Linaro 14.04 Release with Linux Kernel 3.14 and Android 4.4.2

Linaro 14.04 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.14 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.37 (LSK), and Android 4.4.2.

More work has been done on ARMv8 support, and big.LITTLE for both the Linux kernel and Android, as well as work on member hardware platforms such as Origen, Arndale, Arndale Octa, Broadcom Capri, and Hisilicon D01 boards. GCC 4.8-2014.04 Linaro is said to include performance improvements. Linaro Android engineering builds for Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 have been setup, but I can’t quite find the images. They’ve also added the BeagleBone Black to member builds.

Here are the highlights of this release:

Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK) 3.10.37-2014.04
- Updates to Android support (from Google and Linaro)
- Added
  - Big endian for ARMv7 and ARMv8
  - Thermal framework DT support
  - Huge pages and transparent huge pages for ARMv8
  - Tagged pointers for ARMv8
  - Non-coherent DMA for ARMv8
- Other Features
  - big.LITTLE support – ARM MP patch set, IKS (ARMv7 only)
  - Power efficient workqueue support
  - Android v3.10 patch set from AOSP
  - Interactive scheduler enhancements for big.LITTLE
  - Pinctrl groups support (CARD-1264)
  - GATOR
  - ARMv8 4xA57 4xA53 FVP support
  - Versatile Express TC2 support
Linux Linaro 3.14-2014.04
- GATOR version 5.18 (new version)
- Android topic (linaro-android-3.14-merge) updated to get the recent code from AOSP
- added a new LLVM topic
- updated builddeb topic to include a fix to add missing headers in linux-headers package on arm architecture
- uprobes v7 topic
- updated big-LITTLE-pmu topic from ARM LT
- updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT (bcm281xx support updated, Broadcom BCM470X and BCM5301X SoCs support added)
- updated Arndale Octa / Arndale / Origen patches from Samsung LT: CPU hotplug and BE fixes
- updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT
- Versatile Express arm64 support (FVP Base and Foundation models) from ARM LT
- more HiP0x Cortex A15 family updates from HiSilicon LT
- cortex-strings-arm64 topic (same as in 2014.02)
- config fragments changes: updated config fragments for ARMv8 boards
Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2014.04 – With Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.04, featuring performance improvements and bug fixes
Linaro Android 14.04
- built with Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.04
- LSK with Android for ARMv8 build has been setup
- Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 Engineering builds have been setup
Linaro OpenEmbedded 2014.04
- integrated Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.04
- integrated Linaro EGLIBC 2014.04
- added trace-cmd / kernelshark 2.3.2 recipe
- updated ODP to 0.2 release
- changed OpenJDK to track linaro git trees directly
- updated GATOR to 5.18 release
- upstreaming
  - added arm64 support to U-Boot architecture map
  - submitted trace-cmd / kernelshark recipe update
  - re-submitted GRUB build fixes
Linaro Ubuntu 14.04
- added packages: trace-cmd 2.3.2 and trusted firmware binaries for a new ‘hidden’ ARMv8 board
- updated packages: edk2-uefi, GATOR 5.18 and linux-linaro 3.14 kernels
- initial developer rootfs based on Trusty
OpenEmbedded – included MongoDB on ARMv8
Arndale Octa – added thermal (TMU) driver support
CI bring up – BeagleBone Black member build
LSK with Mali support for Arndale build has been setup, contributed by Graphics WG.

You can visit https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1403/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.