diff --git a/common b/common
new file mode 160000
index 0000000000..12af105243
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 12af105243823fc73581db4fd79a46f6d0268dc5
diff --git a/validate/.gitmodules b/validate/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a6b1edac4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/validate/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "common"]
+	path = common
+	url = git://anongit.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/common