RISC-V's Linux Kernel Support Is Getting Into Good Shape, Userspace Starting To Work

The RISC-V open-source processor ISA support within the mainline kernel is getting into good shape, just a few releases after this new architecture port was originally added to the Linux Git tree.

The RISC-V code for Linux 4.19 includes the ISA-mandated timers and first-level interrupt controllers, which are needed to actually get user-space up and running. Besides the RISC-V first-level interrupt controller, Linux 4.19 also adds support for SiFive's platform-level interrupt controller that interfaces with the actual devices.

In addition to that important code, there are also build fixes, clean-ups to some of the code, ptrace fixes, early printk support, and a fix to their early debug trap handler.

With these RISC-V patches for Linux 4.19, the code was recently tested to be able to boot Fedora's root file-system on QEMU as well as recently booting the HiFive Unleashed RISC-V developer board.

Western Digital, one of the major vendors being quick to get behind RISC-V, was among the contributors to getting the timers and interrupt controller code into shape. The complete list of RISC-V patches for Linux 4.19 can be found here.