Launchpad Entry: packageselection-arm-n-more-stable-vm-solution-for-arm
Created: November 18th, 2010
Contributors: Ricardo Salveti
Packages affected: qemu-kvm
Summary
Deliver into Ubuntu the best vm solution available for ARM.
Release Note
Ubuntu now delivers the best open source vm solution for ARM available, resulted of the integration of Linaro's Qemu tree.
Rationale
Currently Qemu for arm is deliverable from the qemu-kvm package, mostly integrating what's available upstream. The main problem is that today there are many different Qemu trees for ARM, and each one supports additional features that unfortunately are not yet upstream. With the proposed work from Linaro, to integrate all those trees into one, we're now able to deliver the best supported Qemu tree into Ubuntu.
Ideally those additional patches should be included at the qemu-kvm package, but as it gives the server team a lot of additional work to review and maintain, simply using a different Qemu tree for ARM sounds the best solution for Natty cycle (or until most get applied at upstream).
User stories
- Alice wants to create a new Ubuntu rootfs with rootstock, but for that she wants to make sure she's using the best qemu available.
- Bob wants to full emulate an Omap 3 image, to test and develop software with it.
Assumptions
Design
- Coordinate with Linaro to check when it's the best moment to package their Qemu tree
- Include the linaro-qemu package into the archive
- Change tools like Rootstock to use Linaro's qemu when available
Implementation
BoF agenda and discussion
Current situation:
- using qemu from qemu-kvm
- many available qemu trees for arm
- linaro is using qemu-maemo (omap) for image build
Use cases:
- user emulation
- rootstock
- full emulation
Linaro is planning to create an arm tree for linaro to help pushing the arm related patches upstream. Ubuntu can then generate a package for it, and use it as default.
Hardware:
better use omap 3 beagleboard as main cpu emulation, as we have a working tree for it and Nokia is using at MeeGo
Actions: (check whiteboard from packageselection-arm-n-more-stable-vm-solution-for-arm