We hope very much to see you in Dublin in September (12-14th). Please visit our attend page for all the details.
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Compute Express Link
2022-06-08 – 19:10
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Compute Express Link Microconference
Compute Express Link is a cache coherent fabric that is gaining a lot of momentum in the industry. Hardware vendors have begun to ramp up on CXL 2.0 hardware and software must not lag behind. The current software ecosystem looks promising with enough components ready to begin provisioning of test systems.
The Compute Express Link microconference focuses around how to evolve the Linux
CXL kernel driver and userspace for full support of the CXL 2.0 and beyond. It is also an opportunity to discuss the needs and expectations of everyone on the CXL community and to address the current state of development.
Suggested topics:
- Ecosystem & Architectural review
- Future kernel work – regions
- QEMU support now and later
- Security: IDE and SPDM
- Avoiding vendor specificity
- Collaboration on Future Spec enhancements
- Type 2 accelerator support (bias flip management)
- Hot remove
- RAS (GPF, AER, Poison handling)
- 1.1 to 2.0 compatibility
- topics currently under embargo (p2p)
- Hot add policy daxctl
Please come and join us in the discussion about the Linux support of the next generation high speed interconnect.
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: RISC-V
2022-06-05 – 18:41
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the RISC-V Microconference
The RISC-V software ecosystem continues to grow tremendously with many RISC-V ISA extensions being ratified last year. There are many features supporting the ratified extensions that are under development, for instance svpbmt, sstc, sscofpmf, cbo.
The RISC-V microconference is to discuss these issues with a wider community to arrive at a solution as was successfully done in the past.
Here are a few of the expected topics and current problems in RISC-V Linux land that would be covered this year:
- Various specification updates and plans for supporting them, with candidates including SBI, EFI, memory models (WMO, IO, etc), IOMMU, TEE
- Handling of user-visible errata, with the most notable current example being the many present in the D1.
- Moving forward with support for the V extension, including probing from userspace (VLENMAX, performance, etc). A similar set of issues will likely arise for the B and K extensions.
- Handling of runtime probing of various performance knobs in the kernel, like strings.h and locks.
- Defining rules for portable/distro kernels while keeping non-portable kernels in mind.
- Dealing with the ABI fallout from the pre-formal-model GCC interpretation of WMO, and by the time Plumbers comes around, maybe TSO as well.
- Is using WRS for pthread_mutex() sane? Either way, how to handle mtime in userspace?
- Ongoing development for Nested hypervisor
Please come and join us in the discussion on how we can improve the support for RISC-V in the Linux kernel.
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Zoned Storage Devices (SMR HDDs & ZNS SSDs)
2022-06-02 – 13:08
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Zoned Storage Devices (SMR HDDs & ZNS SSDs).
The Zoned Storage interface has been introduced to make more efficient use of the storage medium, improving both device raw capacity and performance. Zoned storage devices expose their storage through zone semantics with a set of read/write rules associated with each zone.
The Linux kernel supports SMR HDDs since kernel 4.10 and ZNS SSDs since kernel 5.9. Furthermore, a few parts of the storage stack have been extended with zone support, for example btrfs and f2fs filesystems, and the device mapper targets dm-linear and dm-zoned.
The Zoned Storage microconference aims to communicate the benefits of Zoned Storage to a broader audience, present the current and future challenges within the Linux storage stack, and collaborate with the wider community.
Please come and join us in the discussion about advantages and challenges of Zoned Storage.
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Service Management and systemd
2022-05-29 – 11:34
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Service Management and systemd Microconference.
The focus of this microconference will be on topics related to the current
state of host-level service management and ideas for the future.
Most of the topics will be aroind the systemd ecosystem as the most widely adoped service manager. The Service Management and systemd microconference also welcomes proposals that are not specific to systemd so we can discover and share new ideas on how to improve service management in general.
Please come and join us in the discussion about the future of service management.
We hope to see you there!
Linux Plumbers Conference Refereed-Track Deadlines
2022-05-28 – 18:17
The proposal deadline is June 12, which is right around the corner. We have excellent submissions, for which we gratefully thank our submitters! For the rest of you, we do have one problem, namely that we do not yet have your submission. So please point your browser at the call-for-proposals page and submit your proposal. After all, if you don’t submit it, we won’t accept it!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Containers and Checkpoint/Restore
2022-05-26 – 09:55
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Containers and Checkpoint/Restore Microconference
The Containers and Checkpoint/Restore Microconference focuses on both userspace and kernel related work. The micro-conference targets the wider container ecosystem ideally with participants from all major container runtimes as well as init system developers.
Potential discussion topcis include :
- User namespace improvements
- System call interception
- LSM improvements and LSM namespacing
- CGroup2 transition, emulation and future extensions
- Memory isolation
- CRIU and hardware security features
- Restartable sequences (rseq()) support
- Support for C/R of GPU and other directly accessed hardware
- Checkpoint/Restore standardization effort (driven by HPC)
- Kubernetes and container migration
Please come and join the discussion centered on what holds “The Cloud” together.
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Kernel Testing & Dependability
2022-05-23 – 09:23
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Kernel Testing & Dependability Microconference
The Kernel Testing & Dependability Microconference focuses on advancing the state of testing of the Linux kernel and testing on Linux in general. The main purpose is to improve software quality and dependability for applications that require predictability and trust. The microconference aims to create connections between folks working on similar projects, and help individual projects make progress
This microconference is a merge of Testing and Fuzzing and the Kernel Dependability and Assurance microconferences into a single session. There was a lot of overlap in topics and attendees of these MCs and and combining the two tracks will promote collaboration between all the interested communities and people.
The Microconference is open to all topics related to testing on Linux, not necessarily in the kernel space.
- Potential testing and dependability topics include:
- KernelCI: Improving user experience and new web dashboard
- Growing KCIDB, integrating more sources
- Better sanitizers: KFENCE, improving KCSAN
- Using Clang for better testing coverage
- How to spread KUnit throughout the kernel?
- Building and testing in-kernel Rust code.
- Identify missing features that will provide assurance in safety critical systems.
- Which test coverage infrastructures are most effective to provide evidence for kernel quality assurance? How should it be measured?
- Explore ways to improve testing framework and tests in the kernel with a specific goal to increase traceability and code coverage.
- Regression Testing for safety: Prioritize configurations and tests critical and important for quality and dependability.
- Transitioning to test-driven kernel release cycles for mainline and stable: How to start relying on passing tests before releasing a new version?
- Explore how do SBOMs figure into dependability?
Please come and join us in the discussion on how we can assure that Linux becomes the most trusted and dependable software in the world!
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: linux/arch
2022-05-20 – 08:48
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the linux/arch Microconference
The linux/arch microconference aims to bring architecture maintainers in one room to discuss how the code in arch/ can be improved, consolidated and generalized.
Potential topics for the discussion are:
- reducing code duplication and generalizing the common code in arch/
- making headers in include/asm consistent
- on-boarding more architectures to use common entry code
- devicetree (unless they have their own microconf)
- identifying old machine support that may be either still in
- active use vs only in hobbyist/retro-computing vs completely obsolete and broken
Please come and join us in the discussion about improving architectures integration with generic kernel code!
We hope to see you there!
Microconferences at Linux Plumbers Conference: Confidential Computing
2022-05-17 – 14:56
Linux Plumbers Conference 2022 is pleased to host the Confidential Computing Microconference.
The Confidential Computing Microconference brings together plumbers enabling secure execution features in hypervisors, firmware, Linux Kernel, over low-level user space up to container runtimes.
Good progress was made on a couple of topics since the last year, but enabling Confidential Computing in the Linux ecosystem is an ongoing process, and there are still many problems to solve. The most important ones are:
- Design and implementation of Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP host support
- Linux kernel memory management changes for secure execution environments
- Support of upcoming secure execution hardware extensions from ARM and RISC-V
- Pre-launch and runtime attestation workflows
- Interrupt security for AMD SEV-SNP
- Debuggability and live migration of encrypted virtual machines
- Proper testing of confidential computing support code
Please come and join us in the discussion for solutions to the open problems for supporting these technologies!
We hope to see you there!
