LinuxCon Europe: Yocto Project Release 1.1 announced

The Linux Foundation has officially announced the availability of the Yocto Project Release 1.1 at LinuxCon Europe, which is currently taking place in Prague, Czech Republic. The Yocto Project is aimed at embedded device builders who want to quickly get up and running with Linux; it automates the process of creating a Linux system that's appropriate for ARM, MIPS, PPC or x86 embedded platforms.

The Yocto Project does this by providing the templates, package metadata and tools for developers to create Linux-based systems, and for those developers to be able to quickly select the target platform and attributes of a Linux system, including kernel options and userspace packages; the software will then locate, download and build the software, and produce ready-to-run images for emulators.

Version 1.1 of Yocto, code-named Edison, adds Hob, a graphical tool which simplifies the process even further by offering a friendly user interface to the Yocto build process and support for system building from the Eclipse IDE. In terms of building, Edison adds multilib support which allows developers to select 32- or 64-bit versions of packages be built on a package-by-package basis and x32 support (where 64-bit Intel systems are run with 64- bit registers but 32-bit data types; a currently in-development feature in Linux).

Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin said: "Since its introduction one year ago this week, the Yocto Project has exploded into a strong open source community of developers, users and vendors working together to advance Linux in the mobile and embedded markets." He also told The H that Yocto and the Long Term Support Initiative would be "a natural fit" in the future, further streamlining the process of bringing new embedded Linux users in.

More details about the release can be found in a post by David Stewart on the Yocto Project blog, in the Linux Foundation's official press release and in the release notes. Version 1.1 is available from the project's downloads page.

See also:

• Yocto Project Introduces New Features, Linux Foundation press release.
• Linux Foundation announces Yocto Project Release 1.0, launches Steering Committee, a report from The H.

(djwm)