How to Port freescale BSP kernel patches to Linus Tree and is this really required ?

[sanjeevsharma]

Hello All,

I wanted to understand how close is Freescale BSP kernel to Linus mainline kernel.Dow we need to really port all the free-scale BSP kernel release version patches/Bug fixes starting from imx_3.5.7_1.0.0_alpha  imx_3.10.17_1.0.0_beta,imx_3.10.17_1.0.0_ga can be found here linux-2.6-imx.git - Freescale i.MX Linux Tree  to mainline kernel version. For example I would like to select the Kernel 3.14 or 3.18 from mainline and wanted to run on sabre-lite reference Board.I know mainline kernel will work on sabre-lite reference board out of the box. but I am not sure whether all the Free-scale BSP patched/bug fixes already included in mainline kernel if not, then I am sure that we would need to port the change to mainline kernel.

I would be very thankful if someone help me out and confirm my understanding.

Regards

San

[jackybai]

hi sanjeev,

The mainline kernel does not include all the patches and bug-fix.  you can get the latest released kernel from linux-2.6-imx.git - Freescale i.MX Linux Tree.

Best regards,

Jacky Bai

[sanjeevsharma]

Thanks igor, Jacky,

Yes i.e the major challenge because no one in community Maintaining Free-scale patches that can be sync with mainline kernel release version's.I have to go through the Free-scale Bsp releases one by one and then come up with some intelligent script which identify the patches which are not in mainline kernel and then cherry-pick one by one over mainline kernel. I thought, there would be some repository specific to Free-scale feature/Bug fixes that can be merged into mainline Kernel straightforward  but I doubt someone is taking care of this at moment except Solid run Folks,Earlier Free-scale landing team used to do this but had been disbanded a while ago.

Look's like I have to take this initiative so that it can help people in future.

Regards

Sanjeev 

[fabio_estevam]

Hi Sanjeev,

Yes, patches to mainline kernel are always welcome :-)

Any particular topic that you are planning to work on?

Regards,

Fabio Estevam

[sanjeevsharma]

Hello Fabio,

My intention is to port all the Free-scale BSP patches till now on to mainline Linux stable kernel 3.14. Do you sent Free-scale approved patches to mainline from BSP releases ?

If my understanding is correct then how you are deciding ?

Regards

Sanjeev

[fabio_estevam]

Hi Sanjeev,

I do some kernel contributions when time allows.

Feel free to do the same if you are interested ;-)

Regards,

Fabio Estevam

[sanjeevsharma]

Hello Fabio,

Look's like you validate all the latest Free-scale patches from BSP release which can be made to Mainline Kernel ?

Regards

Sanjeev Sharma

[fabio_estevam]

Hi Sanjeev,

No, not really. Basically anyone can contribute patches to mainline.

Looking forward for your patches ;-)

Regards,

Fabio Estevam

[sinanakman]

Hi Sanjeev

Nice to hear your intention to sync those up.

In my opinion, it would be a lot more useful if

all those fixes were sent upstream to mainline

instead of keeping in a separate tree all the time.

I think we are all much better off working directly

with the mainline tree all the time.

If you are going to get a list of non-mainlined FSL

patches and maintain them separately, wouldn't

it be much better to send them upstream.

Either way thanks for taking time for this.

Regards

Sinan Akman

[sanjeevsharma]

Hello Sinan,

I understand your concern and 2nd your suggestion too but this need to be decide by Free-scale. Activity you are referring already being taken care by shawnguo who earlier worked for FSL but I believe is now working at Linaro.He is one of the upstream maintainers for free scale patches but I still don't understand why this activity is slow.AFAIK, still there are around 1000-2000 patch which is not yet made into mainline.

Regards

Sanjeev

[sinanakman]

Hi Sanjeev, thanks for your follow up on this.

I wonder if you had a mechanism to come up with that number of delta patches

and if this could be something to list them out. I think something like this would

be very useful to track them.

As you mentioned Shawn is custodian for mainline imx-tree. Fabio also sends

bunch of patches. Perhaps we can get his attention and to see what he thinks :

FabioEstevam would you like to chime in ?

Regards

Sinan Akman

[sanjeevsharma]

Hello Sinan,

Yes, we could easily identify the delta patches by using script which will list down all the patches not present in Linux-stable kernel(I am targeting 3.14) by comparing linux-imx and linux-stable git tree's.

[igorpadykov]

Hi sanjeev

I believe you can get most accurate answer on

meta-fsl-arm mailing list, where experts are working with

various boards and mainline kernel.

https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/meta-freescale

Best regards

igor

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