Interesting things are happening, but many people on this list might not be subscribed to linaro-announce, so here's a full quote:
On Sat, 7 Nov 2015 03:53:43 -0300, wrote:
It took a bit longer than originally planned, but we're finally able to announce the first Reference Software Platform release (alpha).
The Reference Software Platform Lead Project is part of the Linaro 96Boards initiative. The goal of the project is to deliver Linaro output for ARM SoCs using 96Boards products for use cases ranging from the Embedded to the Enterprise segments. This release includes bootloader, kernel, distributions (Debian) and AOSP. It comprise loadable software for the current 96Boards products (HiKey and Dragonboard410c), reference source code, and documentation on installing the images and building the source code.
In case you are unfamiliar with the project, we had a great session that was presented during Linaro Connect SFO15, and it can be found at http://connect.linaro.org/resource/sfo15/sfo15-104-the-96boards-software-ref...
Goals we had for this release:
- Bootstrap the CI jobs required to build and publish the components
and images (more details at https://github.com/96boards/documentation/wiki/Reference-Software-CI)
- Single Debian root file system that could be consumed by both HiKey
and Dragonboard410c
- Recent kernel, even if not yet fully functional, since the goal is
to reduce maintenance and support overhead and accelerate ongoing development by focusing on upstream feature support
- AOSP based on latest Android Release (6.0 Marshmallow), initially just HiKey
A lot was accomplished during last month, and we're happy to announce that we're using a 4.3 based kernel for both HiKey and Dragonboard410c (Debian). The builds are still not sharing the same branch (due conflicts at the adv7511 driver), but we hope to be able to get this fixed over the next few weeks (and published as part of our next release).
While the release supports many of the available hardware features for both Hikey and Dragonboard410c, it is in ALPHA state, so bugs are expected. For a better user experience, please use the previous releases available at https://builds.96boards.org/releases/dragonboard410c/ and https://builds.96boards.org/releases/hikey/.
Highlights for this release:
CE Debian RPBs:
- Debian 8.2 "Jessie"
- 4.3 kernel (with additional patches)
- OpenJDK 8 included by default
- 96Boards artworks and default settings
CE AOSP RPB:
- AOSP Android Marshmallow 6.0
- 3.18 based kernel
Install instructions, known issues, test reports and instructions to build from source are all published at https://github.com/96boards/documentation/wiki/ReferenceSoftware. We should also see more progress into a more complete set of documentation during the course of the next release.
For general questions or support requests, please go to the 96boards.org Community forum - https://www.96boards.org/forums/. Please submit bugs to the 96Boards.org bugzilla (https://bugs.96boards.org/). For IRC support, please go to the #96boards channel @Freeode.
What about this mailing list?
Make sure to check https://github.com/96boards/documentation/wiki/ReferenceSoftware for more information about this project and the release.
Challenges for the next release (15.12 - official date to be announced):
- Have both boards using a single kernel tree/branch and a single kernel binary
- Better understanding about the upstream gaps
- Adding support for CE AOSP for Dragonboard410c (with freedreno)
- Adding support for CE OE/Yocto
- Enterprise Edition
Here's a major challenge Linaro doesn't bother to acknowledge beyond awkward IRC comments: - Address the non-compliance of your 96boards - Publish a compliant open source boot loader for db410c that loads after ROM code, as required by spec. (see previous mails)
We hope you enjoy the release!
I'm certainly going to try it out, it looks promising.
On behalf of the Linaro 96Boards team,
Ricardo Salveti
Cheers,
Thomas
PS: Please resist the obvious management approach "Let's adjust the spec to match what we have". It would essentially completely discredit your efforts and send the signal that Linaro does not care about those goals, but instead completely bends to member commercial interests and those boards are worthless for most use cases. Acknowledge you fsckd up big time, publish a post mortem, consolidate your compliance documentation to be less confusing, make sure all future boards are compliant.