KarmicFreescaleUNR

Summary

This specification tracks the status of support for the Ubuntu Netbook Remix Freescale hardware for the Karmic 9.10 cycle.

Release Note

Ubuntu 9.10 introduces support for the Ubuntu Netbook Remix on ARM Freescale Babbage 2 hardware.

Rationale

The Babbage2 board is the next generation of the iMX51 platform, is the target hardware for FSL for Karmic. Freescale iMX51 hardware is a logical base platform for building ARM Netbooks / "Smartbooks". UNR is already offered as a desktop environment for Intel based Netbooks today.

Requirements

  • 2.6.31 series kernel for iMX51 Babbage2 lands in Ubuntu git tree
  • redboot (or uboot) sources for the Babbage2 materialize, and are merged into the redboot-imx package in the archive.
  • Additional hardware for testing and debugging becomes available
  • 3D driver implementation support 3D on Xorg is required for clutter.

Implementation

While many items listed here would have been required even if we had continued support for Babbage1 into Karmic, 3D support is a new requirement since we did not offer an ARM UNR for Babbage1 for Jaunty.

UI Changes

The ARM UNR image will offer the same user experience as found for Intel UNR netbooks. Hence, no specific UI changes are anticipated as part of this spec outside of those required for differences in booting on Babbage hardware.

Code Changes

  • ubuntu-cdimage
    • Needs to be updated to use need redboot-tools -OR- if we move to u-boot this cycle, modified to create uboot images - Descriptions need to be updated for TO2 support
  • linux kernel

    • Current code dropped from FSL have support for 7 SoCs, we only support for the iMX51 - Latest kernel only 2.6.28, kernel team needs to foward port to 2.6.31

    • UNR requires 3d driver support.
  • debian-installer/base-installer
    • Subarchitecture detection will have to be updated to detect the Babbage2's /proc/cpuinfo string
  • flash-kernel
    • Subarchitecture detection will have to be updated to detect Babbage2 in addition to Babbage1 - Will need update to new redboot-tools or uboot-tools depending on the state of bootloader support
  • iso.qa.ubuntu.com
    • Will need to be updated for imx51 for karmic (requires RT ticket filed, should be done after we have images building)
  • Ubuntu-Netbook-Remix
    • Some packages which do not work on ARM need to be patched or if not required then removed.

Migration

  • No migration will be supported from Babbage1 to Babbage2. Depending on kernel support, Babbage1 support may remain in 9.10 in an unsupported state

Test/Demo Plan

Existing UNR test cases for Intel can be used to test UNR ARM image.

Unresolved issues

  • Lack of Babbage 2 development hardware for the team

CategorySpec

Specs/KarmicFreescaleUNR (last edited 2009-08-07 10:42:31 by 89)