Linaro 13.08 Release With Linux Kernel 3.11 and Android 4.3

Linaro 13.08 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.11-rc6 (stating), Kernel 3.10.9 (LSK – beta), and Android 4.3.

This month is the first release based on Android 4.3, which was only pushed to AOSP at the end of last month. I can also see work on new SoCs/hardware this month with Texas Instruments Keystone II ARM Cortex A15+DSP SoC and Fujitsu AA9 board (Which processor?, I could not find out). A lot of work also appears to have gone in OpenEmbedded, further optimizations have gone into NEON optimized AES encryption in OpenSSL, and more. It’s also the first time I can see a Ubuntu Raring engineering build image for HighBank (Calxeda Energycore).

Here are the highlights of this release:

• Android Engineering
  
  • Android stack was tuned to achieve 100% CTS pass result on Android 4.3
  • Analyzing the UEFI EDK II boot loader for Android completed, implementation of fastboot application and USB drivers in progress.

• Builds and Baselines
  
  • Linaro Stable Kernel (beta) 3.10.9-2013.08 released
  • Linux Linaro 3.11-rc6-2013.08 released (updated arndale/exynos patches from Samsung LT, vexpress64 support (both RTSM and Foundation model), and more)
  • Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2013.08 released (includes latest Linaro GCC 4.8 2013.08 release with Aarch64 improvements)
  • Linaro Android baseline updates:
    • Android Baselines updated to Android 4.3 for all the Engineering and Member builds
    • Android builds updated to build with Linaro GCC 4.8 2013.08 release
    • Helper scripts developed to boot Android over NFS
    • Fujitsu member build is set up with complete CI loop
    • Android NDK (Native Development Kit) based on Linaro Toolchain is delivered
  • Linaro OpenEmbedded baseline updates:
    • Update to Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.08 release
    • Remove meta-openembedded/toolchain layer
    • Add meta-bigendian to default layers
    • Add meta-filesystems layer
    • Whitelist non-commercial license on all images
    • Add Fedora support and clean up dependencies based on Yocto Project Reference Manual
    • New leg-java images have builds of openjdk-7 and openjdk-8
    • Python (2.7.3) available in LAMP image
    • Engineering builds for Networking (big endian and little endian) are built daily
  • Linaro Ubuntu baseline updates:
    • CI loop has been improved: packages can be cross-built and uploaded to repo.linaro.org.
    • Calxeda EnergyCore (Highbank) CI loop is completed
    • Fujitsu member build is set up with complete CI loop
    • package updates: libvirt updated to 1.1.1; openssl (include support for ARM NEON based bit sliced AES in XTS mode, contributed from LEG)
• Kernel
  
  • Started making progress on kexec 64 support
  • Posted uprobes32 code for public review
  • Started testing of randconfig on ARM32 to find random build issues
  • Device Tree bindings for Android keyreset merged for 3.12
  • option to log time spent in suspend delivered in 3.11
  • fixed vfat get volume id ioctl and delivered in 3.11 mainline

• LAVA
  
  • LAVA Lab – LNG isolated performance test rack starting to come together
  • LAVA Core
    • Improved complete-log view (added links for Line/Section #s)
    • Interactive bootloader commands working on all devices – Added support for Android platforms
    • New action: deploy_linaro_image has been added – Allows provisioning of kernel, ramdisk, dtb, bootloader, firmware, and rootfs using TFTP, adds support for KVM/QEMU…
    • TI Keystone II integrated into LAVA
    • Fujitsu AA9 integrated into LAVA
    • Automated functional LAVA testing – Checks for regressions by running common LAVA jobs
    • Multi-Node support in final days of staging verification.
    • Review feedback and start a plan to revamp the LAVA documentation
    • Added capability to integrate LAVA instance with Google Analytics
  • Linaro Infrastructure
    • Beta staging git services released to improve Linaro git services
    • Output manifest from Android builds now includes repository/branch descriptions.

• LEG (Linaro Enterprise Group)
  
  • XTS chaining mode for the NEON accelerated AES in OpenSSL was released. Refer to https://wiki.linaro.org/Internal/People/ArdBiesheuvel/BitSlicedAESEncryption for more details on the NEON work done for AES, using bit slicing.
  • The CI loop for openJDK is now in place – work remains to get all the tests passing and to amplify the range of the test suites used.

• LNG (Linaro Networking Group)
  

  • The real time patch set for 3.10.6 + rt3 became available and LNG moved its stable kernels to 3.10.6 and 3.10.6 + rt3
  • The CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL config fragment resulted in bug 1215507 in the preempt rt image, and so NO_HZ has been disabled
  • The CI loop now runs the LTP and LTP real-time regression test suites against the LNG Kernels
  • LNG image based on Linaro OpenEmbedded baseline boots on Arndale
  • Building with the debug flags enabled resulted in a bug 215471 – deadlock when CONFIG_KEYBOARD_GPIO is enabled with debug on.
  • meta-bigendian layer has been merged in Linaro OpenEmbedded baseline

• Power Management
  
  • Linaro Powerdebug 0.7.0-2013.08 released (add gpio modification function)
  • Linaro Powertop 2.2-2013.08 released
  • Linaro PM QA 0.4.3-2013.08 released

• QA
  
  • Successfully completed 13.08 release testing on Android (linux-linaro and LSK), Ubuntu and OpenEmbedded builds. Test results and bug reports have been shared.
  • Manual PXE on UEFI testing was performed on Versatile Express A9 board.
  • Test planning completed for LSK and Networking Group (LNG)

• Toolchain
  

  • Linaro GCC 4.8 2013.08 released with multiple optimizations (shrink-wrapping, tail-calls), improved AArch64 support, and bug fixes
  • Linaro GCC 4.7 2013.08 released, based off the latest GCC 4.7.3+svn201655 release.
  • Updated for GCC and LLVM

• Virtualization
  
  • Final version of HYP mode switching support for ARMv7-A is ready and went upstream. (cnxsoft: Not directly related to Linaro work, but you can check the following  presentation for an overview of virtualization on Cortex A15).
  • ARMv7 Guest Migration (same HW/SW) functionality implementation is ready and now is being upstreamed.
  • hackbench is configured in LAVA for testing KVM; also added to CI loop.

Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1308/Release for a list of known issues, and further release details about the LEB and community builds, Android, Kernel, Graphics, Multimedia, Landing Team, Platform, Power management and Toolchain (GCC / Qemu) components.

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