Linux 5.12 – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.12

Linux 5.12 release was expected last Sunday, but Linus Torvalds decided to release one more release candidate, namely Linux 5.12-RC8, to “make sure things are all settled down“, so the latest Linux kernel is now expected this weekend.  Tihs should not yield any significant changes, so we can check what’s new in Linux 5.12, notably with regards to Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V architectures often used in SoC’s found in embedded systems. Around two months ago, the release of Linux 5.11 added support for Intel’s software guard extensions (SGX) and Platform Monitoring Technology (PMT), AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey cavefish” graphics processors, MIPI I3C host controller interfaces, and much more. Some interesting changes in Linux 5.12 include: Added support for ACRN hypervisor designed for IoT & embedded devices Added support for Playstation DualSense & Nintendo 64 game controllers, as well as Nintendo 64 data cartridges Dynamic thermal power management via a […]

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 […]

Linaro 13.10 Release with Linux Kernel 3.12 and Android 4.3

Linaro has just posted a blog entry to announced Linaro 13.10 was available for download. This is normally supposed to occur on the last Thursday of the month, but it’s possible the release occurred on scheduled, and the blog post was late, or it may have been delayed because of Linaro Connect US 2013. You can access a summary of the event together with slides and videos of the sessions and keynotes when available. This release includes the Linux Kernel 3.12-rc5 (staging), Kernel 3.10.14 (LSK), Android 4.3.1, and Ubuntu Linaro 13.10 (still based on Raring). Android has been ported and updated to 4.3.1 from AOSP, and the OS can now boot using UEFI. More work has been done on ARM 64-bit (aka ARMv8 or Aarch64) for Android, the Linux kernel, and tools such as uprobes, o-profile, and ftrace. Some new hardware platforms I may have missed before have popped up […]

Linux Kernel Debugging – Linaro Connect Q4 2011

Linaro Connect Q4.2011 takes place on the 31 October – 4 November 2011 in Orlando. In the video below, Linaro toolchain developers asked kernel developers about their potential needs for kernel debugging. Several options to improve the kernel debugging experience were discussed. In particular, the toolchain group will make sure that OpenOCD works at least on one of the member boards to allow for easy debugging through JTAG. They also mentioned support for o-profile. This session was an opportunity to review debugging techniques used by kernel developers. It also allowed most participants to discover the GDB Text User Interface (GDB TUI), a very convenient way to interact with GDB, without having to go through heavyweight environments like Eclipse. You can follow this subject on Blueprints for Toolchain support for Kernel Debugging on Linaro website. The audio is quite poor, so use some headphones or boost the volume to hear anything. […]

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