Linaro 15.07 Release with Linux 4.2 and Android 5.1

Linaro 15.07 has been released with Linux 4.2-rc3 (Baseline), Linux 3.10.83, 3.14.45 and 3.18.17 (LSK), and Android 5.1.1_r8.

The Linux kernel got various bug fixes, and a power reduction technique has been implemented for Qualcomm processor. Progress has been made to boot Android with UEFI on Hikey board, and work is still on-going on 96boards including Hisilicon Hikey, Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c, and an upcoming and yet-to-be-formally-announced Marvell PXA1928 board called Helium.

Highlights of this release:

Linux Linaro 4.2-rc3-2015.07
- linaro-android topic updated to 4.2-rc3 and recent AOSP/android-3.18
- included GATOR version 5.21.1
- llct-misc-fixes topic: “HACK: of: Limit FDT size for CRC check on arm64” has been dropped. FVP model was the last target to require this hack, but the new FVP firmware doesn’t need it anymore
- updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT: Versatile Express TC2 support is back, HDLCD display now works on TC2, the topic will be renamed to integration-linaro-vexpress next cycle
- updated integration-linux-qcomlt topic by Qualcomm LT: QCOM Core Power Reduction (CPR) support has been added
- linaro-builddeb-tweaks topic is dropped (most of our changes have been upstreamed)
Linaro builds of AOSP 15.07
- Android baseline updated to 5.1.1_r8
- ART CI setup for TIP and stable builds
  - Boot to gui tests added for tip and stable builds
  - ART code coverage for tip and stable builds
  - m-preview based builds setup for emulators
  - ART-host-gtests added for tip and stable builds
- Hikey builds updated to 5.1.1_r8. Android boots with UEFI and GRUB on HiKey. Wifi drivers are integrated in the build system. Drivers are built as part of Android build process.
Linaro OpenEmbedded 2015.07
- integrated Linaro GCC 4.9-2015.06
- updated linux-linaro to 4.2-rc3
- disabled aarch64 bootwrapper
- integrated various improvements for LNG CI
- upstreaming:
  - fixed bootimg.bbclass to work with all kernel image types
  - fixed cmake builds for native recipes
Linaro Ubuntu 15.07 – updated packages: fvp-pre-boot (FVP firmware), LSK 3.10.83/3.14.45/3.18.17 and linux-linaro 4.2-rc3 kernels
96boards contributions:
- DragonBoard 410c is now using NetworkManager only to manage the network (previously a combination with systemd-networkd/resolved has been used).
- HiKey made some progress toward the switch to UEFI. GRUB is now integrated into the snapshots builds for both AOSP and Debian.
- Initial Debian based build for Marvell PXA1928 Helium is setup and available.

Visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1507/Release for a list of known issues, and further release details about the LEB, LMB (Linaro Member Builds), and community builds, as well as Android, Kernel, Graphics, Multimedia, Landing Team, Platform, Power management and Toolchain 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.