Linaro 12.03 Release with Kernel 3.3-rc3

Linaro has just released version 12.03 based on Linux Kernel 3.3-rc3 and Android 4.0.3.

Among the key points, hardware video decode in now supported in Origen (Android),  Android runs in A15/A7 platforms, libav AAC optimization provides about 2x performance improvement and QEMU supports Samsung Exynos 4240 and Calxeda Highbank (work done upstream).

Here are the highlights of the release:

  • Android
    • Linaro Android has support for DS-5 version 5.9.
    • Hardware accelerated Multimedia is now integrated on Origen.
    • EEMBC, denbench and coremark have been ported to Android and are running in LAVA.
    • android.net ConnectivityManager unit tests have been built and integrated in all builds.
    • Hardware decode of H264 and MPEG4, 1080P and 30 FPS is enabled on Origen.
    • Origen now has 1080p HDMI Graphics and Video Support.
    • Android runs on A15, A7 and A15/A7 fast models.
    • ARM’s big.LITTLE has been tested running Android using a set of unit tests.
    • Kernels of prebuilt images can now be swapped out easily for most boards.
    • A script, derived from the build itself gets posted to the build page for people to download and run to reproduce the build.
    • Superfluous build specific branches have been removed.
    • Bluetooth and WIFI is working on Snowball.
    • A report on SMP improvement has been created
  • Graphics
    • glmark2
      • Offscreen rendering support using framebuffer objects.
      • New command line switch to allow selection of end-of-frame method,
    • glcompbench
      • New ‘blur’ test.
      • Updated glproxy support.
    • glproxy
      • Enhanced selection of EGL vs. GLX based upon new detection API.
    • Unity3D
      • compiz (core and plugins-main) updated to current trunk revision.
  • Kernel
    • Samsung’s UFS patches merged upstream into 3.4 kernel after intial review and feedback from KWG’s storage team.
    • Pinmux feature complete and device tree bindings almost completed. Member platform support progressing well.
    • Much forward progress in support for eMMC4.5 features, several patches upstreamed.
  • Multimedia
    • Updated pulseaudio / alsa-lib including : Audio jack detection, new UCM configs for imx6, origen, and snowball
    • Initial source code only drop of TinyHal (aka UCM for Android) with support for Panda.
    • libav AAC optimization complete improving software playback more than 2x on a8 but less than 2x on a9.
    • Speex for Android & Linux now includes NEON detection
    • live-build updated to version including : armhf support both native and cross, support for multistrap (and using the linaro overlay as part of the bootstrap), support for build meta information
  • Power Management
    • Landed cpuidle enablement for member platforms
      • Timekeeping code consolidation
      • New cpuidle drivers for u8500 and i.MX
      • Optimisations for exynos cpuidle driver
    • Common struck clock was accepted for 3.4 merge
    • Cpuidle timekeeping consolidation work was accepted for 3.4
    • Working on community feedback on common cpufreq cooling device for thermal management
  • Toolchain
    • The compiler now accounts for register pressure when scheduling instructions. This fixes many of the regressions seen in the past when using the vectoriser and some of the deeper optimisations. The backend now implements the ARM saturation and fixed to floating point instructions. These improvements were found when working on libav with the Multimedia group during Connect.
    • This month saw the upstream release of GCC 4.7.0. Our new work is already focused on Linaro GCC 4.7 with Linaro GCC 4.6 going into maintenance and Linaro GCC 4.5 going end of life. The first Linaro GCC 4.7 release will come out as part of next month’s 2012.04 bundle.
    • QEMU adds support for passing Device Tree blobs to the kernel. Interesting upstream improvements include new Samsung Exynos4210 and Calxeda Highbank models.
    • There is no GDB release for this month. We’re currently investigating first class upstream support for cross debugging Android NDK applications.
  • Validation
    • LAVA can do complex and long computations in the background if necessary.
    • LAVA Dispatcher can now be distributed to other machines using rabbitmq and celery.
    • Groups in LAVA can now be managed in Launchpad.
    • Add support for custom android command to users.
    • There is a lab health page showing every board health status on lava-server.
    • LAVA now supports running access restricted jobs in the scheduler.

Here are the known issues for this release:

  • Add support for rootfs post-processing in linaro-media-create
  • Bluetooth does not work on Origen
  • Suspend does not work on Samsung Origen
  • Origen: device tree not enabled at Ubuntu
  • [regression] No DVI output on the PandaBoard with kernel 3.1.0-1402-linaro-lt-omap
  • [regression] desktop performance at quickstart is a lot worse with 11.11
  • image installation instructions linked from downloads page outdated
  • [regression] playbin can’t play video using sw decode after enabling TI specific patches
  • Can’t install multiple linux-header packages
  • Pressure sensor (Barometer) lacks correct file permissions in sysfs
  • snowball fails to boot 20120316 hwpack & ubuntu desktop
  • iMX6 terribly unstable with 12.03 Ubuntu image
Go to https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1203/Release for further release details about the LEB, Android, Kernel, Graphics, Landing Team,  Platform, Power management and Toolchain (GCC / Qemu) components.
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