Texas Instruments Technology for Innovators(tm)

Linux Utils 4.10.01.02 Release Notes

May 2015

This Linux Utils Release is targetted for the various DaVinci- and OMAP-based platforms running Linux, but is generally usable for any Linux-based system.

Introduction, CMEM, Documentation, What's New, Upgrade Info, Compatibility Information, Device Support, Validation Info, Known Issues, Examples, Version Information, Technical Support.


Introduction

CMEM

The CMEM (Contiguous Memory) utility library provides the ability for user-mode applications to allocate and free blocks of physically contiguous memory. This is typically done to manage multimedia data buffers which will be worked on by multimedia algorithms, but the memory provided by this library can be used for any purpose.

The reason multimedia algorithms often require physically contiguous memory is that sometimes they're on another processor which may not contain an MMU (e.g. the C674 processor on a OMAP-L138 device), and/or Linux-based algorithms utilize hardware accelerators (e.g. DMA, image co-processors, etc) which don't access memory through an MMU.


Documentation

The following documentation is available:

In addition, users are encouraged to monitor (and contribute to!) the TI Wiki.

Release notes from previous releases are also available in the relnotes_archive directory.


What's New

The following significant changes have been made since Linux Utils 2.00

4.10.01.02

4.10.00.01

4.00.03.14

4.00.02.11

4.00.01.08

4.00.00.06

3.23.00.01

3.22.00.02

3.21.00.04

3.00.00.00

2.26.03.06

2.26.02.05

2.26.01.02

2.26.00.01

2.25.05.11

2.25.04.10

2.25.03.09

2.25.02.08

2.25.01.06

2.25

2.24.03

2.24.02

2.24.01

2.24

2.23.01

2.23

2.22

2.21

2.20

2.10

2.00


Upgrade Information

The Linux Utils packages are available in the "packages/" subdirectory of the product. If you have a previous release of the Linux Utils product, you can install this release next to it, and modify your application and/or server builds to use this newer release.

If you're using an SDK, this is often done by setting the CMEM_INSTALL_DIR variable in a top-level makefile (e.g. some SDK's include a Rules.make file ).

Note, if you're upgrading from a release earlier than Linux Utils 3.23.00.01, be sure to review the Upgrade section for each of the releases between your current release and this one. Previous release notes are available in the relnotes_archive directory.


Compatibility Information

The CMEM APIs in this release are mostly compatible with previous releases, though there are some new features (e.g. allocation from CMA).

Note that some APIs previously provided in Linux Utils 3.x have been removed.

If migrating from a release prior to Linux Utils 3.23.00.01, consult previous releases available in the relnotes_archive directory.


Device Support

This release officially supports the following devices, though others with similar Linux kernel support will likely work as well:


Validation

This release was validated on the following devices:


Known Issues

None.


Examples

Linux Utils example apps and tests are provided in the */apps directory.


Version Information

This product's version follows a version format, M.mm.pp.bb, where M is a single digit Major number, mm is 2 digit minor number, pp is a 2 digit patch number, and b is an unrestricted set of digits used as an incrementing build counter.

To support multiple side-by-side installations of the product, the product version is encoded in the top level directory, ex. linuxutils_4_10_01_02.

Subsequent releases of patch upgrades will be identified by the patch number, e.g. Linux Utils 4.00.01.XX with directory linuxutils_4_00_01_XX. Typically, these patches only include critical bug fixes.


Technical Support

For technical support, use the community forum TI E2E Community.

Check the following web site for updates: https://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/sdo_sb/targetcontent/linuxutils/index.html


Last updated: May 21, 2015