Google working on experimental 3.8 Linux kernel for Android

By Jerry Hildenbrand
last updated

Google has opened a public kernel repository, marked as experimental, for the Linux 3.8 kernel. The kernel repo is built from the standard Linux kernel, with Android modifications added by the folks in Mountain View working on the Android project. 

The reason this is good news? 3.8 includes three important and interesting changes for mobile devices -- support for open source NVIDIA Tegra and Samsung Exynos DRM drivers, support for the Flash-Friendly File-System, and a lower memory footprint -- in some cases much lower. Having native support means less development time by Google or anyone else building the kernel for Android, and everyone loves more memory for apps instead of the system.

It's important to realize that this is by no means official support. Currently, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean ships with the 3.4 kernel on the Nexus 4, but versions 3.0 and 3.3 are supported as well for other Jelly Bean devices. Maybe we'll see 3.8 in the next version of Android.

Source: Phoronix

Jerry Hildenbrand
Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

7 Comments
  • Have HTC made any contributions to the 3.8 branch?
  • Well, glad Google is coming up with way's to be more efficient with memory usage. I wonder if this will find it's way into KLP, the next version of Android.
  • Why do these posts ^above^ happen all the time in comment sections smh. Anyway commenting ON THE ACTUAL topic at hand, this is quite interesting news and I hope the next version of Android has it, or they at least make great strides to making it happen as anything that makes "support for open source NVIDIA Tegra and Samsung Exynos DRM drivers, support for the Flash-Friendly File-System, and a lower memory footprint" happen is only a good thing :)
  • yes just good ol' spam :(
    i hope that means devices with older tegras can be updated easier to new android versions.
  • yet a legit user like myself a while back was getting "filtered" and none of my posts would come up go figure...I had to make a new account to start posting here again. Ridiculous.
  • If 3.8 will bring better Tegra support and (much) lower memory footprint - All I hear is a possible ray of hope for Tegra2 devices with 512Kb of Ram which weren't eligible for any updates past 2.4
  • There are also 3.9 (RC and Final) and 3.10 (RC and final) sources there as well in kernel/common https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+refs Not sure why 3.8 is most significant. That hasn't been updated for awhile. There's also a Qualcomm specific 3.9 at AOSP and 3.7 at Code Aurora Forum
    https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/android-msm-3.9-usb-and-mm...
    https://www.codeaurora.org/cgit/quic/la/kernel/msm/log/?h=msm-3.7