Linux kernel 3.2 or 3.6 (or newer)?

bisinotomatias

Hello

I have a Beaglebone board, and I'm working on a project with a custom hardware. I'll have to customizing kernel elements relatives to LCD display, EMAC, GPIO... After looking at http://www.eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone, I have a question:

Which kernel branch is better to use in a new project?

I mean:

3.2 branch is easier to modify and understand. It's just necessary modify /arch/arm/mach-omap2/board-am335xevm.c file, according to my hardware settings. This is also the TI official kernel to AM335x devices (for now).

On the other hand, after 3.6, Device Tree is now supported and omap's kernel has this new paradigm. I'm afraid that the 3.2 branch be frozen and in the future I need migrate to a Device Tree based kernel.

Does anyboby have a training documentation about Device Tree and about those new branches?

Thank's!

over 12 years ago

0 Miroslav Kiradzhiyski XID over 12 years ago

TI__Mastermind 25235 points

Hi,

If you wish to have more support for your Sitara AM335x project, then you should base your project on the kernel 3.2 branch as it is the currently supported kernel release for the AM335x devices by TI. Here is a link to the official Arago linux project, which is included in the Sitara AM335x SDK/PSP.

When the time comes to migrate to kernel version 3.6 I'm sure that all the needed patches for all the AM335x functionalities will be provided in the git repository. I suggest you also use git control in your custom project and keep your patches nice and clean in order to have less issues when migrating to kernel version 3.6.

Regarding the Device Tree training documentation, we don't have any, but a quick Google search returns many results. Here are some:
http://elinux.org/images/1/14/Glikely--device-tree.pdf
http://elinux.org/Device_Trees

Best regards,
Miroslav

0 bisinotomatias over 12 years ago in reply to Miroslav Kiradzhiyski XID

Prodigy 150 points

Thank you, Miroslav!

Do you know which kernel branch the new version of Beaglebone board (Black) will come?

Regards,

Andre

0 Miroslav Kiradzhiyski XID over 12 years ago in reply to bisinotomatias

TI__Mastermind 25235 points

Hi,

I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer to that question. I believe it is expected to be released in late April and the processor is the same as the regular BeagleBone (XAM3359ZCZ), so I suppose the kernel version will remain the same.

Best regards,
Miroslav

0 Rogerio Almeida over 12 years ago in reply to Miroslav Kiradzhiyski XID

TI__Mastermind 26215 points

You may also check beagleboard.org, there is a forum there as well...

0 cmicali over 12 years ago

Intellectual 280 points

Matias,

You can get a working 3.8 kernel at https://github.com/beagleboard/kernel - just clone that repo, checkout the 3.8 branch, and run patch.sh. It is under active development but it is working great for me.

-chris

0 bisinotomatias over 12 years ago in reply to cmicali

Prodigy 150 points

Thank's Chris

I already got the 3.8 branch and it's working fine on Beaglebone. What I want, in fact, is to customize the dts file - that I don't know how to, exactly.

Regards,

Andre

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Linux kernel 3.2 or 3.6 (or newer)?