linaro News - Page 15 of 27 - CNX Software

June 28, 2013July 31, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 13.06 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.06 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.10-rc6 and Android 4.2.2. Linux Linaro Stable (LSK) preview is based on kernel 3.9.6. There seems to have been a lot of activity for the LAVA and Builds and Integration teams, with LAVA support for new SoC such as Huawei K3V2 and Broadcom Capri from 2 companies which have recently joined Linaro as members, and well as continuous build for Linaro Stable Kernel. On the kernel side, more work has been done for multi-platform support (unified kernel), uprobes, eMMC power mamangement, and more. Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA LAVA Core As part of the effort to improve the developer experience with LAVA, the different client tools were consolidated into a single package, which simplifies the process of updating the tools and makes it easier for the team to provide new features for LAVA users. LAVA now supports KVM devices, […]

June 1, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Gumstix Alto35 Customizable Touchscreen Board

A few months ago, Gumstix introduced Geppeto, a web platform that allows you to design and order your own baseboard for Gumstix Overo systems-on-module within minutes. The company has just announced Alto35, an expansion board built entirely with Geppetto. The Alto35 replaces Palo35 Overo-series expansion board with the same features, but adding the possibility of customizing the board via Geppetto. Alto34 expansions board features the following: 3.5″ LCD resistive touch screen Stereo audio in/out jacks 3D accelerometer (STMicro LIS33DE) RC servo USB – 2x USB mini-B ports, including console port (FT232RQ USB UART) LEDs in 4 different colors, 2 tactile switches. 2×70-pin AVX Headers compatible with Overo COMs. Power – 3.5V-5V All Overo computers-on-module are compatible with Alto35 board, so you can just use existing software solutions such as Linaro Ubuntu, Robot Operating System, and the Yocto Project. Alto35 is available for $89 including the display (not the Overo module), […]

May 31, 2013June 6, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 13.05 Release With Linux Kernel 3.10, Android 4.2.2, and Ubuntu Raring Ringtail

Linaro 13.05 has just been released with Linux Kernel 3.10-rc2 and Android 4.2.2. This is the first release with Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) images. There’s also Linux Linaro Stable (LSK) preview based on kernel 3.9.4. BeagleBone Black support has been added and preliminary hwpack and images are available, an Android Arndale image with virtual framebuffer is also available. You can now get a desktop environment (XFCE) on Aarch64 / ARMv8. Hardware packs with Real-time Linux kernel (PREEMPT_RT) can be downloaded for Pandaboard and Arndale. More work has gone into Aarch64, big.LITTLE HMP, and ARM virtualization (KVM). Finally an UEFI is available not only for Vexpress boards, but also Samsung Origen and Arndale boards, as well as Texas Instruments Pandabord and Beagleboard. Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA First prototype production run of LAVA Lmp completed, tested functional. Beaglebone Black is now running in LAVA. TC2s is now running […]

May 3, 2013May 15, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linaro Releases IKS big.LITTLE Implementation Source Code

Yesterday, Linaro announced the released of the IKS (In-kernel switcher) implementation for big.LITTLE processor which allows the SoC to switch between individual Cortex A7 or Cortex A15 cores to optimize power consumption. Currently, the only consumer device using supporting big.LITTLE the Samsung Galaxy S4 thanks to Samsung Exynos 5 Octa featuring 4 ARM Cortex A7 and 4 ARM Cortex A15 cores. IKS implementation can only make use of 4 cores at a time in this processor, since it must choose between A7 or A15 depending on the load. HMP (Heteregenous Multi-Processing) implementation is currently worked on in order to be able to use all 8 cores, and distributes tasks to the right core for the job. You can read my previous post for differences between IKS and HMP. Linaro explains the current source still needs a few more modifications before being upstream to mainline. The code was developed for and […]

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linaro 13.04 Release With Linux Kernel 3.9 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.04 has just been released. It features Linux Kernel 3.9-rc7 and Android 4.2.2. A lot of work has been done on ARMv8 (Cortex A53) with further work on OpenEmbedded, more testing, and updates to the GCC toolchain. Calxeda EnergyCore server has been added to LAVA, Origen Quad now gets hardware video acceleration in Android Jelly Bean. Still more cleanup has been done on the kernel side with regards to Samsung and ST SoC, and a big.LITTLE porting guide is now available (linaro login required). Here are the highlights of this release: LAVA Prototype of a new publishing system is used to overcome performance problems with android-build.linaro.org. Calxeda EnergyCore support is merged in LAVA, and an isolated system has been set up for web benchmarking. Fedora support is merged in LAVA. A user can submit LAVA jobs using a Fedora pre-built image. Boot commands are untangled from LAVA dispatcher. They’re now […]

March 29, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 13.03 Release with Linux Kernel 3.9 and Android 4.2.2

Linaro 13.03 is now available, and features Linux Kernel 3.9-rc3 and Android 4.2.2. This month, Linaro has released their first Origen Quad Android image, as well as Tiny Android build for Arndale. The ALIP image listed in the download page is still based on Ubuntu 12.11, but as doc Bormental noticed earlier this month, the latest ALIP Quantal 13.03 image is available for download at https://releases.linaro.org/latest/ubuntu/quantal-images/alip. Some development tools (gcc, g++, vi, make..) are now included in Android, so you can develop and build natively from your Android device. Linaro has kept on cleaning the Linux kernel ARM tree for Exynos and ST Ericson SoCs. More work has been done on big.LITTLE for both IKS and HMP, as well as ARMv8 OpenEmbedded, and an initial GRUB port on ARM UEFI is now available. Here are the highlights of this release: Automation and Validation A simple CLI tool for communicating with […]

March 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Embedded Android Training Workshop At Linaro Connect Asia 2013

Karim Yaghmour, Opersys’ CEO, gave 4 training sessions dealing Embedded Android at Linaro Connect Asia 2013, in Hong Kong, earlier this month. Charbax filmed those 4 40 to 50 minutes session with excellent video and audio quality, so I encourage you to watch all sessions if you are interested in this topic. The presentation slides are available on Slideshare. The first training session is entitled “Android Internals”, and Karim introduces Android’s overall architecture, following the agenda below: Android Concepts Framework Intro Overall Architecture System startup Linux Kernel Hardware Support Native User-Space Dalvik JNI System Server Calling on Services Activity Manager Binder HAL Stock AOSP Apps Case-in-Point The second session “Working with the AOSP” deals with the following key points: Tools and location Content Building Build tricks Build system architecture Output images Using adb Custom toolchains and dev kits Compatibility Test Suite Basic hacks The third session entitled “Native Android user-space” […]

March 7, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Linaro Connect HK Greg Kroah-Hartman Keynote: “I Don’t Want Your Code!”

If you are a developer interested in getting your code into mainline, Greg KH keynote at Linaro Connect 2013 Hong Kong is probably worth a watch. In this presentation entitled “I Don’t Want Your Code! Linux Kernel Maintainers, why are they so grumpy?”, he first describes the large amount of patches they receive (7.28 patches per hour for kernel 3.8.0), gives some statistic about developers and companies involved with the kernel (about 20% is done by individuals), tells the audience they should submit the kernel code during SoC emulation/simulation stage, so that it’s accepted and ready to use when customers get the silicons (like Intel does), and quotes Intel and IBM executives saying “Working upstream saves time and money”. He then moves on what he does not want to see (and gets a lot): patch series with missing patches, email signature saying it’s confidential (since Linux development is done publicly, […]