Events

Codethink sponsors, attends and speaks at a variety of global events. Check out our events page to find out where we are going, where we've been and view our event resources.

Upcoming Events

Advent of Code, Online - 1-25 December 2023

Previous Events

January 2023 | February 2023 | March 2023 | April 2023 | May 2023 | June 2023 | July 2023 | August 2023 | September 2023 | October 2023 | November 2023

November 2023

SDV Europe, Berlin

Codethink proudly sponsored SDV Europe which took place between 26-28 November in Berlin.

SDV Europe is a conference that provided a forum for leaders across the automotive world to discuss the transition from hardware to software within the sector. Topics discussed included software architecture, DevOps, testing and validation, and much more.

Mini-DebConf, Cambridge

Title: A journey from kernel testing to testing Debian unstable

Abstract: Testing is an integral part of the software lifecycle. For software which are in continuous development it's even more important to have regular testing so that any bugs or errors can be detected early. In this talk, I will present how I started testing the Linux Kernel in a personal capacity and the status of Kernel testing that is now being done as part of Codethink. I will also present how that testing infrastructure has evolved to test Debian Sid on a RPI4 from a CI pipeline and the problems we had to overcome.

Watch the talk here.

October 2023

XDC Europe, A Coruña

Title: Automated graphical testing on real hardware: adventures with OpenQA

Abstract: OpenQA is a powerful testing tool developed originally for openSUSE and now used by various major distributions for integration testing. Within Codethink we're also using it to test mainline Linux on hardware across several CPU architectures and GPU stacks.

This talk will show how to create screenshot tests that can quickly verify your graphics pipeline is working. First I'll show how to quickly run the tests in a developer laptop using the QEMU backend. Then we'll look at a pipeline that builds a custom kernel and tests it on real hardware, using the same OpenQA testsuite.

September 2023

Embedded Recipes, Paris

Codethink proudly sponsored the 2023 edition of Embedded Recipes. Embedded Recipes brings together core developers and thought leaders to create a space for in-depth technical discussions and collaboration.

Kernel Recipes, Paris

This year was the 10th anniversary of Kernal Recipes which, Codethink proudly sponsored. Kernal Recipes is the informal conference covering all topics relating to the Linux kernal.

You can learn more about this event via the blog.

All Systems Go, Berlin Germany

Title: Building image-based OSes with BuildStream, in collaboration with Valentin David

Abstract: BuildStream is a tool for building / integrating software stacks. In a way, it has a similar goal to bitbake / yocto and Android repo, but takes a completely different approach. It can be used to take software from various sources, build it with various buildsystems in a reproducible sandbox, and cache results for speedy rebuilds.

This talk gives a brief overview of Buildstream, how it is used to build GNOME OS, and the challenges we face in using it. It also goes over freedesktop-sdk which is a base runtime that can be used as a base to build your own system.

It also discusses the challenges we encountered with using buildstream with ostree and the steps we're taking to support updating with systemd-sysupdate.

August 2023

Wuthering Bytes, Hebden Bridge, UK

The annual conference of the Open Source Hardware User Group, featuring talks and hands-on workshops covering a diverse range of topics related electronics, hardware hacking, open source, tools, techniques and more. A number of Codethings attended this event, as well as Codethink featuring as an event sponsor.

July 2023

GUADEC 2023, Riga, Latvia

Title: The best testing tools we've ever had: an introduction to OpenQA for GNOME

Abstract: How do you write the testsuite for an entire graphical desktop environment?

Desktop and distribution teams have been struggling with this question for more than a decade, and our combined efforts are starting to pay off. The combination of Gitlab, BuildStream, GNOME OS and OpenQA is the most powerful toolset we’ve ever had for ensuring high quality GNOME releases.

Akademy 2023, Thessanlonki, Greece

Title: An OSS Tool for Comprehending Huge Codebases

Abstract: Maintaining large C++ codebases with hundreds of developers is a complex problem.

In the KDE community, work is being undertaken to improve documentation, as well as to automate and systematize internal processes such as testing and QA (see current KDE Goals). Our tool, currently under development sponsored by Bloomberg, supports these processes, making it possible for developers to visualize and, therefore, better comprehend existing C++ architectures. This visualization, analysis, and development tool is based on the ideas from John Lakos' book "Large Scale C++ Software Design".

Our presentation has two parts. In the first, we explain how the ideas from John's book are implemented in the tool; in the second, we demonstrate how we've been using the tool to understand KDE projects, improve their code quality, and fix architectural suboptimalities.

June 2023

Embedded Open Source Summit, Prague

In June, a number of Codethings attended the Embedded Open Source Summit (EOSS) in Prague. It was a great event where those working on embedded open source projects and developer communities came together to collaborate and learn.

In keeping with the learning ethos, Codethink presented two well attended talks at the event which you can now watch on-demand:

" RAFIA - A Roadmap for Certifying Open Source for Use in Safety-Relevant Systems", delivered by Paul Sherwood

"Automated Full System Testing on Hardware with OpenQA", delivered by Laurence Urhegyi and James Thomas

May 2023

No events

April 2023

No events

March 2023

In March, Codethink attended a number of events including the following:

State of OpenCon

Title: "Automated testing with open source hardware", delivered by Mudit Sharma and Ben Dooks

Abstract: At Codethink we’re focused on automation and we’re focused on open source.

As part of our efforts to automate testing on embedded Linux projects (in our case, large automotive projects), we wanted to be able to programmatically switch between different USB ports. For example, to switch from an empty port to a port with a new system image, or to mimic plugging in a USB device such as a smart phone.

We couldn’t find a suitable, cost effective or open-source solution, so we decided to develop one ourselves.

In this talk we will introduce the USB Switch: a feature rich, bi-directional USB-C switch. We’ll go into detail on the features and the typical use cases.

AGL All Members Meeting

Title: OpenQA Testing on Hardware: Automated Full System Tests

Abstract: Testers on embedded projects lose time running and re-running the same manual tests, and some Automotive projects can require hundreds of people dedicated to manual testing.

Codethink has helped to automate end-to-end testing on hardware within a large automotive project using OpenQA and some additional custom tools.

In this talk, we will explain how it was done how it can be adapted for other projects, including AGL.