News & Blog

News, Events & Blogs

News & Blog

The latest from our Open Source experts

Search the newsroom

Integrating libcamera into PipeWire

September 11, 2020 by Raghavendra Rao  |   Blog

PipeWire continues to evolve with the recent integration of libcamera, a library to support complex cameras. In this blog post, I'll explain why libcamera exists, what it does, and how we integrated it in PipeWire.

Integrating libcamera into PipeWire

Pushing pixels to your Chromebook

August 31, 2020 by Emil Velikov  |   Blog

A high-level introduction of the Linux graphics stack, how it is used within ChromeOS, and the work done to improve software rendering (while simultaneously improving GPU rendering by reducing the boilerplate needed in applications).

Pushing pixels to your Chromebook

Using the Linux kernel's Case-insensitive feature in Ext4

August 27, 2020 by Gabriel Krisman Bertazi  |   Blog

Last year, a (controversial) feature was added to the Linux kernel to support optimized case-insensitive file name lookups in the Ext4 filesystem. Here's a look at why this was merged, what improvements have been made since, and how to put it to work.

Using the Linux kernel's Case-insensitive feature in Ext4

One week, two events: DebConf20 & Linux Plumbers Conference

August 24, 2020 by Mark Filion  |   News & Events

August ends on a high note with two virtual events this week: DebConf20, Debian's annual conference, and Linux Plumbers Conference, the premier event for developers working at all levels of the Linux kernel's plumbing layer and beyond.

One week, two events: DebConf20 & Linux Plumbers Conference

Panfrost performance counters with Perfetto

August 21, 2020 by Antonio Caggiano  |   Blog

We have now integrated Mali GPU hardware counters supported by Panfrost with Perfetto's tracing SDK, unlocking all-in-one graphics-aware profiling on Panfrost systems!

Panfrost performance counters with Perfetto

High bitrate video streaming with GStreamer's RTP elements

August 20, 2020 by Antonio Ospite  |   Blog

Key performance improvements and fixes to GStreamer's RTP stack have landed in GStreamer 1.18, due in the coming months. The latest enhancements provide an important boost in throughput, opening the gate to high bitrate video streaming.

High bitrate video streaming with GStreamer's RTP elements

Understanding computer vision & AI, part 1

August 13, 2020 by Marcus Edel  |   Blog

Following our recent presentation at OSSummit, many showed interest in learning more about solving real-world problems with computer vision. Here is a new blog series, on computer vision, object detection, and building a system on the edge.

Understanding computer vision & AI, part 1

Testing Weston DRM/KMS backends with virtme and VKMS

August 07, 2020 by Leandro Ribeiro  |   Blog

Recent work in Weston, the industry-standard Wayland compositor, has enabled DRM/KMS backends to be tested in the absence of real hardware, enabling more battle testing of corner-case and error conditions within automated testing frameworks.

Testing Weston DRM/KMS backends with virtme and VKMS

Kernel 5.8: Collabora's biggest & most significant contributions yet!

August 05, 2020 by Dafna Hirschfeld  |   News & Events

The ability for a relatively small software consultancy to contribute at this level demonstrates a fantastic improvement in vendors' mindset when it comes to working Open First and providing mainline support out-of-box as early as possible.

Kernel 5.8: Collabora's biggest & most significant contributions yet!

Lighthouse positional tracking in Monado with libsurvive

July 17, 2020 by Christoph Haag  |   News & Events

HTC Vive (Pro) and Valve Index hardware users can now experiment with positional tracking in Monado, thanks to the implementation of a libsurvive driver using the libsurvive library developed by Charles Lohr, David Berger and many contributors.

Lighthouse positional tracking in Monado with libsurvive

WirePlumber 0.3 released, now ready for the desktop

July 16, 2020 by George Kiagiadakis  |   News & Events

It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of WirePlumber (the PipeWire session manager) version 0.3.0. This release brings support for desktop use cases and is a working drop-in replacement for PipeWire's example session manager.

WirePlumber 0.3 released, now ready for the desktop

An introduction to Linux kernel initcalls

July 14, 2020 by Mylène Josserand  |   Blog

Initcalls, which serve to call functions during boot, were implemented early on in the development of the Linux Kernel. Read on as we take a closer look, including their purpose, their usage, ways to debug them (using initcall_debug or FTrace), and more.

An introduction to Linux kernel initcalls

Visual-inertial tracking for Monado

April 05, 2022 by Mateo de Mayo  |   Blog

Monado now has initial support for 6DoF ("inside-out") tracking for devices with cameras and an IMU! Three free and open source SLAM/VIO solutions were integrated and adapted to work on XR: Kimera-VIO, ORB-SLAM3, and Basalt.

Visual-inertial tracking for Monado

Spotlight on Meson's full-featured developer environment

March 30, 2022 by Xavier Claessens  |   Blog

When developing an application or a library, it is very common to want to run it without installing it, or to install it into a custom prefix rather than on the system. Here's how Meson can help with that.

Spotlight on Meson's full-featured developer environment

How to write a Vulkan driver in 2022

March 23, 2022 by Faith Ekstrand  |   Blog

An incredible amount has changed in Mesa and in the Vulkan ecosystems since we wrote the first Vulkan driver in Mesa for Intel hardware back in 2015. Not only has Vulkan grown, but Mesa has as well.

How to write a Vulkan driver in 2022

Improving the reliability of file system monitoring tools

March 14, 2022 by Gabriel Krisman Bertazi  |   Blog

Every file system used in production has tools to try to recover from system crashes. To provide a better infrastructure for those tools, our kernel team developed FAN_FS_ERROR, a new fanotify event which monitors error notifications.

Improving the reliability of file system monitoring tools

PipeWire: A year in review & a look ahead

March 08, 2022 by George Kiagiadakis  |   Blog

The PipeWire project made major strides over the past few years, bringing shiny new features, and paving the way for new possibilities in the Linux multimedia scene. A look what was accomplished in 2021, and what lies ahead for 2022.

PipeWire: A year in review & a look ahead

Landing a new syscall: What is futex?

February 08, 2022 by André Almeida  |   Blog

Over the past 18 months, we have been on a roller-coaster ride developing futex2, a new set of system calls. As part of this effort, the futex_waitv() syscall has now landed in Linux 5.16. But what exactly is futex?

Landing a new syscall: What is futex?

Writing an open source GPU driver - without the hardware

January 27, 2022 by Alyssa Rosenzweig  |   Blog

Until now, no Valhall devices (Mali-G57, Mali-G78) ran mainline Linux - whilst this made driver development obviously difficult, there’s no better time to write drivers than before the devices even get into the hands of end users.

Writing an open source GPU driver - without the hardware

A Pixel's Color & new documentation repository

January 25, 2022 by Pekka Paalanen  |   Blog

My work on Wayland and Weston color management and HDR support has been full of learning new concepts and terms. Many of them are crucial for understanding how color works, and what the values in a pixel actually mean.

A Pixel's Color & new documentation repository

Wine on Wayland year-end update: improved functionality & stability

December 22, 2021 by Alexandros Frantzis  |   Blog

It has been just over a year since we first announced our effort to implement a Wayland driver for Wine. Here's a recap of what has been done since then to improve both the functionality and stability of the driver.

Wine on Wayland year-end update: improved functionality & stability

Venus on QEMU: Enabling the new virtual Vulkan driver

November 26, 2021 by Antonio Caggiano  |   Blog

A step-by-step guide on how to enable 3D acceleration of Vulkan applications in QEMU through the new Venus experimental Vulkan driver for VirtIO-GPU with a local development environment.

Venus on QEMU: Enabling the new virtual Vulkan driver

Run your own CI pipeline with GStreamer's new monorepo

October 26, 2021 by Xavier Claessens  |   Blog

Maintaining a non-trivial set of GStreamer patches can be tricky. Thanks to the recent move to a single, unified git repo, you can now easily run a GStreamer continuous integration pipeline on your own GitLab instance. Here's how.

Run your own CI pipeline with GStreamer's new monorepo

Improving test coverage for cameras in KernelCI

October 08, 2021 by Nícolas F. R. A. Prado  |   Blog

Earlier this year, I joined Collabora as an intern to work on improving testing in libcamera and automating it through KernelCI. Having recently completed the internship, here's a look back at this experience and what was accomplished.

Improving test coverage for cameras in KernelCI

Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference 2021

September 24, 2021 by Mark Filion  |   News & Events

Collaborans will be actively participating in next week's activities with seven talks on topics including Rust build scripts, embedded deep learning on GStreamer, HEVC decoding on mainline Linux, PipeWire and WirePlumber, and more.

Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference 2021

Panfrost achieves OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance on Mali-G52

September 21, 2021 by Alyssa Rosenzweig  |   News & Events

This important milestone is a step forward for the open source driver, as it now certifies Panfrost for use in commercial products containing Mali G52 and paves the way for further conformance submissions on other Mali GPUs.

Panfrost achieves OpenGL ES 3.1 conformance on Mali-G52

Generate a minimal GStreamer build, tailored to your needs

September 16, 2021 by Stéphane Cerveau  |   News & Events

GStreamer can be tricky to ship in a constrained device. Thanks to a partnership with Huawei, you can now use gst-build to generate a minimal GStreamer build, tailored to a specific application, or set of applications. Here's how.

Generate a minimal GStreamer build, tailored to your needs

Kernel 5.14: 30 years in the making and still improving

September 07, 2021 by Nícolas F. R. A. Prado  |   News & Events

With an ever-increasing interest in more modern hardware support, and a more reliable kernel that is thoroughly tested, contributions by Collabora's developers continue to help make this a reality for the Linux kernel.

Kernel 5.14: 30 years in the making and still improving

Linaro Virtual Connect - Fall 2021

September 01, 2021 by Mark Filion  |   News & Events

September's busy conference schedule kicks off next week with the Fall edition of Linaro Virtual Connect. Join us as we look at how to master your PipeWire streams with WirePlumber, and de-mystify GFX virtualization with VirGL!

Linaro Virtual Connect - Fall 2021

Reverse-engineering the Mali G78

July 20, 2021 by Alyssa Rosenzweig  |   News & Events

After a month of reverse-engineering the Arm Mali G78, we’re excited to release documentation on the Valhall instruction set, available as a PDF, as well as a Valhall assembler and disassembler to be used as a reverse-engineering aid.

Reverse-engineering the Mali G78

Kernel 5.13: Growing team and KernelCI hackfest

July 08, 2021 by Gabriel Krisman Bertazi  |   News & Events

Collabora's team working directly on the Linux kernel is growing. Collaborans continue to expand on their efforts to close the gap between hardware support on vendor trees and mainline.

Kernel 5.13: Growing team and KernelCI hackfest

A very successful first KernelCI hackfest

June 21, 2021 by Shreeya Patel  |   News & Events

Earlier this month, Collabora took part in the very first KernelCI hackfest, initiated as a joint effort with the Google Chrome OS team. Here's a look at what led to our participation and what was accomplished.

A very successful first KernelCI hackfest

Growing for the road ahead

June 21, 2021 by Erica Ryoo  |   News & Events

Despite the many obstacles brought on by the pandemic, Collabora has continued to grow its teams for the road ahead. Join us in welcoming Kiril, Benjamin, Daniel, Shreeya, Ariel, Nicolas and James!

Growing for the road ahead

Wine on Wayland meets Vulkan, multi-monitor support & more

June 07, 2021 by Alexandros Frantzis  |   News & Events

We first announced our work on the driver last December, and posted an update earlier this year. We are now happy to announce a second update for this driver, adding several major features which increase its scope and utility.

Wine on Wayland meets Vulkan, multi-monitor support & more

A libweston-based compositor for Automotive Grade Linux

June 02, 2021 by Marius Vlad  |   News & Events

Simplifying AGL's existing Wayland-based graphical stack and avoiding the use of modules that aren't maintained upstream has lead to the creation of a new compositor based on libweston, bringing more reliable and fine-grained system control.

A libweston-based compositor for Automotive Grade Linux

Bridging the OpenGL and Vulkan divide

May 27, 2021 by Rohan Garg  |   News & Events

Thanks to a new, low overhead extension in Mesa, OpenGL and Vulkan applications can now talk to each other, bringing more flexibility to application developers while easing the transition path between the industry-standard Khronos® APIs.

Bridging the OpenGL and Vulkan divide

Search the newsroom

Upcoming Events

Here are the events we'll be attending in the coming weeks – come say hello!

GStreamer

October 7-10, Montreal, Quebec

XDC

October 9-11, Montreal, Quebec

 

Featured Video

Open Since 2005 logo

Our website only uses a strictly necessary session cookie provided by our CMS system. To find out more please follow this link.

Collabora Limited © 2005-2024. All rights reserved. Privacy Notice. Sitemap.