Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog) [LWN.net]

Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 20:57 UTC (Thu) by thestinger (guest, #91827)
In reply to: Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog) by juliank
Parent article: Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

> It is the kernel version new devices are being released with at the moment.

Current generation Snapdragon SoC lines use Linux 4.4 for their drivers trees. Android has a 4.9 common kernel which works on HiKey (Kirin SoC) but most Android phones use Qualcomm SoCs. Exynos is used by the international Samsung phones but Samsung keeps it in line with the Qualcomm kernel versions since they need to support both and want the devices to be as close as possible despite having totally different driver platforms.

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Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 21:15 UTC (Thu) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (4 responses)

Well, maybe the newest flagship CPU. The new Nokia phones with SD430 released with 3.18.y

Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 21:25 UTC (Thu) by thestinger (guest, #91827) [Link] (3 responses)

The kernel version is tied to the SoC generation, not whether it's a flagship. 3.18 was used for the past generation low, mid and high end SoC up to the Snapdragon 821. The current generation Qualcomm SoC line uses 4.4 for the low end too. Huawei, NVIDIA, etc. are better at using newer kernel versions for their platforms.

Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 21:37 UTC (Thu) by juliank (guest, #45896) [Link] (2 responses)

Given that 430 devices are released this year, this makes it a current gen. Maybe we'll see newer ones next year, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 21:41 UTC (Thu) by thestinger (guest, #91827) [Link]

Not released with Oreo, though. They can release a device with a 430 and Oreo, but I don't think many will.

Hardening the Kernel in Android Oreo (Android Developers Blog)

Posted Aug 31, 2017 21:50 UTC (Thu) by thestinger (guest, #91827) [Link]

The current low-end SoC Snapdragon just launched 2 months ago so devices are only just starting to come out with it. It lines up with Oreo. I'm not talking about all of 2017. Oreo was only released a week ago.