Linaro 11.12 Released!
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
habit." ~Aristotle
Linaro is pleased to announce the release of Linaro 11.12, a continuance of
Linaro releases delivered on a monthly cadence. The Linaro 11.12 release is
also the last release for 2011 calender year and continues to deliver
excellence and quality that members can expect to throughout 2012.
This release includes components delivered by all Linaro Teams: Working
Groups, Landing Teams and Platform Teams. This effort brings an abundance
of exciting updates and new features, integrated on top of Android and Ubuntu.
Now available with this release are the Linaro Android builds of Ice Cream
Sandwich (ICS) supporting accelerated graphics on two of its member's low cost
development boards; the Samsung Origen board and the ST-Ericsson Snowball
board. The accelerated graphics on both the Samsung Origen board and the
ST-Ericsson Snowball board that are now available are based on chips
incorporating a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and an ARM Mali-400 graphics
processor: Samsung's Exynos 4210 and ST-Ericsson's NovaThor9500.
http://www.linaro.org/accelerated-builds-of-android-ice-cream-sandwich-now-…
In addition to Snowball from ST-Ericsson, Origen from Samsung and PandaBoard
from TI, Linaro's Android Team and its Freescale Landing Team have set the
groundwork for bringing acceleration to the i.MX53 by stabilizing and
improving ICS on the Quick Start board.
Available Video Demonstrations include:
Snowball dev board running Linaro's build of Android ICS with hardware
acceleration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPFy2MFbUys&feature=youtu.be
Samsung's Mali accelerated Origen dev board running Linaro's build of
Android ICS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whpaltVa3pQ&feature=youtu.be
Samsung's Mali accelerated Origen dev board running Linaro's build of
Android ICS (with 3D demo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_MCLKmXDFA&feature=youtu.be
In addition to these highlights and improvements delivered by Linaro
engineers, the following updates and features are also available:
The Android Team continues to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and delivers
Linaro Android ICS built with the Linaro toolchain and running on all our
supported hardware. Other enhancements for ICS are DS-5 with Gator and
libjpeg-turbo support. Development of AOSP continues with a Linaro AOSP master
build now available.
The Development Platform Team delivers high quality improvements and features
which consist of the linux-linaro and lt-panda kernel packages, now
automatically generated by the CI build scripts. Other achievements from this
team include: UCM support is enabled in PulseAudio, integrated in our images
and works out of the box on i.MX53/PandaBoard boards. The preview images for
Ubuntu 12.04, Precise Pangolin are available and include nano, developer,
server, alip (Xfce desktop based), and ubuntu-desktop. The Ubuntu LEB now
includes debug packages (ddeb) for all Linaro-specific packages, which can be
downloaded from the Linaro Overlay PPA.
The Multimedia Team updates introduce the realvideo codec implementation in
libav, with NEON optimisations and Speex for Android which includes the NEON
optimisation patches. The team also addsupdates to the pulseaudio ucm branch,
alsa-lib ucm patches and includes alsa-ucm-pa tests to verify that the
pulseaudio ucm works as expected. Additionally, the Multimedia Team also
announces a prototype application for unattended end-to-end testing of the
audio stack for Ubuntu which works for Intel/Ubuntu and are available from:
http://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=people/kurt-r-taylor/e2eaudiotest.git
Memory management updates include the development of dri2proto, updates to
libdri2 which support dri2video and dri2video test app, updates to mesa and
implementation of the core functionality in xserver against xf86-video-nouveau
and xf86-video-omap. Trace events and debugfs support for CMA and made CMA
testing available for Snowball boards in LAVA are also found in this release.
The multimedia contributed code for memory management are also available (as
topic branches) from
git://git.linaro.org/people/jessebarker/linaro-mm-sig/linux.git
The Infrastructure Team is supporting the ongoing effort for Linaro as a
whole. The reworking of the Linaro roadmap under
http://status.linaro.org/11.12/roadmap-2011Q4.html
now includes artistic graphs that visualize work items progress for roadmap
goals. The Linaro build services can contain vendor-provided binary overlays
for hardware acceleration and are published in a way which requires click
through license acceptance before being downloaded. Click through license
acceptance has also been added to Android builds which use source overlays
from snapshots.linaro.org.
The Toolchain Working Group (WG) efforts this cycle show that the Linaro GCC
now includes support for 64 bit sync primitives, unaligned block moves on
ARMv7, and backports the Cortex-A15 pipeline description from the ongoing
upstream A15 work. Improvements to the vectorizer include updates to the
straight line vectorizer, including supporting operations with an arbitrary
number of operands, vectorizing conditions, and improved pattern recognition
support. Additionally, GDB now supports single stepping over atomic operations
and QEMU has been rebased on the new upstream 1.0 release.
The Validation Team lands the support of Samsung Origen boards on LAVA. The
boards are now available to run daily tests. In addition, the i.MX53 Quick
Start support improvements include the ability to deploy Android images and
run the Kernel CI testing. To streamline the deployment of LAVA and allow for
a more continuous testing and flexible deployment process, a new tool is
introduced: lava-deployment-tool.
The Graphics Team accomplishments in this release are numerous and include the
implementation of a GLMark2 benchmark for performing bilinear filtering
manually in shaders that are used to smooth textures when displayed larger or
smaller than their actual size. Other accomplishments include added support
for glproxy in glcompbench which allows choosing the backend (OpenGL or OpenGL
ES2) at runtime instead of building a different executable for each, EGL
virtualization support to glproxy, enabling it to virtualize EGL as it does
GLX, so applications can decide on using one or the other at run-time,
depending on availability. GLCompbench now shares some neat GLMark2 objects
for managing GLSL (and GLSL ES) shader source prior to compilation and
linking. These inclusions can be seen as a preprocessor for the strings read
out of the files on disk and allow for dynamic generation of precision
declarations, constants, and other symbols (or even whole sections of code) at
either global or local scope. Objects shared from GLMark2 include: Util,
ShaderSource, and the CompositeTestBase update to use ShaderSource. Also
updated shaders to useShaderSource, and derived GL-based test classes to
configure shaders. Additionally the Team enabled apitrace, which provides a
tracer and retracer executable, to work on systems having only EGL/GLES2
libraries.
The Power Management Team pushed a number of items upstream. Items include:
common clock patches v4 which includes support for OMAP4, version 2 of common
ARM and i.MX cpuidle driver, a patch for non ACPI based generic processor
cooling devices, and a patch for a new trip type needed for cooling devices
like cpufreq. The Team also integrated sched_mc for ARM into Linaro Kernel,
and for thermal management tested that temperature is reduced in production
using the current solution on Origen board.
Full details of this release, including detailed release highlights and known
issues, can be found on the release pages of our Wiki.
http://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1112/Release
We encourage everybody to use the 11.12 release. The download links for all
images and components are available on our downloads page:
http://www.linaro.org/downloads/
See the detailed highlights of this release to get an overview of what has
been accomplished by the Working Groups, Landing Teams and Platform Teams.
The release details are linked from the “Details” column for each released
artifact on the release information:
http://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1112/Release#Release_Information
Using the Android-based images
==============================
The Android-based images come in three parts: system, userdata and boot.
These need to be combined to form a complete Android install. For an
explanation of how to do this please see:
http://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Android/ImageInstallation
If you are interested in getting the source and building these images yourself
please see the following pages:
http://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Android/GetSourcehttp://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Android/BuildSource
Using the Ubuntu-based images
=============================
The Ubuntu-based images consist of two parts. The first part is a hardware
pack, which can be found under the hwpacks directory and contains hardware
specific packages (such as the kernel and bootloader). The second part is the
rootfs, which is combined with the hardware pack to create a complete image.
For more information on how to create an image please see:
http://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/DevPlatform/Ubuntu/ImageInstallation
Getting involved
================
More information on Linaro can be found on our websites:
Homepage: http://www.linaro.org
Wiki: http://wiki.linaro.org
Also subscribe to the important Linaro mailing lists and join our IRC channels
to stay on top of Linaro developments.
Announcements:
http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-announce
Development:
http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-dev
IRC:
#linaro on irc.linaro.org or irc.freenode.net
#linaro-android irc.linaro.org or irc.freenode.net
Known issues with this release
==============================
For any errata issues, please see:
http://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1112/Release#Known_Issues
Bug reports for this release should be filed in Launchpad against the
individual packages that are affected. If a suitable package cannot be
identified, feel free to assign them to:
http://www.launchpad.net/linaro
--
David Zinman
Linaro Release Manager | Project Manager
Linaro.org | Open source software for ARM SoCs
Today we are announcing the new Linaro Community Contributor process[0] and
team[1].
Linaro itself is now an organisation of around 120 engineers, but as we
continue to grow the community around us is also growing fast. We're
grateful to the many people who are participating in our success, and so
we're introducing the Community Contributor process to recognise those
community members who have sustained contributions over a significant
period of time. Our Technical Leads now have the opportunity to nominate an
individual as a Community Contributor of Linaro. The benefits of becoming a
Community Contributor will include:
* a Linaro e-mail address
* the right to carry Linaro business cards (we supply the artwork, you
print your own cards)
* a Linaro IRC cloak
* listing in the relevant Working Group on our Linaro organisation structure
* listing in the Launchpad Community Contributors Team
Applying to be a Linaro Community Contributor is an easy process.
Community members can apply by requesting a nomination from a Linaro
Technical Lead (alternately, the Technical Lead may approach them about the
application).
After that they will need to complete and sign our Community Contributor
Agreement[2].
The main points are that the community contributor agrees to are:
* to our e-mail terms of use, including use of your Linaro e-mail for
upstream contributions
* a copyright and patent licence to Linaro for any code you contribute with
that e-mail address
Once that's done, the Technical Lead submits the nomination and completed
Agreement to our Community Board [3]. The nomination will normally describe
how the community member has worked with Linaro, any Blueprints they may
have been involved with and Linaro Connect events they may have attended.
The Community Board will then evaluate all nominations within 2 weeks of
submission and all being well the community member will be welcomed as a
Community Contributor. We currently have nominations and signed agreements
filtering in so this is an exciting time for all of us.
We place a lot of value on having a vibrant network of Community
Contributors, so this does mean we reserve the right to cancel an
appointment at any time if we feel the Contributor is not active in using
the above benefits.
To find out more about the Linaro community and how to participate please
see our community section [4] of linaro.org [5]
Please feel free to email the Community Board [6] if you have questions or
wish to submit a community member for consideration.
[0] - https://wiki.linaro.org/CommunityContributor
[1] - https://launchpad.net/~linaro-community-contributors
[2] -
https://wiki.linaro.org/CommunityContributor?action=AttachFile&do=view&targ…
[3] - https://wiki.linaro.org/CommunityContributor/CommunityBoard
[4] - http://www.linaro.org/community/
[5] - http://www.linaro.org/
[6] - community-board [AT] linaro [DOT]org
--
Amber Graner
User Experience and Community Specialist
Linaro.org <http://www.linaro.org/>* **│ *Open source software for ARM SoCs*
***
Follow *Linaro: *Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Linaro> |
Twitter<http://twitter.com/#%21/linaroorg>
| Blog <http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/>
*+1.828.582.9469* cell
*+1.828.395.1049* office
irc: akgraner
amber.graner(a)linaro.org (email and Google chat)
The Linaro Toolchain Working Group is pleased to announce the 2011.12
release of both Linaro GCC 4.6 and Linaro GCC 4.5.
Linaro GCC 4.6 2011.12 is the tenth release in the 4.6 series. Based
off the latest GCC 4.6.2+svn181866, it contains a range of vectoriser
performance improvements and general bug fixes.
Interesting changes include:
* Updates to 4.6.2+svn181866
* Generic tuing support for Big-endian platforms.
* SLP support for operations with arbirary numbers of operands.
* SLP support for conditions.
* Pattern recognition support in basic-block SLP.
* Enhancements to mixed-size condition pattern recognition.
* Support for 64bit __sync* primitives on ARM.
* Unaligned block-move support for ARMv7.
* Added Cortex-A15 integer pipeline tuning.
Linaro GCC 4.5 2011.12 is the sixteenth release in the 4.5
series. Based off the latest GCC 4.5.3+svn181877, this is a
maintenance focused release.
Interesting changes in 4.5 include:
* Updates to 4.5.3+svn181877
The source tarballs are available from:
https://launchpad.net/gcc-linaro/+milestone/4.6-2011.12https://launchpad.net/gcc-linaro/+milestone/4.5-2011.12
Downloads are available from the Linaro GCC page on Launchpad:
https://launchpad.net/gcc-linaro
More information on the features and issues are available from the
release page:
https://launchpad.net/gcc-linaro/4.6/4.6-2011.12https://launchpad.net/gcc-linaro/4.5/4.5-2011.12
Mailing list: http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-toolchain
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gcc-linaro/
Questions? https://ask.linaro.org/
Interested in commercial support? inquire at support(a)linaro.org
The Linaro Toolchain Working Group is pleased to announce the
release of Linaro QEMU 2011.12.
Linaro QEMU 2011.12 is the latest monthly release of
qemu-linaro. Based off upstream (trunk) QEMU, it includes a
number of ARM-focused bug fixes and enhancements.
New in this month's release:
- There are no Linaro-specific changes of note in this release
- This release is based on the upstream QEMU 1.0 release.
(Note that future qemu-linaro releases will continue to track
upstream trunk; the release dates for upstream and our
release just happened to be conveniently aligned in this case.)
Known issues:
- Graphics do not work for OMAP3 based models (beagle, overo)
with 11.10 Linaro images.
- This release of qemu-linaro is known not to work on ARM hosts.
(See bugs #883133, #883136)
The source tarball is available at:
https://launchpad.net/qemu-linaro/+milestone/2011.12
More information on Linaro QEMU is available at:
https://launchpad.net/qemu-linaro
The Linaro Toolchain Working Group is pleased to announce the release of
Linaro GDB 7.3.
Linaro GDB 7.3 2011.12 is the fourth release in the 7.3 series. Based off
the latest GDB 7.3.1, it includes a number of ARM-focused bug fixes and
enhancements.
This release contains:
* Update to GDB 7.3.1 code base
* Support single-stepping atomic operations (LDREX/STREX sequences)
The source tarball is available at:
https://launchpad.net/gdb-linaro/+milestone/7.3-2011.12
More information on Linaro GDB is available at:
https://launchpad.net/gdb-linaro
