No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect. ~Edward Teller

The Linaro 13.09 release is now available for download!

The 13.09 release includes the first formal release of the Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK). The LSK will provide access to new Linaro features integrated with the most recent kernel.org Long Term Stable (LTS) release. For more details, please refer to LSK website - https://wiki.linaro.org/LSK

Here are some of the other highlights, by group: * LAVA has seen significant new hardware additions, with more expected over the next couple of months. In the hardware area, the Calxeda Midway server is now available to Linaro developers and the Linaro Networking Group (LNG) rack has been deployed. Software support is available for the LAVA Multi-purpose Probe (LMP) in lava-test-shell and the SD-MUX is in staging. The LAVA team has also completed the migration from Bazaar (bzr) to Git with this release. * The Graphics working group has included a mix of essential updates and new work for future solutions including dma-buf changes for 3.12, Common Display Framework (CDFv3) prototyping and implementation on member hardware, an update of libjpeg-turbo including a refresh for Android plus new ARMv8 support, and an initial libpng port of NEON acceleration to intrinsics. * Also leading the way on developments for the future, the Virtualization team has completed upstreaming of AArch64 preparation support for QEMU and the first patches for Xen bring up on APM ARMv8 hardware. Many items are also in the upstream pipe, including ARMV7-A Guest Migration functionality, Xen device tree editing, mach-virt and the ARMv8-A port of libvirt. This last item, libvirt, is now functional on ARMv7-A and functional testing has started. * If you’re interesting in an approach for converting older code that uses wake locks to code using wakeup sources, Zoran Markovic from the Power Management working group has posted a blog discussing this here: http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/2013/08/26/converting-code-implementing-su.... The group has also released Linaro Powerdebug 0.7.1-2013.09 and Linaro PM QA 0.4.4-2013.09. * In the 13.09 release, in addition to the Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK) 3.10.12-2013.09, the Builds and Baselines team have released Linux Linaro 3.11-2013.09, Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2013.09 and various improvements on the baselines. In collaboration with the ARM Landing team, the AArch64 OpenEmbedded Engineering Build for ARM Fast Models for ARMv8 is produced, validated and released, based on the latest AArch64 open source software from Tianocore EDK2 (UEFI), the Linux kernel, ARM Trusted Firmware and OpenEmbedded. This release includes Linaro OpenEmbedded images for Foundation, Versatile Express and FVP Base fast models from ARM.

We encourage everybody to use the 13.09 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:

== Android Engineering ==

* Rebased Juice kernel to Linux Linaro (ll_20130906.0 of git://git.linaro.org/kernel/linux-linaro-tracking.git) * Fixed couple of CTS bugs found in previous release * https://cards.linaro.org/browse/JUICE-140 * https://cards.linaro.org/browse/JUICE-141 * Merged all latest changes from AOSP on android-4.3_r3 to Linaro Android * CTS tests pass 100%, validation completed successfully

== Builds and Baselines ==

* Linaro Stable Kernel 3.10.12-2013.09 released * Based off 3.10.12 stable tree * big.LITTLE support: * ARM MP patch set * IKS * Versatile Express TC2 support * Power efficient workqueue support * Android v3.10 experimental patch set from AOSP * Interactive scheduler enhancements for big.LITTLE * Linux Linaro 3.11-2013.09 released * based on linux-linaro-core-tracking tree, llct-20130916.0 tag: * based on v3.11 release * gator version 5.15 (same version as in 13.06 release) * updated linaro-android-3.11 topic by John Stultz * updated big-LITTLE-pmu, iks, iks-cpufreq, and interactive-gov-updates topics from ARM LT * binder 64 bit patch * updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT (GPIO, 8250_dw serial, wdt, sdhci, ...) * updated Versatile Express patches from ARM LT * updated arndale/exynos patches from Samsung LT: new patches for MIPI display panels added * vexpress64 support (both RTSM and Foundation model) * config fragments changes: * distribution.conf: enabled BRIDGE_EBT_T_NAT, required by libvirt * kvm-guest.conf: updated to allow for testing on arm64 * new linaro-base64.conf created: it is for generic config options for ARM64 builds. Currently contains the options needed for libhugetlbfs. * Linaro Toolchain Binaries 2013.09 released * includes latest Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.09 release * introduces a set of experimental (pre-alpha) cross-compilers for big-endian ARM architectures * Linaro Android baseline updates * Android Emulator support was added * Android builds updated to latest Linaro toolchain 4.8-2013.09 * Methanol test fixed in lava-android-test * Member build to track HiSilicon LT public kernel is setup * Linaro OpenEmbedded baseline updates * Update to Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.09 release * minimal-initramfs image for accelerating LAVA deployments added * QEMU added and updated to follow git HEAD * LNG images: added calibrator, fping, qemu and openvswitch * LEG image: openjdk fixes and updates * Preliminary ALIP recipe with matchbox, gator and firefox * Linaro images now also include meta-gnome, meta-browser and meta-virtualization layers * Support for FVP Base fast models for AArch64 from ARM * Includes UEFI and Trusted Firmware Binaries * Kernel "Image" and *.dtb files are now available in the image * Linaro Ubuntu baseline updates * packages updates: edk2-uefi, libunwind, powerdebug, netperf, openssl. * added fvp-pre-boot package

== Kernel ==

* The need for implementing idle time CACHE ctrl has been investigated * Patches to fix rescan and suspend/resume sequence of mmc/sd/sdio with regards how to set VC have been prepared * ARMv8-A instructions which are unsafe to probe, PC-relative, use exclusive monitors, and having other side-effects have been listed for kprobes * Fixed the bug that made Ux500 not boot on multi platform kernels * IOP gpiolib patches were iterated and made ready to be merged into the GPIO tree * Added support for LED triggers for the lp55xx device tree boot path * Patches to fix the handling of VCC voltage level for mmc/sd/sdio at card initialization and suspend|resume, have now been sent

== Graphics ==

* libpng - initial port of NEON acceleration to intrinsics * libjpeg-turbo - refresh for android and new armv8 support * IDCT - Fast * IDCT - slow * IDCT_4x4 pixel o/p from 8x8 * IDCT 2x2 pixel o/p from 8x8 * yuv to RGB conversion for24 and 32 bit depths * dma-buf changes for 3.12 * Expose buffer size to userspace (v2) * Check return value of anon_inode_getfile * cma-ion: fix an issue while access from CPU to memory * CDFv3 * Initial patches for VE with DRM on pl111 * MIPI DSI bus registeration using DT * ongoing: hwcomposer hal implemented with KMS

== LAVA ==

* LAVA Source code now in git * https://git.linaro.org/gitweb?s=lava%2F * New lava-deployment tool pulls from git * http://validation.linaro.org/static/docs/deployment-tool.html#getting-lava-d... * LAVA Documentation now hosted on the LAVA Server * http://validation.linaro.org/static/docs/ * LAVA Lab * Calxeda Midway server now up and available to Linaro developers * LNG rack is deployed * SDMUX is now in staging * Added Keystone II support * 2 Nexus 10s hosted in LAVA * Added x86 iPXE support * LAVA Core * Added LMP support in lava-test-shell * Multinode support landed * Updated cloned git branches with changes in original bazaar branches using git from Debian experimental * LAVA PDU daemon allows concurrent PDU reboot requests for multi-node jobs * Result bundle aggregation in MultiNode is redirected to the machine to which the original MultiNode job was submitted * XMLRPC call added for current device availability to support functional tests

== LEG ==

* Perf with support for stack frame unwinding https://wiki.linaro.org/LEG/Engineering/TOOLS/perf-libunwind * UEFI 2013.09 released * Rebased to Tianocore EDK2 SVN revision 14395 * Contains AArch64 support * Panda BSP is working again * OpenJDK: merged hotspot upstream up to jdk8-b85 (hotspot version hs25-b26) - so all hotspot components are now in the same revision * Sent patches upstream on performing AES encryption in CBC/CTR/XTS modes using ARMv8 Crypto Extensions http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-arm-kernel/2013-September/198241.... * Sent patches upstream for NEON based fast(er) AES in CBC/CTR/XTS modes http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-arm-kernel/2013-September/199523....

== LNG ==

* ODP Architecture * BE KVM works in alpha quality state: BE VExpress TC1; image boots and runs in BE Arndale kernel: changes involve both kernel and QEM * LNG Lab setup started / continuing * Hackbench test is now run as part of LNG CI * Cyclictest is now run as part of LNG CI on Fridays * Keystone II is in the lab * Arndale is in the lab, and has a second USB based ethernet port * Traffic generators are in the lab

== Power Management ==

* Linaro Powerdebug 0.7.1-2013.09 released * fixed error shown clock rates * fixed no refresh of regulator and sensor values after "R" key pressed * Linaro PM QA 0.4.4-2013.09 released * thermal: added support to list all thermal zones and cooling device * updated test urls * Posted an article on Suspend blockers for Android http://www.linaro.org/linaro-blog/2013/08/26/converting-code-implementing-su... * Blueprints are being moved from Launchpad to JIRA

== QA ==

* Study free and opensource benchmarking tool available to test our current Android/Ubuntu builds. * Automatic tool for test case documentation generation created http://staging.git.linaro.org/qa/test-documentation.git * Monitoring and update daily test dashboards * Full test on Linaro supported targets for Linaro 13.09 Release * Testing Grub on UEFI with ARM Versatile Express A9 board and Linux Linaro Ubuntu image * Pilot installation of qa-reports (https://github.com/leonidas/qa-reports) for the purpose of better reporting of engineering build testing results * Systemtap test suite full execution tested on Snowball target and results have been shared with developers * Open accessory test case for android created

== Toolchain ==

* Linaro GCC 4.8-2013.09 released, based off the latest GCC 4.8.1+svn202157 release * Improved AArch64 support (instructions, intrinsics) * Backports for bug fixes (PR56315,PR46975,PR57708,PR56979,PR57431,PR58041) * Linaro GCC 4.7-2013.09 released, based off the latest GCC 4.7.4+svn202210 release * Linaro eglibc 2.18-2013.09 released * Fix for clone(2) built for Thumb2 * Linaro GDB 7.6.1-2013.09-1 released * Fixes for debugging on AArch64 with hardware breakpoints

== Virtualization ==

* Upstreaming of ARMV7-A Guest Migration functionality is ongoing. * Xen device tree editing is being upstreamed * mach-virt is being upstreamed * AArch64 preparation support for QEMU went upstream * First patches for Xen bring up on APM ARMv8 hardware went upstream * libvirt is functional on ARMv7-A now, functional testing is ongoing * libvirt has been ported to ARMv8-A, upstreaming is starting

The release details are linked from the “Details” column for each released artifact on the release information:

http://wiki.linaro.org/Cycles/1309/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/GetSource http://wiki.linaro.org/Platform/Android/BuildSource

Using the OpenEmbedded-based images =======================

With the Linaro provided downloads and with ARM’s Fast Models virtual platform, you can boot a virtual ARMv8 system and run 64-bit binaries.

For more information please see:

http://www.linaro.org/engineering/armv8

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/1309/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