ANN 1: gta04-kernel 3.19.0

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,
we have upgraded the gta04-kernel to 3.19.0 which by itself does not change
much or fix significant issues, but we have achieved something we think is
awesome:

The kernel now also runs on the OMAP3530 based OpenPandora!

We did just develop and debug a new device tree. Not everything is working
yet, but it is now in a shape where we think we can announce it.

The really interesting fact will be that for the first time we have a common
kernel over several OMAP based open hardware projects: it supports the
GTA04 devices, the Beagle- and PandaBoard, the old OpenMoko-Beagle-Hybrid,
the OpenPandora and will also support the new OMAP5 Pyra handheld and
whatever might come in the future (GTA04A5?).

And as the really latest entry is the BeagleBone Black.

The same kernel binary. The same binary kernel modules, the same root file
system. Just loading a different device tree file and some small patches for
the root file system is sufficient. Even sharing a SD card is possible (within
some limitations). Something we are used to from the x86 world.
Just replace the motherboard, plug in the old hard disk and boot again.

And, we can mix this kernel with different root file systems: Debian,
Replicant, QtMoko (if we get it compiled…), QuantumSTEP (if we finish it
sometime), others to be defined.

So we are close to transforming “gta04” into a multiple-choice-distribution
for different hardware.

Here is a list of the features supported by this kernel on the different devices:

	http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-kernel/page/Platforms/

And, we are now at the forefront of the kernel development, since we
regularily merge with linus/master. By upstreaming our changes, we hope
that in some near future all these devices will be fully supported
directly by kernel.org.

So I hope that we are doing something you appreciate and find useful
and perhaps would like to support either through [1] or by testing, reporting
bugs and submitting patches.

We really appreciate your feedback, since we don’t find every bug and
flaw - and we always understand the bad and incomplete documentation [2]
we have written…

BR,
Nikolaus

[1]: http://shop.goldelico.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%3ADonation
[2]: http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-kernel/