========================================= Genode Labs Newsletter - June / July 2020 ========================================= Content 1. Genode Community Summer 2020 2. Mark the date for Genode Labs' 12th anniversary 3. Steps towards Genode on the MNT Reform laptop 4. Our consistent block encrypter explained 1. Genode Community Summer 2020 ------------------------------- Given the enthusiastic feedback about the first instance of the Genode Community Summer last year, we have fixed the date for holding the event again this year: Dresden/Germany, August 31 to September 11, 2020 During this time, we will turn the lower floor of our office into an informal co-working space for the Genode community. It is open for everyone working on a Genode project regardless of it being a research topic, a hobby activity, or a commercial undertaking. The informal setting fosters the collaborative spirit for letting ideas flow, solving problems together, and getting to know the people behind the code. If you are interested to join, please find all the details including the registering information here: https://github.com/genodelabs/genode/issues/3818 2. Mark the date for Genode Labs' 12th anniversary -------------------------------------------------- Time flies by. We are now in the 12th year of Genode Labs, following the very same vision we had when we founded the company. But in contrast to the early days, today we are equipped with a mature product that has long outgrown the status of an obscure research project. During the past year, this product focus led us to embrace 64-bit ARM and NXP i.MX in particular, profound consolidation and optimization of the framework, the novel user interface of Sculpt OS, and the streamlining of work flows. Proud of these advances, we want to celebrate the Genode anniversary together with the community and friends around Genode by holding our traditional barbecue at the banks of the river Elbe: Dresden, September 4th The exact location is not yet determined. We will post it mid of August. If you are planning to attend, please let us know by writing a short note to: info@genode-labs.com 3. Steps towards Genode on the MNT Reform laptop ------------------------------------------------ In the previous newsletter, we expressed our excitement about the open-source MNT Reform Laptop: https://genode-labs.com/news/newsletter/newsletter-2020-05 Meanwhile, we got our hands on one of the first pre-series models and started immediately with the work of bringing Genode to the device. Genode developer Stefan Kalkowski took the MNT Reform under his wings, documenting the unboxing experience and the first steps taken: https://genodians.org/skalk/2020-06-29-mnt-reform Many parts of Genode are already working, including the drivers for SD-card, networking, and USB. For the first interactive use, only the graphics driver is missing. But we are taking the MNT Reform also as an opportunity to work on Genode's platform-driver infrastructure such as introducing dynamic power and clock management. So the scope and depth of this line of work is worth following. 4. Our consistent block encrypter explained ------------------------------------------- With the so-called consistent block encrypter (CBE), we are using Ada/SPARK for a sophisticated Genode feature for the first time. This makes the project interesting on two levels. First, the feature set of the CBE vastly exceeds the functionality of traditional block encrypters like LUKS because CBE is able to protect the integrity of the block device, perform rekeying on the fly, and take light-weight read-only snapshots. Second, the use of Ada/SPARK - and in particular the embedding of this code into Genode's C++ environment - may serve as a blueprint for extending the application of Ada/SPARK throughout Genode in the future. With Genode 20.05, the CBE project has reached feature complete- ness, which prompted us to publish a series of articles showcasing the current state: * Technical description of the CBE as part of the Genode release notes: https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#Preliminary_block-device_encrypter https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/20.05#Feature-completeness_of_the_consistent_block_encrypter * The inner workings of the on-the-fly re-keying and resizing features: https://genodians.org/m-stein/2020-06-07-cbe-rekeying https://genodians.org/m-stein/2020-06-08-cbe-resizing * Step-by-step description and video tutorial for using Sculpt OS to host a virtual machine on top of the CBE: https://genodians.org/m-stein/2020-06-12-cbe-linux-vm https://genodians.org/m-stein/2020-06-17-cbe-linux-vm-video The content is still highly technical. The next step is making the CBE easy to use, exposing it to stressful work loads, and unleash- ing its full performance potential. About the newsletter -------------------- If you have friends or colleagues who might be interested in our projects, we would appreciate you to forward this email. If you received this newsletter as a forwarded email, you may subscribe to the newsletter here: https://genode-labs.com/newsletter In the case of receiving this newsletter unintended, you can cancel your subscription at any time by replying to this email with the subject set to "unsubscribe". Best regards -- Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske Genode Labs https://www.genode-labs.com/ · https://genode.org/ https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · /ˈdʒiː.nəʊd/ Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth
