[ASUS ZenFone 6 (2019) ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, &] Freak07:
Update to 1.0.1_R

Hey guys and girls,

here´s the next update that finally adds support for Android 11.

Asus switched to a new branch for Android 11 provided by qualcomm. That required a complete rebase for my kernel. Although this took a lot of time to start from scratch again, I could apply some of the things I learned over the last year while working on other devices. The result is quite clean and I´m very pleased with the result.

In other words: This kernel is now amongst a few on XDA that support CFI in enforcing mode. The only devices supporting this security feature from factory by default are google Pixels starting with the Pixel 3 series.

Kernel Control Flow Integrity (Kernel-CFI), which is achieved by linking the kernel with LLD and Link Time Optimization (LTO), more precisely ThinLTO, is quite an interesting security feature.

Another security feature is Shadow Call Stack (SCS). Similar to CFI, only the Pixel 3 and 4 Kernel use this security feature.

SCS is another security patchset that is aimed at preventing attacks via return oriented programming (ROP).

ROP is a technique where the attacker gains control of the kernel stack to overwrite function return addresses and redirect execution to carefully selected parts of existing kernel code.

If you´re interested here are a few good links:

Google Security Blog explaining SCS.

LLVM doc about SCS

Android DOCs documenting SCS

The scheduler from 4.19 CAF was backported to this kernel. Since the SD865 shares the sames architecture, we can benefit from the improvements qualcomm introduced in the SD865 kernel.

The kernel is setup after boot to work at the intended settings. There is nothing you need to adjust in kernel managers.

Please notice that this is not a "this kernel will magically improve battery life and performance kernel". There are performance improvements in nearly all scenarios I tested the kernel. Whether this will give you better battery during your own unique usage only you can see. So I guess most might get the same battery life than stock kernel, some might get worse and some better battery life. There are other aspects of a phone that impact battery life way more than how a scheduler is tuned. Network reception, installed apps, usage etc.

All previous features should still be left intact.

There are a lot of other optimizations from the ROG3 kernel that were additionally added. I´m updating the OP the reflect those changes.

Enjoy!

Changelog:

Kernel Base

- complete kernel rebased

- Based on kernel source for Android 11 from Asus

- CAF upstream for Android 11 merged

- Linux stable merged up to 4.14.220

- introduce LTO, CFI and Shadow Call Stack

- improvements to quite a few subsystem -> ufs, gpu, display driver

- all details please refer to the OP

Have fun flashing and enjoy your device with latest linux-stable :)

Why is linux-stable important?

I wish you all a nice day/evening!

Download is below :)

Download:

Kernel: https://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=17248734326145739731

Instructions can be found in the OP!

But look at this post too :)

Have fun, enjoy the kernel and your phone.

If you like my work please consider a donation.

Donations are not mandatory but very welcome.

If you like my work and want to buy me a coffee/green tea: http://paypal.me/freak07