Vmeta/Historical packages

This page details versions of the vmeta packages that were used to add vmeta support to OLPC OS 13.1.0 and older.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell

This RPM package is built from two source tarballs: gst-plugins-marvell and gst-plugins-vmetaxv.

gst-plugins-marvell

One source of this code is the Cubox package bundle (see their wiki) which includes gst-plugins-marvell0.10_0.2.0-0ubuntu1~ppa14.tar.gz. This source tarball has full git history from the developers at Marvell, with the latest change committed in March 2011.

An alternative codebase can be found in the private Android code-drops from Marvell. No git history is included, but I have reconstructed the history over different code drops at /home/dsd/private_git/gst-plugins-marvell-android. Looking at the files and changes through each code drop, it would appear that this codebase shares an origin with the codebase found in the cubox download, but later diverged, while still merging in some of the changes from the cubox-acquired git tree.

For example, the Android codebase includes a debian/changelog file, with the latest entry from 2009. The cubox codebase comes with the same changelog but with entries going all the way to 2011. However, some of the things described in the post-2009 cubox codebase changelog are implemented in the Android codebase. This suggests a fork of the codebase and some shared/confused history.

Despite the confusion, it does seem clear that this Android codebase is more recent than the Cubox tarball (with last commit date March 2011). The gingerbread-beta3 code drop was received in October 2011, and this same codebase was updated in the toughpad-a1 code drop received in November 2012. This new version has some small fixes and other changes.

The toughpad-a1 android codebase is also included (with no changes) in the qseven alpha4 code drop.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-1

No source was published by the developer. Details unknown.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-2

Our RPM was based on Cubox's gst-plugins-marvell0.10_0.2.0-0ubuntu1~ppa14.tar.gz, with this code change applied by OLPC. There is no associated info/changelog for this patch; presumably it is the minimum needed to make it work on MMP2.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-3

There were no changes to the gst-plugins-marvell source used to build this version.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-4

This version switches to the codebase found in the qseven alpha4 drop. As this requires the latest marvell-ipp, it means that it is MMP3-only.

OLPC's changes on top of the code drop are:

• g711dec and g711enc compilation enabled in configure.ac
• Marvell code compiles mpeg2dec with the FORBID_WMMX_DEINTERLACE flag; we drop that flag.
• Add missing include to fix compile of gstwmvdec
• Enable compilation of libgstvmetaenc (looks like the Marvell codebase only compiles the decoders)
• Update to the latest GMutex API to fix compile warnings/failures

The changes here are carried forward into the next version (gstreamer-plugins-marvell-mmp3-0.10.1).

vmetaxv

This source package is a fork of gst-plugins-base. One source originate from Marvell, under the name "gst-plugins-bmmxv" (Buffer Management Module), and is shipped in the Cubox package bundle. The source tarball gst-plugins-bmmxv0.10_0.10.25-0ubuntu1~ppa9.tar.gz included there includes git history. Here is a diff of the changes between gst-plugins-base-0.10.26.3 and the bmmxv tarball.

OLPC has renamed/repackaged this as vmetaxvimagesink based on top of a newer gst-plugins-base commit. The history has been constructed from source tarball drops at gst-plugins-vmetaxv.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-2.olpc

This is the first version where vmetaxvimagesink appears. It is based on gst-plugins-base git commit 12ef907f8a3762685da0b96391edc30a78d31805.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-3.olpc

This is a minor change upon the previous release, which appears to be more careful when distinguishing between vmeta and non-vmeta image buffers.

gstreamer-plugins-marvell-0.10-4.xo4

Catches any error returned from posix_memalign (previously any failure here was ignored).

libvmeta-marvell

This package contains libvmeta and supporting libraries, and marvell-ipp.

libvmeta

libvmeta source code can be found in the Cubox package bundle. libvmeta_1.0ubuntu2.tar.gz has full git history up to December 2010 and uses bmm-lib for memory allocation. bmm-lib sources can also be found in the Cubox package bundle; it seems to use an unknown /dev/bmm interface to obtain DMA memory allocations, and also has some (not built/used) code that can do the same via Android's pmem.

libvmeta source code can also be found in the private Marvell Android code drops. The changes in each code drop have been imported into /home/dsd/private_git/libvmeta-android. The initial version used bmm-lib, but this was later updated to use pmem directly (in gingerbread-beta1). In gingerbread-beta3, this code was updated to use libphycontmem. This code drop also includes libphycontmem which appears to be a simple wrapper around pmem.

libvmeta source is also found in the qseven alpha4 code drop, the code is identical to the toughpad-a1 android version.

OLPC's libvmeta-marvell-005 offering links against libphycontmem, with pmem in place on the kernel side. The origins of this code are unclear.

libvmeta-marvell-006 is based on the qseven-alpha4 drop with only trivial changes. libvmeta links against libphycontmem and libionhelper. The next version (libvmeta-2.0) builds upon this version.

marvell-ipp

libvmeta-marvell-005

In libvmeta-marvell-005 we ship the following armv5tel softfp libraries originating from "marvell-ipp":

• libcodec{aac,amrnb,amrwb,h263,h264,jpeg,mpeg4,vmeta}{dec,enc}
• libcodec{g711,gifdec,midi,mp3dec,mpeg2dec,pngdec,wmadev,wmvdec}
• libipp{cam,deint,ie,sp,vp}
• libvmetahal

And some hardfp libraries:

• libmiscgen

The exact origins of these are unknown. The Cubox bundle does include these libraries, but they are different, and all are softfp. The libmiscgen source code can be found inside marvell-ipp_0.2.1-0ubuntu1~ppa10.tar.gz at marvell-ipp/example/misc (this may or may not correspond to what OLPC actually ships here).

libvmeta-marvell-006

This release adds libcodecg729 (hardfp), and the following previously-softfp libraries are replaced by ARMv7/hardfp versions:

• libcodec{aacenc,aacdec,amrnb,amrwb,h264dec,mp3dec,mpeg4dec,wmadec,g711}

All of the other libraries have been changed as well (no matching md5sums) even though they are still softfp.

Some of these libraries now include NEON instructions, making them MMP3-only. The header files for these new libraries (compared to the old headers) also show various API additions (and possibly ABI breaks).

The source of all these libraries is the Marvell qseven alpha4 code drop.