NXP i.MX8 SoC Support Hasn't Yet Worked Its Way Into The Mainline Linux Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NXP i.MX8 SoC Support Hasn't Yet Worked Its Way Into The Mainline Linux Kernel

While early in the year was talk of introducing NXP i.MX8 SoC support in the Linux 4.17 kernel, that didn't happen. Support for that latest-generation i.MX SoC also didn't make it for Linux 4.18 and it also looks like it will not make it for Linux 4.19...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NXP-MX8-Mainline-Kernel-Not-Yet

[oooverclocker]

I think that not everyone likes these PSP- and ME-free chips to be easily usable.

[keelung]

They are not enthusiastic to mainline kernel.
See i.MX6: Using kernel from Linus mainline instead of Freescale git
and Difference between Yocto Community BSP and Freescale BSP Release

Using mainline and fslc are out range of their official support. But if you use their "officail release", it's static, some bug-fixes wouldn't merge into "official release", some features not work even if the features are listed in SoC reference manual.

One example: RS485 driver, from linux-imx branch, is not tested and validated when they release 4.1.15 kernel, and now still not supported in imx8.
See Does UART in RS485 mode support only 9 Bit mode for i.MX6 ?