all of the ubuntu archive is built for cortex-a8 and beyond with all
optimization features the v7 architecture offers (minus NEON which we
forbid to be build-time enabled by default due to teh fact that we
support non NEON armv7 devices) this includes features like thumb2 i.e.
vfpv3-d16, softfp and armv7-a ... with the next release we will also
start move to hardfloat by default
while dropping v5/v6 support was a move that hurts, it was a requirement to get
the best optimization out of the v7 arch.
if we would in parallel want to support v6 and older alongside with v7 that
would mean to have a full binary archive in parallel (17000 source packages)
for this arch. additionally to not slow down general operations that would need
dedicated build machines and a team of say 3-5 persons full time that take over
maintenance for the packages, builds and archive (more people if you actually
want to develop images for a target board).
the situation you ask to resolve is pretty much like demanding i386
support for all intel packages in favor of dropping things like MMX or
co-processor support or other very basic optimization that only entered
this arch in 486 or pentium times. if we would do that on intel ubuntu
would crawl there ...
canonical invests a lot into having the arm images and the port
available, but ubuntu is not an embedded distro, its focus is on
building desktop and server images and the current defaults for the arm
port are focused on HW that can run these setups (dual core 1GHz, at
least 1G ram etc).
if raspberry (or anyone else) would reliably commit to invest into the
above resources (buildds, a few fulltime people etc) to cover the costs
for such a port (and for its ongoing maintenance) i dont think this
would be refused though. canonical whatsoever will very likely go on to
cover only v7 and beyond.
note that, while i'm a canonical employee in the ubuntu arm team, the
above is my personal opinion and view of the situation, i'm not speaking
for the company here and would personally appreciate a v6 port but the
resources have to come from somewhere for this.
i know that linaro has a plan (but thats still in its infancy) to
provide an easy way to maintain your own archive rebuild locally for
such cases where people want un-optimized binaries for older arm
versions, it might make sense to contact them about the status of this
project.
i will close this bug as invalid as we are unlikely to resolve it
without external resources (people, hardware, money etc), in case there
are solutions for these points, feel free to re-open it.
** Changed in: ubuntu
Status: New => Invalid
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/848154
Title:
ARM version not supporting V6 RaspPi
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