Release of Linux MTI-3.10-LTS kernel.

Imagination Technologies is pleased to announce the release of its 3.10 LTS (Long-Term Support) MIPS kernel. The changelog below is based off the stable Linux 3.10.14 release done by Greg Kroah-Hartman in commit 8c15abc94c737f9120d3d4a550abbcbb9be121f6 back on October 1st. The code repository is hosted at the Linux/MIPS project GIT:

http://git.linux-mips.org/?p=linux-mti.git;a=summary

We look forward to any comments or feedback.

The Imagination MIPS Kernel Team

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Upstream:
* Move to Linux 3.10.14

Userland visible changes:
* Fix ability to perform a soft reset on SEAD-3.
* Add 64-bit FP register support on 32-bit platforms.
* Add FPU2 IEEE754-2008 SNaN support.
* Support proAptiv/interAptiv core Perf-events.

Boot setup related changes:
* Update GCMP detection on Malta.
* Disable L2 cache on SEAD-3.
* Always register R4K clock when selected.
* Set cpu_has_mmips only if SYS_SUPPORTS_MICROMIPS is defined.
* Do not write EVA bit in the config5 CP0 register.

New drivers and features:
* Add interAptiv CPU support.
* Add proAPTIV CPU support.
* Add EVA to support 3GB virtual addressing for MIPS32 cores.
* Add ERLite-3 platform support.
* Add 64-bit address support on MIPS64R2 cores.
* Add uImage build target.
* Add MIPS32R2 SYNC optimization.
* Send IPIs using the GIC.

Developer visible changes:
* Move declaration of Octeon function fixup_irqs() to header.
* Drop obsolete NR_CPUS_DEFAULT_{1,2} config options.
* Remove -fstack-protector from CFLAGS when building images.
* CMP support needs to select SMP as well.
* Add printing of ES bit when cache error occurs.
* Enable DEVTMPFS on Malta.
* Remove ttyS2 serial support on Malta.

Fixes:
* Fix IDE PIO size calculation in IDE driver.
* Fix TLBR-use hazards for R2 cores in the TLB reload handlers.
* Fix execution hazard during watchpoint register probe.
* Fix POOL16C minor opcode enumerations for microMIPS.
* Fix gic_set_affinity infinite loop for GIC controller.
* Fix improper definition of ISA exception bit for microMIPS.
* Skip walking indirection page for crashkernels for kdump.
* Fix random crashes while loading crashkernel for kexec.
* Fix SMP core calculations when using MT support.
* Fix accessing to per-cpu data when flushing the cache.
* Fix VGA_MAP_MEM macro.
* 74K/1074K erratum workarounds.
* Bugfix of stack trace dump.
* MIPS HIGHMEM fixes for cache aliasing and non-DMA I/O.
* Revert fixrange_init() limiting to the FIXMAP region.
* Bugfix of Malta PCI bridges loop.
* Fix forgotten preempt_enable() when CPU has inclusive pcaches.
* Fix GIC interrupt offsets for Malta.
* Fix bug in using flush_cache_vunmap.
* Fix encoding for UUSK AM bits on the SegCtl registers for EVA.

Cleanups and refactors:
* Refactor boot and boot/compressed rules.
* Refactor load/entry address calculations.
* Drop FRAME_POINTER codepath in mcount.S file.
* Rearrange PTE bits into fixed positions for MIPS32R2.
* Remove X bit in page tables for HEAP/BSS.
* Rework cache flush functions.
* Re-implement VPE functionality as writes to a pseudo-device.
* Fix more section mismatch warnings.
* Remove platform_set_drvdata() in SEAD-3 USB driver.

2013/11/12 Steven J. Hill <[email protected]>:

Nice job! Do you have a rough idea of the delta between your LTS kernel and the current status of mainline/pending submissions?

Thanks!

Florian

Hi Florian,

Regarding the delta, hopefully the following stats give a rough idea:

I see 105 patches in the mti branch with the following total diffstat:

182 files changed, 18614 insertions(+), 1210 deletions(-)

With the help of git log's cherry-mark feature I count 66 of those patches corresponding to a patch in mainline since v3.10 (the largest of which is Aaro's Octeon USB HCD support patch, with 9992 insertions). 42 of these upstream patches were authored by somebody at IMG.

Out of the rest (patches not in mainline), the total insertions is 8175 and total deletions is 826. The largest of these patches by insertions are:

1) 4e5dd4434d94 MIPS: MIPS32R2 Segment/EVA support upto 3GB

36 files changed, 3819 insertions(+), 173 deletions(-)

2) 0d6f34364a6e MIPS: VPE: Re-implement as writes to a pseudo-device.

4 files changed, 826 insertions(+), 101 deletions(-)

3) 6442e3516c84 MIPS: -mfp64 for abi=o32 ELF binaries support.

17 files changed, 517 insertions(+), 77 deletions(-)

4) 65b4e451fc32 MIPS: Add proAPTIV CPU support.

21 files changed, 505 insertions(+), 44 deletions(-)

I'm optimistic the out-of-mainline delta will drop significantly over time.

Cheers
James

Hi,

Why multiple MIPS stable trees? There's already also
http://git.linux-mips.org/?p=ralf/linux.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/linux-3.10-stable?

Also 3.10.14 sounds quite old. Are you sure you are not missing any important fixes?

A.

We track 'linux-stable' because the ones on LMO have too much lag.

We ran this kernel on 20 different board/core combinations. They ran our stress test suite continuously for over a week at 100% load with no failures. We have high confidence in this particular release. There are always bugs, so your question is somewhat ridiculous. Regarding age, go ask the Android team why the latest KitKat release is running a 3.4.0 kernel and not the latest and greatest.

Hey Aaro.

I wanted to apologize for my earlier email that could have been much shorter without being snarky. In short, we have a long test cycle and that we are tracking LTS support kernels and will be doing regular updates. A few months ago 3.10 was chosen as the next LTS version. We decided for stability and continued bug fixes to go with it.

Steve

Hi,

No worries. I was actually curious about, and should have asked directly, if and how you are planning to track the long term kernels in the future. I look forward seeing how this tree will work in longer term, it's also great that someone is testing MIPS kernel with such a wide range of boards.

Thanks,

A.