Re: [PATCH 00/14] Modularize schedutil

[Quentin Perret]

On Tuesday 12 May 2020 at 16:08:56 (+0200), Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> If some piece of kernel code is modular, it still needs to be build.
> The difference is when and how it gets loaded, so can you possibly
> elaborate here?

Sure thing, sorry if that wasn't clear.

The end goal with GKI is the following: Google will release a single
binary kernel image (signed, etc etc) that all devices using a given
Android version will be required to use. That image is however going to
be only for the core of the kernel (no drivers or anything of the sort).
Vendors and OEMs, on their end, will be responsible to build and ship
GKI-compatible modules for their respective devices. So, Android devices
will eventually ship with a Google-issued GKI, plus a bunch of
vendor-provided modules loaded during boot.

This is a significant shift from the current model where vendors
completely own the kernel, and are largely free to use the kernel config
they want. Today, those who don't use schedutil are free to turn the
config off, for example.

But GKI changes that. The 'core' GKI config is effectively imposed to
the entire ecosystem. As of now, because it is 'bool' we have no choice
but to compile schedutil in the core GKI as some (most) partners use it.
But as you can imagine, that is not the preferred option of those who
_don't_ use schedutil. Modularizing avoids any potential friction since
the vendors who want to use it will be able load the module, and the
others will simply not. That really is the reason for that series.

Then there is an important question: why should upstream care about all
that stuff? That's obviously debatable, but my biased opinion is that
GKI is a good thing(TM). It's our opportunity to put some order in the
android ecosystem and to reduce the delta with mainline. That'll
definitely take time, and there will be Android-specific churn in GKI in
the beginning, but we'd like to keep that as small as possible, and to
converge to 0 looking forwards.

I hope that helps!

Thanks,
Quentin