What is the difference between Montavista Kernel SourceandKernel.Org Source

[Eric Nuckols]

>From: "Ming Liu" <eemingliu at hotmail.com>
>To: mamsadegh at hotmail.com
>Subject: RE: What is the difference between Montavista Kernel 
>SourceandKernel.Org Source
>Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:54:13 +0000
>
>In fact, I have a same question. I also want to know what's the most
>obvious difference between Mvista and the common kernel. In detail, is
>there any different mechanism for Montavista to make sure a better
>performance, like Ethernet? In my project, it generates a different
>ethernet performance for my general kernel from Montavista 4.01. I want to
>make sure if Montavista have something special to guarantee a higher
>performance.
>
>Another question. Because Montavista kernel is also based on the open
>source linux kernel from the general tree, does this mean that the
>Montavista one is also open source and could be free to be distributed
>according to GPL. However as far as I know, that's not true. :)
>
>BR
>Ming


I have worked with MontaVista Pro 3.1 (2.4.20 MontaVista Linux Kernel) and 
the main (significant) differences that I saw between MontaVista and say the 
ELDK 2.4.25 kernel were:

1.  PREEMPTION PATCH was included in MontaVista 3.1
2.  MontaVista's MMU, scheduling, and forking code was different than the 
main stream.  It had some patches added in.
3.  There was quite a bit of difference between the asm-ppc trees  (i.e many 
places with board specific #define differences )
4.  Between the 2.4.20 MontaVista and the 2.4.25 ELDK, obvious driver 
improvements and kernel improvements had been added in, but I attribute that 
mostly to the jump from 2.4.20 to 2.4.25.


I had problems with the MontaVista kernel where processes were randomly 
crashing because of SIGSEGV or SIGFPEs.  I couldn't find any info on the 
internet and didn't have time to debug the kernel.  I eventually switched to 
the ELDK 2.4.25 kernel and all my random crashing problems disappeared...  
and I don't really see huge performance differences (IN MY SPECIFIC 
APPLICATION) without the kernel PREEMPTION.

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