Linaro 12.11 Release with Linux Kernel 3.7 and Android 4.2

Linaro release 12.11 has just been announced, and includes Linux Kernel 3.7-rc2 and Android 4.2. The tracking version (stable release) uses Kernel 3.4.19.

This release upgrade Android to version 4.2, adds support for Origen 4 Quad board, and you can now use perf profiling utility in Linaro Android. Initial GRUB support for ARM is now available, the Ubuntu Precise server image is back online and lots of updates have been done on the kernel, mainly for Android, device tree and big.LITTLE.

Here are the highlights of the release:

• Android
  • Platform Enablement
    • Android upgraded from 4.1.2 to 4.2 to all the platforms
    • Android builds are available for Origen 4412 board setup
    • Improvements to click-through license infrastructure
    • MP3 playback enabled for ARM Versatile Express and Samsung Origen (4210 and 4412)
    • Fixed riff USB issue on newer laptops
  • Testing/LAVA
    • Re-enabled Android CTS testing
    • Integrated the new Methanol browser test
  • Upstreaming
    • Perf patch was pushed to linux-linaro
• Developer Platform
  • Package and components for the big.LITTLE project were updated based on the requirements for the 12.11 development cycle
  • Linux Linaro tree updated with the latest kernel development topics provided by Linaro, and also against the v3.7-rc6 upstream snapshot
    • based on linux-linaro-core-tracking tree, llct-20121120.1 tag:
      • based on v3.7-rc6
      • config fragments: updated config-core-tracking topic, new basic-board-configs topic added
      • emmc patches from Kernel WG
      • linaro-android-3.7 topic by Anton Vorontsov
      • gator version 5.12
      • big-LITTLE-MP version master-v12
      • devfreq topic from Rajagopal Venkat
      • ubuntu-sauce topic dropped
      • “KBuild: Allow scripts/* to be cross compiled” patch included. This is all that remains from the ubuntu-sauce topic.
      • patch to enable perf in Android by Bernhard Rosenkraenzer
    • updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT
    • updated Origen patches from Samsung LT
  • Linux Linaro tracking tree updated
    • v3.4 based
    • updated tilt-3.4 topic from TI LT; now includes the 3.4.19 stable release
  • Kernel packages updated to reflect the latest development trees from Linux Linaro and the Landing Teams
  • An engineering build using Ubuntu Precise baseline, that contains a LAMP stack is re-introduced
  • Versatile Express hardware pack includes now Linaro GRUB, enabled for U-Boot platform on ARM architecture
  • A local mirror is set up to speed up Linaro Ubuntu images build (the build time is now 2h30 instead of 4h)
• Infrastructure
  • Developed a UI demonstrating the desired workflow and experience of CI dashboard users in building, testing, publishing and downloading their code
  • Initial research and prototyping for using lava-dispatcher for doing native toolchain build in LAVA were done
  • GRUB on U-Boot is built daily on CI for both Linaro branch and upstream branch to verify their buildability
• Graphics and Multimedia
  • A new state object that encapsulates EGL interactions for glmark2
  • A new GLMark2 demonstrating shadow mapping
• Kernel
  • DT bindings for OMAP IOMMU driver is created
  • Android evdev is upstreamed. As of Android 4.2 userland, this is being used (See frameworks/base/services/input/EventHub.cpp)
  • Research the impact on kernel size for multi-platform configs
    • Identified appropriate defconfig file: u8500_defconfig, omap2plus_defconfig, vexpress_defconfig
    • Identified kernel version for verification: 3.7-rc5
  • Depopulate the Exynos <mach/*> and <plat/*>
    • Add device tree support for mct controller and remove regs-mct.h file (v2, http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-samsung-soc@vger.kernel.org/msg13894.html)
    • Remove dwmci.h file (v1, http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-samsung-soc@vger.kernel.org/msg13925.html)
    • Remove regs-mem. file (v1, http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-samsung-soc@vger.kernel.org/msg13926.html)
  • Android keyreset driver upstreaming
    • Implemented and sent weak symbol implementation to mailing list
    • Received new implementation fron Dmitry – found bug in his code
  • Android lowmem upstreaming
    • Slim down the vmevent API, get rid of raw nr_pages attributes
    • Discussed all the cgroups-specific work
    • Validated/fixed stock OOM killer for Android usage (according to Android folks patch exists and posted somewhere)
    • vmeventfd/vmstat accuracy improvements (fixes KOSAKI’s comments)
  • Depopulate the ux500 and plat-nomadik <mach/*> and <plat/*>
    • Investigate ux500 cpufreq to make smooth transition
  • MMC-4.5 data TAG support
    • Rebase on top on 3.4.0 rc4
    • Internal review
    • Publish to EXT4 and FSDEVEL community
  • Convert Exynos to common clk
    • Develop generic common clock helpers for all Samsung platforms (v3)
    • Develop common clock support for Exynos 4 platforms (v3)
  • Storage EXT4 journal in enhanced area of eMMC
    • Enable enhanced area on eMMC
• Power Management
  • Integration tree to bring together big.LITTLE MP related work
    • Released v11 and v12 of big LITTLE MP tree
  • Enhance the scheduler workload recording/replaying subsystem based on perf tool
    • Integrated perf improvement into linux-linaro
  • Devfreq core changes for use by GPU
    • Get Mali driver patches accepted to Linaro tree
  • Thermal driver for ST-E accepted by maintainer for 3.8
  • Support for multiple cpuidle drivers accepted for 3.8 merge
    • Allows separate big and LITTLE cpuidle drivers
• Toolchain
  • Linaro GCC 4.7 2012.11 released, updated to GCC 4.7.2+svn193200
    • Included arm/aarch64-4.7-branch up to svn revision 193328
    • LP: #1065122 – kumofs ftbfs on armhf (gcc ICE)
    • LP: #1065559 – [regression] cone ftbfs on armel/armhf using GCC 4.7
    • LP: #1067760 – Backport split all insns before pool placement fix to 4.7
  • Linaro GCC 4.6 2012.11 released, updated to GCC 4.6.3+svn193199
  • Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2012.11 released, updated to latest Linaro GCC 4.7 2012.11
• LAVA
  • QA services have manual access to TC2 hackbox for IKS/MP validation
  • Initial work on test case management has begun
  • LAVA dispatcher includes generic support for external measurement sources
  • Better UI for users when accessing a restricted resource
  • NI Battery Simulator is connected in the lab and provide remote access via Windows RDP
  • Test Results now support attachments
  • Master images in LAVA now available as pre-built images
  • LAVA presentation was given to ARM (https://docs.google.com/a/linaro.org/presentation/d/1_9lRd-RDG9vw7kFhZXliMHWcuDnJ46X0530fJhIdixo/edit#slide=id.g3be815b5_2_8)

Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1211/Release for a list of known issues and further release details about the LEB, Android, Kernel, Graphics, Landing Team,  Platform, Power management and Toolchain (GCC / Qemu) components.