Linaro 12.04 Release with Kernel 3.4 and Android 4.0.4

Linaro has just released version 12.04 based on Linux Kernel 3.4-rc3 and Android 4.0.4_r1.1.

This release already provides Ubuntu 12.04 LTS images for Pandaboard, Snowball, Origen and Versatile Express, and all community builds (nano, ALIP…) are based on Ubuntu Precise Pangolin as well. This should provide significant performance boosted compared to Ubuntu 11.10 thanks to hard-float support and other optimization (See Phoronix Benchmarks). A lot of work since to have gone into big.LITTLE implementation, HTML5 is now supported in Firefox, and it seems Linaro is still working on ARMv6 as they provided VP8 optimizations and improved the toolchain for this architecture.

Here are the highlights of the release:

Android
- Finished Snowball Multimedia enablement.
- Updated all builds to AOSP ICS 4.0.4_r1.1.
- Switched all builds to 4.7.
- Updated base toolchain components MPFR and GMP.
- Ported htop to Android.
- Ported stressapptest to Android for big.LITTLE Testing.
- Implemented and ran weekly big.LITTLE tests.
- Integrated Versatile Express RTSM 3.4 Linux Kernel upgrade.
- Created a Versatile Express RTSM with the integrated switcher platform.
- Added android.inputmethodservice tests to the build and LAVA.
- Added android.bluetooth tests to the build and LAVA.
- Upgraded Samsung Origen to the 3.4 kernel with hardware acceleration.
- Added SMP tests to LAVA.
Developer Platform
- Linaro Ubuntu switched to Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) based images. The new set of images is built for ARM hard float (armhf) images.
- The perf test case available in lava-test was updated and improved.
- Linaro U-boot is now based on the latest upstream release v2012.04.1.
- Pre-built images are now provided in a daily basis thus helping users that don’t want or can’t use linaro-media-create.
- Continuous Multi-Arch fixes for Ubuntu Precise (12.04), improving the cross-build support considerably: http://people.linaro.org/~wookey/buildd/precise/sbuild-ma/status.html
- Developer Platform images now provide support for the big.LITTLE integrated switcher and A15 Fast Models with KVM kernel
- Weekly testing coverage of the big.LITTLE project (both with the reference and integrated switcher)
- Linux Linaro 12.04 was released, with more than 20 topics/branches integrated, including Landing Team support for ARM Vexpress and Samsung Origen targets
Infrastructure
- Restricted Android artifacts are published on http://snapshots.linaro.org/android/~linaro-android-restricted/, protected using openid authentication.
- Snowball binary update is semi-automated using CI.
Graphics
- The Linaro Compiz GL ES changes were applied as a distribution patch for the ARM build of Compiz in the Ubuntu archive and are now available in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) release.
- An extension to the EGL specification is proposed to allow the creation of an EGLImage from a dma-buf handle (file descriptor).
- Documentation now added to GLProxy’s API.
Kernel
- Linaro restricted git server is created. Linaro members and permitted guests can access private builds.
- DT support for Samsung SPI and Display Controller are added.
Multimedia
- A more robust and modular end to end audio test application is now available for Ubuntu.
- Updated PulseAudio.
- New gstreamer family of packages in support of UMM development based on upstream.
- New version of Firefox which includes gstream support for HTML 5 video.
- Refreshed version of libjpeg-turbo (including bug fix for Ubuntu reported defect).
- Initial audio LEB validation suite for landing team engineers.
- ARMv6 optimizations for VP8 in libav.
- tjunittest from libjpeg-turbo added to LAVA.
- Initial ucm for android added to Linaro Android build for PandaBoard.
Power Management
- cpufreq-based thermal management work is merged for i.MX and Origen platforms.
- cpuidle was refreshed for all members platforms since several patches have now been accepted in Linux 3.4 Kernel.
Toolchain
- Our first GCC 4.7 based release, including updates to GCC 4.7.0+svn186061.
- Better use of 16 bit Thumb-2 instructions for smaller code size.
- Implements 64 bit ones complement in NEON.
- Adds support for the ARMv6 saturation instructions.
- Backports the NEON lexer improvements for faster compilation.
- Backports the 64 bit multiply, divide, and mod improvements.
- ppoll syscall now supported in ARM linux-user mode.
- The SETEND instruction in the Thumb encoding now UNDEFs to match behaviour for the ARM encoding.
- The OMAP36xx UART FIFO status registers are now implemented.
- gdbserver can now be compiled with Android’s toolchain.
- Additional fixes from the GDB 7.4 branch, one of them being that it doesn’t require makeinfo to build anymore.
- Binary toolchain switched to the new GCC 4.7 based Linaro GCC. It adds native language support to most of the programs and also the mudflap, ssp, and gomp runtime libraries. gnu_unique_object support in GCC is enabled.
Validation
- Support added for custom android command.
- tjbench support added to lava-android-test. The results are available on validation.linaro.org.

Here are the known issues for this release (All for Android and none for Ubuntu…) :

Bluetooth does not work on Origen
Tethering over Bluetooth/WiFi/USB missing on ICS on Panda
Audio doesn’t work on iMX53
HW graphics acceleration does not work on iMX53/iMX6
Tethering over Bluetooth/WiFi/USB missing in ICS
Hardware accelerated Audio playback support missing
Hardware accelerated Video playback support missing
GLMark2 exits with warning, unable to Run the benchmark
Test steps missing for Power management tests at Android Level(Wakelock ClockTree P-States C-States powertop )
Modem test steps to be identified
Define “OpenAccessory” test steps
Identify test steps for HwAudio validation
Panda: Audio record and audio playback fails
DVI out port is not working with staging-panda or tracking-panda
vexpress-a9: No sound in Android
vexpress-a9: USB mass storage doesn’t work
Unable to play youtube videos(ICS)
SD card not accessible(checked via Gallery app)
Phone app missing on ICS
USB mass storage functionality missing
Camera App does not work on ICS
Ethernet interface down after bootup.
Messaging crashes if try to use it
vexpress-a9: ICS: Suspend-Resume doesn’t work
vexpress-a9: ICS: No thumbnails in gallery application
Define test steps for “SMP” test case
vexpress-a9: Video playback fails in Gallery app
Panda: Resume failing on tracking-panda build
glmark2 crashed on tracking-panda#145
Downloading an .apk from a Site never finishes. Rights issue?
USB SD card export not working
No USB camera support
Manual ethernet configuration required to enable browsing
Tracking-Panda: Video Recording using camera app fails, Camera app crashes
Wifi does not always work on Samsung Origen
“powertop” command doesn’t work on iMX53.
No shell on serial console on iMX6
iMX6 LVDS display doesn’t wake up from PM state
Youtube video does not work in small screen mode(Origen Board)
android: kernel 3.3 doesn’t come out of hibernation
Device Tree is unavailable on Linaro Android build for Panda Board, Snowball, Samsung Origen and Freescale i.MX53
iMX6 occasionally fails to boot
system_server crashes when using Browser
vexpress: HDMI hotplug causes lockup
vexpress: Angrybirds display severely trucated
snowball: ds-5 test fails
vexpress: YouTube video playback fails
vexpress: Device-tree not yet supported on A9
vexpress: 0xbench hangs running native tests
Testing calendar app requires Exchange server
Snowball: Audio playback on Bluetooth headset fails
Snowball: Board hangs while doing Bluetooth file transfer
Origen Android can’t play 1080p H.264 AAC 25fps 7200K Video.
Ethernet default interfaces are invalid.
Snowball: Email account setup fails while trying email app
Snowball: Audio recording does not work as expected.
Panda: Bluetooth file transfer fails (Rfcomm socket connect exception)
Panda: Youtube video playback fails
Panda: No Audio output for games/audio playback/touch
origen: hdmi doesn’t work on origen-ics-gcc47-samsunglt-stable-blob-12.04-release

Go to https://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1204/Release for further release details about the LEB, Android, Kernel, Graphics, 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.