Dear all, here comes the usual update on Linux/ia64 for v6.12: We're already past mid November, so it looks like we're doing this now since over a year actually. Maybe a good occasion to go through some of the highlights during this time frame: * Six mainline releases v6.7 - v6.12, all running on the ia64 hardware we have available for testing ([1]). Not to speak of all the RCs and test builds during merge windows tested in between. To have a forward-look on possible build problems between RCs and during merge windows an auto-builder for Linux mainline was set up, that builds mainline for ia64 each day. This also shortens the time frame for us to check for a cause when problems arise. [1]: http://epic-linux.org/#!testing-effort/tested-kernels-table.md * The hp-sim platform was reinstated for Linux up to mainline, allowing everybody to run ia64 software (kernels and userland) on non-ia64 hardware, thanks to ski maintained by Sergei Trofimovich. This is for example used for our Linux stable R(C) auto-builder to test-boot each kernel after it was built and run some userland tools for a test. By involving ski for this auto-builder it can not only demonstrate build problems, but also problems during runtime, as shown already in the corresponding issues ([2]). [2]: https://github.com/linux-ia64/linux-stable-rc/issues * Two Linux distributions keep support for ia64: T2/SDE ([3]) and EPIC Slack [(4)]. [3]: https://t2sde.org/ [4]: http://epic-slack.org/ * Also http://epic-linux.org/ was established to allow interested people to find current and relevant information about Linux/ia64 at a central place. Maybe someone can help me here with the history, but was there another architecture that has been kicked out of the kernel, that received that level of continuation afterwards? We'll see where this goes. Find the last Linux/ia64 update on [5]. [5]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/5d1b5880-9bdc-4b04-81dc-341df7b02177@xxxxxx/ **** Thank you all for your hard work on Linux! Cheers, Frank et al
