Moving Google toward the mainline

Posted Oct 8, 2021 5:05 UTC (Fri) by rahvin (guest, #16953)
In reply to: Moving Google toward the mainline by pbonzini
Parent article: Moving Google toward the mainline

I'm sure you know this but, Depending on version of Android a user could be running kernel 2.xx to 4.xx. Android tends to uses really old kernels and the tech debt porting from 5.xx to 3.xx or even 4.xx is going to be huge. You might be easily able to port from 5.13 to 5.16 (because they are only a few months apart), but tell me it's that easy to go from 5.13 to 4.13 or 3.13.

The Pixel 5, up until a few weeks ago was the newest google headset and it uses 4.19. When it pulls down Android12 it might be slightly newer but I doubt it will even be in the 5 series kernels and that means years old, not months.

Moving Google toward the mainline

Posted Oct 8, 2021 6:49 UTC (Fri) by patrick_g (subscriber, #44470) [Link] (1 responses)

> The Pixel 5, up until a few weeks ago was the newest google headset and it uses 4.19. When it pulls down Android12 it might be slightly newer but I doubt it will even be in the 5 series kernels and that means years old, not months.

I think Android 12 is using a 5.10 kernel.

Moving Google toward the mainline

Posted Oct 16, 2021 6:29 UTC (Sat) by codewiz (subscriber, #63050) [Link]

Kernel support really depends on the SoC in your device. Each Android release supports a range of kernel versions.

In theory it would be possible to "uprev" the kernel on a particular SoC, but most vendors just don't bother because adding features to discontinued SoCs doesn't help them sell more of their newer SoCs.