A new branch is being added to the Linaro Networking kernel git repository.
This new branch tracks the latest stable kernel from kernel.org for which an RT patch set has been released... currently v3.18.11-RT7.

Starting with this pristine upstream stable kernel, the latest released PREEMPT_RT_FULL patch set was applied to derive a baseline v3.18.11-rt7 kernel.

Specific patches were then applied to provide additional features of interest to Linaro networking group.  Initially, support is provided for huge pages, KVM hosting, big and little endian operation,
and of course, full RT preemption.  NO_HZ_FULL isolation patches are not included in this
initial version of the new kernel branch, but should be available soon.  The initial reference
platform supported is the Cortex A15 based Insignal Arndale board, with aarch64 support
expected to follow shortly.

Below is a summary of the additional changes made to the initial 3.18.11-rt7 baseline:

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These are the changes applied to kernel.org Linux v3.18.11-rt7 to create linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt:
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The following changes since commit 93d431e2909e0ec03127b861f4865cde89d84520:

  Merge tag 'v3.18.11-rt7-lno1' into linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt (2015-04-14 21:48:56 +0200)

are available in the git repository at:


  http://git.linaro.org/people/gary.robertson/staging-linux-linaro-lng.git linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt

for you to fetch changes up to 7f54cddfc767c29bc030a9f512c1d5e8e33f337d:

  Merge branch 'linux-linaro-lng-v3.18' into linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt (2015-04-21 08:15:06 -0500)

----------------------------------------------------------------

Anders Roxell (1):
      arch: arm64: enable juno dtb

Gary S. Robertson (6):
      base commit (empty)
      Create new configs topic branch
      Merge branch 'configs' into linux-linaro-lng-v3.18
      nfsroot - cleanup trailing options on boot command line
      Make ISR threading a compile-time-only option
      Merge branch 'linux-linaro-lng-v3.18' into linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt

Liviu Dudau (1):
      arm64: Create link to include/dt-bindings to enable C preprocessor use.

Victor Kamensky (7):
      mtd: map.h endian fix
      mmc: dw_mmc endian fix
      exynos: secondary_startup endian fix
      exynos: serial clear and set big endian fix
      exynos: boot serial endian fix
      exynos: driver raw read and write endian fix
      exynos: enable big endian support

 arch/arm/include/debug/samsung.S        |   9 ++
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/Kconfig            |  10 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/common.h           |   4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/exynos.c           |   6 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/firmware.c         |   2 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/headsmp.S          |   6 +
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/mcpm-exynos.c      |   6 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/platsmp.c          |   4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/pm.c               |   4 +-
 arch/arm/mach-exynos/pm_domains.c       |   6 +-
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/cpu.c             |   8 +-
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/pm-common.c       |   8 +-
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/pm-debug.c        |  24 ++--
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/pm-gpio.c         |  66 +++++------
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/wakeup-mask.c     |   6 +-
 arch/arm/plat-samsung/watchdog-reset.c  |   8 +-
 drivers/clk/samsung/clk-exynos5250.c    |   4 +-
 drivers/clk/samsung/clk-pll.c           | 122 ++++++++++----------
 drivers/clocksource/samsung_pwm_timer.c |  16 +--
 drivers/cpufreq/exynos4210-cpufreq.c    |  12 +-
 drivers/cpufreq/exynos4x12-cpufreq.c    |  13 ++-
 drivers/cpufreq/exynos5250-cpufreq.c    |  12 +-
 drivers/cpufreq/exynos5440-cpufreq.c    |  28 ++---
 drivers/gpio/gpio-samsung.c             |  92 +++++++--------
 drivers/irqchip/exynos-combiner.c       |   8 +-
 drivers/mmc/host/dw_mmc.c               |  42 +++----
 drivers/mmc/host/dw_mmc.h               |  26 +++--
 drivers/tty/serial/samsung.c            |  43 ++++++-
 drivers/tty/serial/samsung.h            |   4 +-
 fs/nfs/nfsroot.c                        |   8 +-
 include/linux/interrupt.h               |   6 +-
 include/linux/mtd/map.h                 |  12 +-
 kernel/irq/manage.c                     |  15 +--
 linaro/configs/android.conf             |  42 +++++++
 linaro/configs/arndale.conf             |  95 ++++++++++++++++
 linaro/configs/big-LITTLE-IKS.conf      |   5 +
 linaro/configs/bigendian.conf           |   4 +
 linaro/configs/debug.conf               |   1 +
 linaro/configs/distribution.conf        |  67 +++++++++++
 linaro/configs/highbank.conf            |  40 +++++++
 linaro/configs/hugepage.conf            |   3 +
 linaro/configs/kvm-guest.conf           |  17 +++
 linaro/configs/kvm-host.conf            |  13 +++
 linaro/configs/linaro-base.conf         | 120 +++++++++++++++++++
 linaro/configs/no_hz_full.conf          |  17 +++
 linaro/configs/omap4.conf               | 196 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 linaro/configs/ovs.conf                 |  11 ++
 linaro/configs/preempt-rt.conf          |   4 +
 linaro/configs/preemption.conf          |   2 +
 linaro/configs/ubuntu-minimal.conf      |   1 +
 linaro/configs/vexpress-tuning.conf     |   1 +
 linaro/configs/vexpress.conf            |  64 +++++++++++
 linaro/configs/vexpress64.conf          |  56 +++++++++
 linaro/configs/xen.conf                 |   7 ++
 54 files changed, 1113 insertions(+), 293 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/android.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/arndale.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/big-LITTLE-IKS.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/bigendian.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/debug.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/distribution.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/highbank.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/hugepage.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/kvm-guest.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/kvm-host.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/linaro-base.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/no_hz_full.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/omap4.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/ovs.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/preempt-rt.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/preemption.conf
 create mode 120000 linaro/configs/ubuntu-minimal.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/vexpress-tuning.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/vexpress.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/vexpress64.conf
 create mode 100644 linaro/configs/xen.conf


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Regression tests were run for LE and BE variants of linux-linaro-lng-v3.18-rt and the results are compared against the corresponding linux-linaro-lng-v3.14-rt variants below:

latest linux-linaro-lng-v3.14-rt
big-endian variant: