Linaro 14.05 Released with Linux Kernel 3.15, Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu Trusty

Linaro 14.05 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.15-rc5 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.40 (LSK), Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu has been switched from Saucy to Trusty.

More work has been done on big.LITTLE processing and ARMv8 support with notably completing bootstrapping with Debian 64-bit. New hardware platform have started to pop-up such as TI J6-Vayu which must be an evaluation board for Texas Instruments Jacinto 6 dual core Cortex A15 SoC for automotive application, as well as IFC6410, a Snapdragon 600 development board which got a Ubuntu LEB image. This month also marks the first release of Linaro GCC 4.9 toolchain.

Here are the highlights of this release:

• Linux Linaro 3.15-rc5-2014.05
  • new Android topic (linaro-android-3.15-experimental) uses the resent AOSP code base
  • GATOR version 5.18 (same version as in 2014.04)
  • uprobes topic removed as all patches have been accepted into mainline
  • updated big-LITTLE-pmu topic from ARM LT
  • updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT (SMP support enabled for bcm21664 and bcm28155, mmc updates, more bcm590xx regulators enabled)
  • cortex-strings-arm64 topic (same as in 2014.02)
  • updated Versatile Express arm64 support (FVP Base and Foundation models, Juno (ethernet, USB)) from ARM LT
  • updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT
  • updated Arndale_Octa/Arndale/Origen patches from Samsung LT
  • more HiP0x Cortex A15 family updates from HiSilicon LT. All the CPU cores enabled
  • new ftrace_audit topic from the Kernel WG (ftrace, audit and seccomp patches)
  • Big endian topic updated for 3.15
  • updated llvm topic. The “spinlock” commit is reverted to let armv8 kernel to compile
  • config fragments changes – uprobes: CONFIG_NAMESPACES and CONFIG_USER_NS enabled (for systemtap), arndale_octa: Enable Generic Phy support, arndale: Enable IOMMU/USB3/Generic Phy, vexpress: updated for 3.15 kernel (CONFIG_ARM_BIG_LITTLE_CPUFREQ enabled), THUMB2 disabled for arndale, arndale_octa, and origen to work around arch/arm/mach-exynos/sleep.S compilation error
• Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2014.05
  • updated to latest Linaro TCWG releases, this is the first binary release based on GCC 4.9.
    • Linaro GCC 4.9 2014.05 includes performance improvements and bug fixes
    • Linaro Binutils 2.24.0 2014.05 features aarch64 improvements
    • Linaro GDB 7.7 2014.05
• Linaro Android 14.05
  • built with Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.05
  • TI J6-Vayu member build has been setup (Evaluation module based on Texas Instruments Jacinto 6 for automotive application)
  • Android build system is using VPS build slaves, reducing the build time by 40% compared to the current EC2 slaves
  • Multinode job submission support is added to linaro-android-build-tools
• Linaro OpenEmbedded 2014.05
  • integrated Linaro GCC 4.8 and 4.9 2014.05
  • integrated Linaro EGLIBC 2.19-2014.05
  • integrated Linaro binutils 2.24-2014.05
  • improved Linaro’s meta layer layout for 3rd parties usage
  • added toolchain benchmark image
  • update GATOR recipe to latest release and fixed build issues
  • improved python module support in images
  • upstreaming:
  • fixed separate build directory issues for mariadb, openldap, libmcrypt, netperf, fwts, php, tmux, gpm and rrdtool
  • updated recipes: acpitests, acpica, fwts, libhugetlbfs, pm-qa, systemtap and GRUB
  • enabled PM and RT tests in LTP
  • fixed GRUB build issue
• Linaro Ubuntu 14.05 is released:
  • baseline migrated from Saucy to Trusty
  • added packages:
    • alsa-lib, added HDMI UCM profile for IFC6410
    • mesa, enabled freedreno gallium driver
  • updated packages: linaro-edk2, ARM trusted firmware, linaro-meta (added git to developer rootfs), xf86-video-freedreno (Add xorg configuration file), and linux-linaro 3.15-rc5 kernels.
• ARMv8 Debian bootstrap effort is completed
• Linaro U-Boot is updated to 2014.04 release
• Linaro EDK2 CI is setup
• Linaro kernels build support is added to Linaro OpenEmbedded
• IFC6410 member build is delivered and released this cycle

You can visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1405/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.

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