Android

Owned by Mike Holmes
Last updated: Nov 19, 2020 by Tom Gall
1 min read

LBI-38 broached the topic of what goals should Linaro have when it comes to Android and virtualized environments. These goals were:

  • Focus on market-agnostic SOC virtualization enablement and optimization
  • Flush out and fix gaps in paravirtualization standards and implementation
  • As best can, be hypervisor agnostic to support multiple hypervisors
  • Build a fully descriptive and optimized virtual machine manager
  • Strip QEMU/LKVM down to a minimal viable set of functionality
  • Utilize Firecracker for inspiration
  • Support a complete set of Android supported device classes
  • Permissive member friendly licensing

Towards these ends, the Linaro Consumer Group (LCG) which is chartered for "all things Android" has as part of our twice year Plan of Record cycle evaluated activities which would advance these goals. The current LCG plan of record is documented here. (Protected Link, please contact tom.gall@linaro.org if you don't have access and are interested in the full LCG plan)

The LCG virtualized plan for the Virt20-Virt21 cycle is:

Virtualized Android Efforts - 2pm - Initial effort estimate


  • Goal: LCG-2522 Architect and implement virtualized media for Android


  • Goal: LCG-2523 Architect and implement protected media with OPTEE for Android
    • Collaborative effort between MMWG, SWG and LCG
  • Value: Complementary to project Stratos
  • Value: Architect an ‘opinionated’ solution, whitepaper/technical design to start, implementation to follow
  • Focus on areas which are complementary to Google Cuttlefish team


Current LCG priorities however are GKI, Premium Dev Boards for Android and Android Common Kernel Validation.  The LCG Steering Committee recognizes that virtualization is an area for activity however the resource prioritization is such that virtualization related efforts will remain modest for this cycle. Priorities are evaluated through the Linaro Consumer Group Steering Committee.