Overview

(This is a draft ... for now)

This page is ment to provide a high level overview of the specs and features owned by the ARM/Mobile Team for Lucid (Ubuntu 9.10). For a time based perspective on these targets/opportunities, please check out our Specs/Mobile/Lucid/Schedule.

Contents

  1. Foundations (Performance etc.)
    1. armv7 toolchain
    2. powermanagement per SoC
    3. boot time analysis/improvements
  2. Developer Tools
    1. rootstock GUI
    2. qemu-static for more architectures
  3. Imaging and Shipment
    1. uboot
    2. device tree
    3. alternate installer
    4. ext2/3 filesystem support
    5. soft bootloader
  4. QA Efforts and Procedures
    1. armv7 library testing
    2. stardardized bringup testing
    3. suspend/resume QA
    4. all-pairs image testing
  5. UNE and application choices on ARM
    1. 2D launcher
    2. browser support
    3. web service integration
    4. media playback
    5. lxde support

Foundations (Performance etc.)

armv7 toolchain

In Lucid ubuntu will start optimizing code for the armv7 architecture. While this means that older SoCs are then unsupported we expect this change is to have a considerable impact on performance and resource consumption due to the improved instruction set supported on those new arm boards.

powermanagement per SoC

Powermanagement is a crucial feature for mobile devices, hence work is done on improving powermanagement support for all supported SoC: TBD

boot time analysis/improvements

The mobile team also investigates opportunity for improving startup time. For that there will be improvements to casper that will allow us to create bootcharts and gather more detailed information about where time is lost during arm boot.

Developer Tools

rootstock GUI

To improve the situation to build custom images using ubuntu as a foundations, we add a GUI to the rootstock script we shipped in karmic. Customizing will also become easier/more flexible by adding support for extra apt mirrors and injection of custom .deb packages during the rootfs creation.

qemu-static for more architectures

Based on our experiences from allowing users to use qemu-arm-static to setup arm chroots and execute binaries, there is work in progress to also ship this feature for other architectures.

Imaging and Shipment

uboot

In Lucid timeframe we aim to unify our bootloader used across SoCs. For that we are moving towards uboot by default, which was already used in karmic for the dove platform. This will open up potential to unify the uboot code, getting one step closer to unified image production for all supported SoC.

device tree

An important opportunity this cycle is ongoing work for arm device-tree support in the kernel; this would open up new ways of shipping unified single images for all SoCs - hence reducing QA and customization efforts on the Ubuntu platform as well as OEM side.

alternate installer

Lucid will be the first release that ships a alternate installer based image for arm, while improving the experience of our live image even further.

ext2/3 filesystem support

Another opportunity investigated is to improve image creation utility to move towards more modern filesystems in future. Currently investigated filesystem format is ext2/3

soft bootloader

Having a common softbootloader usable across SoCs will help unifying the image build process even further. Hence, work is ongoing to make this happen. However, this potentially requires coordination with multiple parties, which is why this is only tentatively targeted for Lucid

QA Efforts and Procedures

armv7 library testing

Due to the move towards armv7 we will establish a system to verify libraries produced by our rebuilds. This will help us to spot regressions introduced by the switch of compiler flags and might be handy for future release cycles too.

stardardized bringup testing

Also work is done on standardizing the procedures for bringup testing of new hardware/mobile products. Besides the general benefit for ubuntu QA processes, having this procedure in place is also helpful in supporting communication with vendors about the features

suspend/resume QA

To ensure highest reliability for supported SoCs and products wrt to suspend-resume, work is done on improving standard testcases for suspend/resume; automating or semi-automating those in checkbox will probably also benefit other ubuntu products

all-pairs image testing

To achieve an overall higher test coverage work is done to extend the current image testing procedures by adding a continuous effort to test image installs using parameters generated using the all-pair method

UNE and application choices on ARM

Our default image will come with an optimized set of applications to address resource, performance and form factor constraints faced on our target devices.

Its important to mention that regardless of what changes we take for our default apps, the previous apps will still be available for install and downstreams and OEMs can pick them instead of our defaults.

2D launcher

A new 2DLauncher will allow us to ship a high quality UNE experience by default for all supported SoCs. This will redefine and help us to unify the user experience we can ship on arm out of the box.

browser support

On the browser front we look at improving firefox performance by moving towards thumb2 and PGO optimized builds. The other browser we are actively trying to get integrated in time for lucid is chromium-browser. Whether we switch to chromium-browser by default will be decided based on performance comparisions as well as other factors defined in the spec.

web service integration

On top of our browser efforts we are are actively exploring new ways of integrating web services for mail and documents into the default UNE for ARM experience. In best case this would allow us to get rid of heavy-weight applications openoffice and evolution. Shipping Thunderbird-3 or a on-demand feature for mail and office applications is also investigated. Decision pending for alpha-2

media playback

The other area where we are exploring is the current application for media playback; the main target for reconsideration is rhythmbox and totem; suggested alternatives are banshee and canola; we are exploring both options and will decide based on the results.

lxde support

lxde is a community effort to ship a real lightweight desktop image, which would also be interesting for mobile devices and arm in particular

Specs/Mobile/Lucid/Overview (last edited 2009-12-01 18:27:25 by 076-076-148-180)