We are pleased to announce that the Android Microconference has been accepted into the 2020 Linux Plumbers Conference!

A few years ago the Android team announced their desire to try to set a path for creating a Generic Kernel Image (GKI) which would enable the decoupling of Android kernel releases from hardware enablement. Since then, much work has been done by many parties to make this vision a reality. Last year’s Linux Plumber’s Android microconference brought about work on monitoring and stabilizing the Android in-kernel ABI, solutions to issues associated with modules and supplier-consumer dependencies have landed in the upstream Linux kernel, and vendors have started migrating from using the ION driver to the DMA-BUF heaps that are now supported in upstream Linux. For a report on progress made since last year MC see here.

This year several devices now work with GKI making their kernel upgradable without requiring porting efforts, but this work exposed several additional issues. Thus the topics for this year’s Android microconference include:

• GKI compatibility in Android R, how did it go?
• Ecosystem:
  1. Experience with GKI
  2. What’s the next phase — GKI 2.0 in Android S (what is yet to be figured out)
• Update on Kernel Module Interface (KMI) enforcement tools
• Upstreaming debt from GKI work
• DMA-BUF Heaps (vs the ION driver) and DMA API model limitations discussion
• Patches in common needed to boot the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) with mainline
• Bootloader standardization
• Upstream plan for FS updates (sdcardfs, fuse, others) and Virtual A/B partitions
• SEpolicy integration strategies and tools
• Protected KVM use in Android
• Open source package integration in the AOSP

Come and join us in help making the upstream Linux kernel work out of the box on your Android device!

We hope to see you there!