Here are the contributions that we made to the user and developer community in 2008, thanks to the customers who ordered our engineering and training services.
As you can see, we do our best to have all our contributions merged into mainline sources. So, if you need a new feature in the Linux kernel (supporting your new boards, for example), in development tools and libraries (Buildroot, QEMU…), and want to enjoy this feature in all future updates and releases, don’t hesitate to ask us. We will be glad to work with the community and find a long lasting solution.
Linux kernel
- [x86] use ELF section to list CPU vendor specific code (commit)
- [MTD] fix minor typo in the MTD map driver for SHARP SL series (commit)
- [x86] configurable DMI scanning code (commit)
- [mm] directly use kmalloc() and kfree() in init/initramfs.c (commit)
- [x86] consolidate the definition of the force_mwait variable (commit)
- inflate: refactor inflate malloc code (commit)
- fs/buffer.c: uninline __remove_assoc_queue() (commit)
- [x86] make movsl_mask definition non-CPU specific (commit).
- [x86] move cmpxchg fallbacks to a generic place (commit)
- [x86] configuration options to compile out x86 CPU support code (commit)
- Configure out file locking features (commit)
- Fix comment in include/linux/mmc/host.h (commit)
- Configure out AIO support (commit)
- [PCI] allow quirks to be compiled out (commit)
- [x86] remove PC speaker code (commit)
- [Doc] improvement to Documentation/SubmittingPatches (commit)
- Work on multicast and ethtool configurability. Not merged yet.
- 65 e-mails sent to the kernel newbies mailing list to help new kernel developers.
Buildroot
Thomas Petazzoni became official committer in November 2008. In addition to contributions, patch review and integration of patches into the official Buildroot repository, and discussions on the mailing list.
- Thumb support, not integrated yet (post)
- Fixed URL for fakeroot sources, integrated (post)
- Bumped libpng version, integrated (post)
- Added the DirectFB examples package, integrated (post)
- Bumped up libgtk2 version, integrated (post)
- Work on external toolchain support, integrated. Several iterations, patches and discussions.
- External toolchain support improvements, integrated (post)
- More external toolchain fixes, integrated (post)
- External toolchain C++ cross-compiler fix, integrated (post)
- Kernel build fix related to external toolchain use, integrated (post)
- Fixed external toolchain build, integrated, and replaced later with an improved version (post)
- Fix Qtopia build issues, integrated and then replaced by an improved version (post)
- Another external toolchain support solution, integrated (post)
- Fixed TARGET_PATH for external toolchain builds, integrated (post)
- Fixed strange problems in pango configure target, integrated (post)
- Strip libgtk2 in the target, integrated (post)
- Strip pango libraries on the target, integrated (post)
- Strip gettext libraries on the target, integrated (post)
- Fix matchbox build, integrated (post)
- Create zlib installation directory in the staging dir, integrated (post)
- Bump up lite version, integrated (post)
- Added a parallel compilation fix for fontconfig, integrated (post)
- Documentation fixes (post, post)
QEMU
- Increased write buffer size in pflash emulation, integrated (post)
- Reset wcycle after erase confirm, integrated (post)
- Improved pflash cfi01 debug messages, integrated (post)
- Added missing parenthesis in qemu_ram_alloc(), integrated (post)
- Add Flash support to the Versatile PB platform (post)
Conferences
- Linux Tiny – Penguin Weight Watchers, Embedded Linux Conference 2008, United States
- Publication of an extensive report of the Embedded Linux Conference.
- Building a multimedia embedded Linux system from scratch, Linux Symposium, Canada
- Developing the Linux kernel: who? when? how? what?, Libre Software Meeting 2008, France
- News and trends in Linux 2.6, Libre Software Meeting 2008, France
- Choosing Free Software Graphical Libraries for Embedded Devices, ELC Europe 2008, The Nederlands
- Update on filesystems for flash storage, ELC Europe 2008, The Netherlands
- World domination for dummies (in French) and Filesystems for flash storage, JM2L event, France.
- Publication of videos from many technical conferences (Free and Open Source Developer European Meeting, Embedded Linux Conference, Libre Software Meeting, Ottawa Linux Symposium, Embedded Linux Conference Europe)
New training materials
All our training materials can now be found on our docs page. Some of them are not new, but have undergone substantial updates.
See our recent post for details.
Financial support
We support organizations promoting Free Software:
- Corporate member of APRIL (200 €)
- Corporate member of Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) (50 €)
- Corporate member of Linux Azur (100 €).
You may also count our subscriptions to the most useful LWN.net resource.
Miscellaneous
- Offered 3 seats in our public training sessions.
- Maintaining our list of Free Software friendly embedded board manufacturers and dealers.
