Linaro 13.11 Release with Linux Kernel 3.12 and Android 4.4

This release includes Linux Kernel 3.12 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.20 (LSK), Android 4.4 for the first time, and Ubuntu Linaro 13.11 (still based on Raring). Beside Android Kit Kat support, other noticeable updates include initial documentation for LAVA, and further work on ARMv8 support.

Here are the highlights of this release:

Android Engineering
- Android 64-/32-bit updated to 4.4 KitKat
- Fastboot/UEFI – Created Fastboot app design
Builds and Baselines
- Linaro Stable Kernel 3.10.20-2013.11 released – Includes an updated big.LITTLE MP patchset
- Linux Linaro 3.12-2013.11 released:
  - gator version 5.16 (same version as in 13.10 release)
  - updated big-LITTLE-pmu, iks, iks-cpufreq, and interactive-gov-updates topics from ARM LT
  - updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT (generic phy support for USB, watchdog, updated bcm_defconfig)
  - updated big endian topic
  - updated topic to support K3V2 board from Hisilicon LT
  - updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT
  - vexpress64 support (updated FVP Base model files, added support for FVP Foundation models)
  - config fragments changes – configs: add network namespace and virtual ethernet, distribution.conf: add more netfilter configs for the ltp networking iptable test, created multi_v7.conf and hi3xxx.conf config fragments for Hisilicon K3V2 board.
- Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2013.11 released
  - Binaries now ship with a Fortran compiler
  - Updates to GCC 4.8.2+svn204657
  - AArch64: added support for tiny model GOT (Global Object Table) access.
  - Improved AArch32 A-profile multilibs support (–with-multilib-list option)
  - Newlib was updated
- Linaro OpenEmbedded baseline updates
  - Update to Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.11 release
  - Add Linaro GDB 7.6.1-2013.10 release
  - Adds support for the new Foundation FVP Models from ARM
  - Includes ARM Trusted Firmware binaries, built from the latest open source repository
  - Shrink openjdk-8 install by a few hundred MiB
  - Add jtreg Regression Test Harness support to openjdk-8 builds
- Linaro Ubuntu baseline updates
  - packages updates: acpica-unix, edk2-uefi, fvp-pre-boot,
  - added sbsigntool package with ARM and Aarch64 support
  - added xen-tools to developer rootfs
- Linaro Android baseline updates – Upgraded baseline to Android 4.4, Android builds updated to latest Linaro toolchain 4.8-2013.11

Kernel
- Kernel 3.13 merge window – eMMC power management, suspend watchdog, and driver wakelock usage using wakeup_sources upstreamed.
- ARM32 maintenance and consolidation
  - ARM32 uprobes – Created V2 uprobes patches based on public review.
  - Conversion PATCH_PHYS_VIRT && AUTO_ZRELADDR – Enabled PATCH_PHYS_VIRT and AUTO_ZRELADDR on Exynos, PATCH_PHYS_VIRT on clps7xx (Cirrus Logic)
  - Updated arm32 machines table for 3.12 release
- Android upstreaming:
  - ION memory allocator – Fixed ION compat_ioctl issues, and ION build issues
  - MMC patches – mmc deferred resume, already resolved patches cleanup, mmc wakelocks
- ARM64 kernel feature enablement
  - Audit – Support in userspace improved, added seccomp support in kernel, audit support prototyped
  - ftrace – function tracer implemented, v2 patches posted for review
  - kprobes and uprobes – verified if ARM64 kprobes and hw breakpoints does conflict each other, v2 BUG: kretprobe wrong $return value at register ‘x0’ was fixed
  - kgdb – prototyped functional implementation
  - Cortex strings – went through few review rounds, measured and published benchmark results, published code in git tree
  - Oprofile – implementation successfully prototyped
  - Kexec – Found and fixed a bug in the memory management code of the arm64 Linux kernel, fixed a few bugs in kexec assembly routines
LAVA
- Rest API for Results
- LAVA Documentation – Creation of initial LAVA manual.
- Ability to Annotate Test Results
- New LAVA tool released with new guided job submission capabilities
- LAVA packaging refactored to install all necessary files in FHS compliant paths to support easier packaging.
- Updated django-tables support implemented in lava-server
- Integrated support in lava for imx6q for testing
- All lava-tool commands accept multinode job ids.
- LAVA updated to continue job after a lava-test-shell action fails
- updated initrd for ARMv7 booting to enable 14 second boot tests with zImage support (was ~ 3 minutes at best before)
- NFS root file system support
- Added support for auto-login, username/password provided in deployment schema
LEG (Linaro Enterprise Group)
- UEFI 2013.11 released – Includes support for the new Foundation FVP models, Fixes booting problems due to no initrd in OpenEmbedded images
- As part of the ongoing work for authenticated boot with the Security WG there is now a minimal working authenticated boot for the Foundation Model – code is here with instructions in the commit log
- klibc port to ARM64 was merged upstream
- libvirt patch to support machvirt machine model with virtio devices accepted upstream; also a libvirt CI loop has been setup
LNG (Linaro Networking Group)
- Linux Linaro LNG 3.10.18-2013.11 released with PREEMPT_RT patchset rt14
Power Management
- Linaro PM-QA 0.4.5-2013.11 released – Fix thermal header include
QA
- 2013.11 release testing done
- Comparison between linux-stable and LSK done (available in LAVA)
- 1st version of Virtualization test plan completed
Toolchain
- Linaro Toolchain Releases:
  - Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.11 released – updated to GCC 4.8.2+svn204657, AArch64: added support for tiny model GOT access, Improved AArch32 A-profile multilibs support (–with-multilib-list option)
  - Linaro GCC 4.7-2013.11 released – Linaro newlib 2.0.0-2013.11 released, Resync with upstream newlib trunk, iImproved support for Cortex-A and AArch64 baremetal systems
- ARMv8 Enablement – Improve code generation for AArch64 when ‘frame grows downwards’
- GCC Performance – Added Support in the ARM backend for LRA (Local Register Allocator), Improved ifcombine phase.
- Developer Tools Improvement – Patches under-review for reversible debugging in GDB for ARM: Syscall support, Thumb instruction support

Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1311/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.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.