begin with an overview of the ELISA project's goals and activities to establish a clear scope and engage the audience. The session will then transition into an open discussion about the elements, processes, and tools that can be used to enhance trust in open source for safety, paving the way towards potential certification while also addressing the challenges of moving forward.

Join us on the path towards a safer and more open world.

Update on the ELISA project - Enabling Linux in Safety Applications

The ELISA project has taken on the challenge to make it easier for companies to build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications. ELISA members are defining and maintaining a common set of elements, processes and tools that can be incorporated into specific Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification.
This session will give an overview of the goals and technical strategy of the ELISA project. It provides information about the different work groups, their interaction, and contributions. These work groups focus on Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems, Software Architecture, Open Source Engineering Process, Tool Investigation and Code Improvement. They are complemented by vertical use case working groups from the field of Automotive, Medical and Aerospace. Methodologies and tools in use, existing challenges, and why the different puzzle pieces are all needed for enabling Linux in safety-critical applications, are covered.
Attendees will leave the session with an understanding where the ELISA project stands today and what comes next. A discussion of how this work can complement other Linaro initiatives will be explored.

APERTIS - A Collaborative Industrial Grade Linux Construction Kit

Developing embedded Linux products can be challenging, especially for small companies building their first Linux product and large companies that need to maintain several variants of their products.

The talk will discuss the potential pitfalls of maintaining multiple variants of embedded Linux products and the importance of an Industrial Grade Linux. The focus will be on APERTIS, a Debian derivative maintained in the open by Collabora and Bosch. APERTIS acts as a construction kit for product configurations and relies on a careful package selection suitable for professional product development. It follows the "only add what is really needed" idea for new product variants. We will highlight the importance of using hardened packages, avoiding license conflicts, and having an SDK closely coupled to a cloud CI. We will use a real-world example of a power tools company that ported a previous hardened automotive Linux to a wall scanner with a small team.

Join the talk to learn from past experiences and avoid pitfalls in developing embedded Linux products. Let's collaborate to create a robust and dependable base system for embedded Linux products. And sorry, this time it is not yocto.

How open source projects approach Functional Safety

Open Source is a winning solution for many industries already - and now even safety critical applications want to make use of it. While “security” is a capability of open source since many years, a few years ago using open source in safety critical applications seemed to be impossible even to think about. Nowadays it has become a valid option for upcoming applications. This kind of application that should save lives, or at least not harm anyone. However, with advancements in technology and safety integrity standards, open source is becoming a valid option for upcoming safety critical applications. This talk will provide an overview of how open source projects approach their integration to safety critical applications. Depending on the expectations of these applications, there are different solutions to address their needs. The talk will introduce example projects such as ELISA, the Zephyr Project, and the Xen Project, which are currently addressing these expectations with various mechanisms and approaches.

https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3209-how-open-source-projects-approach-functional-safety/

The ELISA Project - Enabling Linux in Safety Applications Projects Insights and Overview

The ELISA project aims to make it easier to build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications. This lecture will give an overview of the goals and technical strategy of the ELISA project. It provides information about the different work groups, their interaction, and contributions. Attendees will leave the talk with an understanding where the ELISA project stands today and what comes next. They get insights which methodologies and tools are used, which challenges exist, and why the different puzzle pieces are all needed for enabling Linux in safety-critical applications.

Safety-critical systems as addressed by the ELISA project are those, where failure could result in loss of human life, significant property damage or environmental damage. ELISA members are working together to define and maintain a common set of tools and processes that can help companies demonstrate that a specific Linux-based system meets the necessary safety requirements for certification. These existing working groups focus on Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems, Software Architecture, Open Source Engineering Process, Tool Investigation and Code Improvement. They are complemented by vertical use case working groups dealing with Automotive, Medical, and Aerospace.

https://archive.fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/elisa/

Putting Linux into Context – Towards a reproducible example system with Linux, Zephyr & Xen

Demos on embedded systems using Linux are plentiful, but when it comes to reproducing them, things get complicated. Additionally, on decent embedded systems Linux is only one part of the system and interacts with real-time operating systems and virtualization solutions. This makes reproduction even harder.

Within the Linux Foundation’s ELISA project, we started to create a reproducible example system consisting of Linux, Xen, and Zephyr on real hardware. This is the next step after we achieved a reproducible system with a pure Linux qemu image.

The idea is to have documentation, a continuous integration including testing, which can be picked up by developers to derive and add their own software pieces. In this way they should be able to concentrate on their use case rather than spending effort in creating such a system (unless they explicitly want this). We also show how to build everything from scratch. The assumption is that only in this way it is possible to get a system understanding to replace elements towards their specific use cases.

We had challenges finding good hardware, tools, freely available GPU drivers and more and we are still not at the end. A good system SBOM is also creating additional challenges, although leveraging the Yocto build system has provided some advantages here.

While we are setting up the first hardware with documentation from source to build to deployment and testing on embedded hardware, we aim to have at least two sets of all major system elements like Linux flavor, a choice of virtualization technique, real-time OS and hardware. Only when software elements and hardware can be exchanged, we identify clear interfaces and make a system reproducible and adoptable.

Open Questions are:

What will be a good next hardware to extend this PoC scope?
Where do open source, security, safety, and compliance come best together?
Which alternative real-time operating systems and virtualization should be incorporated?

https://lpc.events/event/17/contributions/1518/