Linux Hardware Reviews & Performance Benchmarks, Open-Source News (original) (raw)
AMD Begins Adding "GFX950" GPU Support To LLVM For Next CDNA Accelerator
4 Hours Ago - LLVM - AMD GFX950
As of today the first handful of commits have landed in LLVM Git ahead of next year's LLVM 20.0 for beginning to enable the AMDGPU compiler back-end for "GFX950", the next iteration of the CDNA family for Instinct accelerators.
Linux 6.13 Quadrupling Workqueue Concurrency Limit
The Linux kernel Workqueue (WQ) is used for handling asynchronous process execution. For the past many years there has been an upper limit on the number of workqueue execution contexts per CPU at 512, but with Linux 6.13 that is being quadrupled to a limit of 2048.
Ubuntu Praises 5~7% PGO Compiler Optimization Performance Benefits
5 Hours Ago - Ubuntu - Profile Guided Optimizations
Over the past year we have seen Canonical engineers focus more on optimizing the performance potential of Ubuntu Linux. With Ubuntu 25.04 they are now using the -O3 compiler optimization level by default and there has been other efforts like better performance tooling on Ubuntu and frame pointers by default. Another area they have been exploring is making use of Profile Guided Optimizations (PGO) for faster performance in certain scenarios.
Linux 6.13 Rolling Out NVMe 2.1 Support & NVMe Rotational Media
All of the block subsystem changes were sent out today for the in-development Linux 6.13 kernel, including a prominent set of NVMe additions.
New AMD ERAPS Feature Yields Additional Performance Gains On Zen 5
At the beginning of November I wrote about AMD Linux engineers posting Linux patches enabling a new "ERAPS" feature for Zen 5. ERAPS wasn't talked about by AMD at the Zen 5 launches of the Ryzen 9000 / Ryzen AI 300 series or with the more recent EPYC 9005 "Turin" launch but when enabled, the Enhanced Return Address Prediction Security feature can help deliver some additional gains on new AMD Zen 5 systems by allowing some existing software security mitigations to be avoided. Here are some preliminary comparison benchmarks showing the benefit in affected workloads for using ERAPS on Linux with AMD Zen 5.
GCC 15 Compiler Development Shifts From Features To Bug Fixing
12 Hours Ago - GNU - GCC 15 Enters Stage 3
GCC 15 feature development is now officially over with entering stage three development to focus on fixing compiler bugs.
Raspberry Pi OS Now Defaults To 512MB Swap, Updates Labwc Compositor
With last month's Raspberry Pi OS update they now default to Wayland on all Raspberry Pi models alongside various other operating system improvements. Out today is the latest iteration of the Debian-based Raspberry Pi OS with software updates and other changes.
LLVM Clang 20 Merges Intel Diamond Rapids Support With "-march=diamondrapids"
14 Hours Ago - LLVM - -march=diamondrapids
Following AMX-FP8 support, AMX-AVX512, and other new Intel CPU ISA features being added to the LLVM Clang 20 compiler codebase, the Intel Diamond Rapids target is now upstreamed for allowing "-march=diamondrapids" targeting for these next-generation Xeon processors.
DXVK 2.5.1 Released To Fix A Major Regression & Other Bugs
DXVK 2.5 released one week ago with better video memory management handling, various Direct3D additions, and more. DXVK 2.5.1 is out today to fix a "major regression" as well as a few other bugs.
Btrfs With Linux 6.13 Delivers Performance Improvements & Other Features
Along with the early Bcachefs pull request for Linux 6.13, SUSE engineer David Sterba submitted all of the Btrfs file-system feature updates in an early pull request for this next kernel version. Btrfs is seeing new performance optimizations and other enhancements for Linux 6.13.
FreeBSD 14.2 Beta 3 Released - FreeBSD Now Publishing OCI Container Images
15 Hours Ago - BSD - FreeBSD 14.2 Beta 3
The third weekly beta release of FreeBSD 14.2 is now available for testing ahead of the planned stable release in early December. Besides a few fixes notable to FreeBSD 14.2-BETA3 is that they are now putting out OCI container images among their release media.
Linux 6.13 For ARM64 Brings GCS Support & Protected VMs With Arm CCA
15 Hours Ago - Arm - ARM64 Features
The ARM64 (AArch64) architecture changes have been submitted for the now-open Linux 6.13 merge window.
17 November
Linux 6.12 Released With Real-Time Capabilities, Sched_Ext, More AMD RDNA4 & More
As expected, minutes ago Linus Torvalds just released the Linux 6.12 kernel as stable. Linux 6.12 brings many new features, new hardware support, and is rounded out by the fact of expected to become this year's Long Term Support (LTS) kernel version.
Linux Fixes Hosts Randomly Rebooting During Virtualization With Ryzen 7000/8000 CPUs
17 November 09:56 AM EST - AMD - VMLOAD/VMSAVE On Zen4 Client
Ahead of the Linux 6.12 kernel release expected today there is a last minute "x86/urgent" pull request. Notable with this last minute x86 urgent fixes for Linux 6.12 -- and also to be back-ported to prior kernel versions -- is working around an issue with AMD Ryzen Zen 4 client processors such as the Ryzen 7000/8000 series processors when making use of virtualization that could lead to the host randomly being rebooted.
Linux 6.13 Adding "slab_strict_numa" SLAB Option For Helping ARM Performance
As part of the SLAB (SLUB) allocator updates pending for the upcoming Linux 6.13 cycle is a new "slab_strict_numa" option that is reported to further help ARM Linux performance such as for Ampere Computing servers.
Archinstall 3.0 Overhauls The Text-Based Arch Linux Installer
17 November 05:33 AM EST - Arch Linux - Archinstall 3.0
Archinstall is the convenient text/CLI-based installer for Arch Linux that allows getting the Linux distribution easily installed in a matter of minutes. Released today is Archinstall 3.0 that overhauls the Arch Linux installer with now using the curses library for rendering of the text interface.
Rust Coreutils 0.0.28 Delivers Better Performance & Increased Compatibility
Rust Coreutils 0.0.28 "uutils" has been released for this implementation of the GNU Coreutils utilities within the Rust programming language for better memory safety and greater robustness. With the Rust Coreutils 0.0.28 there is increased GNU compatibility as well as better performance.
16 November
Bcachefs Brings Self-Healing Work & Better Reflink Repair For Linux 6.13
Bcachefs has now joined the party of various kernel components sending in preemptive pull requests ahead of the Linux 6.13 merge window that is expected to open following the expected Linux 6.12 release on Sunday.
Google Engineer Proposes "Page Detective" As New Kernel Debugging Tool
Google software engineer Pasha Tatashin has proposed Page Detective as a new kernel debugging tool that is able to provide greater insight around the usage and mapping of physical memory pages.
TUXEDO Computers Relicenses Some Of Their Drivers To GPLv2
16 November 09:51 AM EST - Hardware - GPLv3 To GPLv2
Following the proposed patches this week to adjust the Linux kernel's module loader to treat the TUXEDO Computers drivers as proprietary due to being GPLv3 licensed rather than GPLv2 to jive with the rest of the upstream kernel code, some of the TUXEDO drivers have now been re-licensed.
Rustls 0.23.17 Brings More Performance Improvements
16 November 08:37 AM EST - Programming - Rustls 0.23.17
Rustls 0.23.17 is out today as the newest version of this modern TLS library written in the Rust programming language and a great alternative to the likes of OpenSSL.
GCC 15 Moves C Default Language Version To C23
16 November 06:56 AM EST - GNU - C23 / GNU23
The GCC 15 compiler on Friday switched its default C language version from the GNU dialect of C17 to the current C23 standard.
Linux 6.13 Introducing New Rust File Abstractions
16 November 06:52 AM EST - Linux Kernel - Rust File Abstractions
Alongside the VFS pull requests on Friday for case insensitive Tmpfs support and atomic writes for EXT4 and XFS, Christian Brauner also submitted a pull request for introducing some new file abstractions for the Rust programming language within the Linux kernel.
KDE Developers Spent The Week Fixing Bugs & Polishing
16 November 06:22 AM EST - KDE - KDE Plasma 6.3
While Plasma 6.3 feature development is continuing, KDE developers this week spent more time fixing bugs and polishing up existing code for ensuring a solid foundation to this open-source desktop.
15 November
systemd 257-rc2 Released With New systemd-keyutil Tool
15 November 08:25 PM EST - systemd - systemd-keyutil
Released last week was systemd 257-rc1 while succeeding that already is systemd 257-rc2 and it comes with a new tool: systemd-keyutil.
Valve Releases Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Update
15 November 08:14 PM EST - Valve - Half-Life 2
In commemorating twenty years since the release of the highly acclaimed Half-Life 2 game, Valve today released the Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary update with various fixes and other refinements. Half-Life 2 is also being made free-to-own through November 18th for those that never experienced this legendary game.
Tmpfs Adding Case Insensitive Support For Wine / Steam Play & Flatpaks
In addition to the EXT4 and XFS atomic write support, another interesting pull request sent in today by Microsoft's Christian Brauner is adding case-insensitive file/folder support for the Tmpfs file-system to benefit use-cases like Wine / Steam Play compatibility layers and sandboxing/container facilities like Flatpak.
Linux 6.13 To Expand Atomic Write Support To EXT4 & XFS
Prominent Linux developer Christian Brauner with Microsoft has begun sending out various pull requests of VFS feature changes for the imminent Linux 6.13 merge window. One of the interesting early pull requests is the VFS untorn writes series with getting atomic writes support enabled for the EXT4 and XFS file-system.
Linux 6.13 Very Exciting With New Feature Code For AMD EPYC Zen 5, Intel Panther Lake
15 November 10:49 AM EST - Linux Kernel - Linux 6.13 Features
While Linux 6.12 should be out this weekend with its many exciting features, following that will mark the start of the Linux 6.13 kernel cycle with what will be the first stable kernel release of 2025... Already there is a lot of exciting feature work expected to land during the Linux 6.13 merge window.
GNOME Mutter Switches To High Priority KMS Thread To Avoid Crashes
15 November 09:46 AM EST - GNOME - GNOME Crash / Kill Reports
The GNOME Mutter compositor has switched its KMS thread priority from a real-time value over to high priority to workaround a situation where the GNOME Shell / Mutter could crash or see its process killed.
Linux 6.12 Preps For Release With Real-Time, Sched_Ext, Stable Xe2 & Raspberry Pi 5
The Linux 6.12 kernel is expected to be released this coming Sunday, 17 November, barring any last minute issues that would force the stable kernel to be diverted to the following Sunday. Linux 6.12 is delivering many exciting new features and beyond that it's all the more exciting with it expected to be this year's Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel version.
Google Posts Patches Further Speeding Up Linux Async Device Suspend & Resume
15 November 08:25 AM EST - Linux Kernel - Faster Async Suspend/Resume
Google engineer Saravana Kannan has posted a set of patches to better optimize async device suspend and resume handling within the Linux kernel. With these patches there are "significant improvements" to async device suspend/resume with testing being done on a Google Pixel 6 smartphone but other devices stand to benefit too.
AMD Releases ZenDNN 5.0 For Deep Neural Network Library Optimized For Zen 5 EPYC
15 November 06:50 AM EST - AMD - ZenDNN 5.0
AMD ZenDNN 5.0 was rolled out this morning as the newest version of this deep neural network library that is compatible with Intel's oneDNN APIs and infrastructure. ZenDNN 5.0 is now optimized for AMD Zen 5 processors such as the EPYC 9005 series. ZenDNN 5.0 also ships performance enhancements for generative large language models (LLMs) with its PyTorch plug-in.
GCC 15 Adds Option For Arm Guarded Control Stack "GCS" Code Generation
15 November 06:39 AM EST - GNU - Guarded Control Stack
GCC 15 feature development is soon wrapping up to focus on bug fixing before releasing GCC 15.1 as stable in the early months of 2025. One of the latest features to make it in the compiler codebase is code generation support around Arm Guarded Control Stack (GCS) functionality.
Linux Patches Add Support For New "Phone Link" Hotkey On Latest ThinkPads
15 November 06:23 AM EST - Hardware - Link Phone Hotkey
Patches posted on Thursday for the Linux kernel add support for the newest hotkey being found on Lenovo ThinkPad laptops... The "Phone Link" hotkey for launching the Microsoft Phone Link software for linking your Android/iOS smartphone to your laptop. This hotkey can be adapted for similar purposes on Linux.
SDL3 Improves Steam Controller Support, Now Enabled By Default
15 November 06:08 AM EST - Linux Gaming - SDL3 Steam Controller
A number of Steam Controller improvements have been merged for SDL, this widely-used hardware/software abstraction layer that is common to cross platform games. Among the latest Steam Controller improvements in SDL are enabling the support by default.
14 November
Khronos SYCL Being Updated To Increase Appeal For HPC & Scientific Computing
14 November 07:00 PM EST - Standards - SYCL For HPC + Scientific Computing
In addition to the release today of OpenMP 6.0 ahead of the SC24 supercomputing conference in Atlanta, over at The Khronos Group they have provided an update on upcoming SYCL improvements to benefit high performance computing (HPC) and scientific computing applications.
OpenMP 6.0 Released With An Emphasis On Easier Parallel Programming
The OpenMP Architecture Review Board announced from SC24 that OpenMP 6.0 is now available as a major upgrade to the OpenMP specification for multi-process programming within C / C++ / Fortran. A big emphasis on OpenMP 6.0 is making it easier for developers to embrace.
Upstream Linux Developers Take Aim At TUXEDO's Out-Of-Tree GPLv3 Drivers
14 November 12:10 PM EST - Hardware - Tainting The Kernel
A new patch series posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list would block kernel modules/drivers from TUXEDO Computers from accessing GPL-only symbols in the kernel.
Supermicro H13SSL-N For AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" 1P Servers
While it's difficult still finding Intel Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" motherboards/servers widely available at Internet retailers/distributors, when it comes to the AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" processors that launched just last month, there is better availability thanks in large part to leveraging the existing SP5 socket. For those wanting to assemble a single socket AMD EPYC 9005 series server, one of the readily available options in the retail channel is the Supermicro H13SSL-N motherboard.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Enters Beta With Many New Features & Updates
14 November 10:26 AM EST - Red Hat - RHEL 10 Beta
The first public beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (RHEL 10) was released on Wednesday with a wide variety of new/updated packages, new features, and other changes over RHEL 9.
AMD 3D V-Cache Optimizer Driver To Be Merged For Linux 6.13
14 November 08:39 AM EST - AMD - AMD 3D V-Cache Optimizer Driver
Last month AMD Linux engineers posted patches for a 3D V-Cache Optimizer driver for Linux that allows the user to communicate their cache vs. frequency preference depending upon workload and for the 3D V-Cache processors where some CCDs have the larger cache but not all. That driver is now ready for appearing in the upcoming Linux 6.13 kernel.
Linux 6.13 To Tune Intel Granite Rapids For Better Performance Out-Of-The-Box
14 November 07:02 AM EST - Intel - Balance-Performance EPP
A patch queued yesterday ino the Linux power management subsystem's "linux-next" branch ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.13 merge window will tune Intel Xeon Granite Rapids processors for better performance out-of-the-box.
Linux To Allow Disabling TPM PCR Integrity Protection Due To Performance Bottleneck
14 November 06:35 AM EST - Linux Security - tpm.disable_pcr_integrity=
Linux 6.10 introduced TPM bus encryption and integrity protection for enhancing the Trusted Platform Module support to protect against interposers from compromising them with TPM sniffing attacks. There is now a new option being added to opt-out of this protection due to a discovered performance bottleneck.
Intel Touch Host Controller "THC" Driver Support Being Worked On For Linux
14 November 06:20 AM EST - Intel - Intel Touch Host Controller
The newest Linux driver being developed by Intel is for the Touch Host Controller (THC) as a new high performance input tech for enhancing touch screen, touch pad, and stylus input handling.
Bcachefs Squeezes More Fixes Into Linux 6.12
Ahead of the expected final Linux 6.12 stable kernel release this weekend, a last round of Bcachefs file-system fixes were submitted today for this next kernel version.
13 November
AMD Developing Next-Gen Fortran Compiler Based On Flang, Optimized For AMD GPUs
13 November 07:15 PM EST - AMD - AMD Next-Gen Fortran Compiler
AMD today went public with details on the "AMD Next-Gen Fortran Compiler" as a new Fortran compiler they are working on based on LLVM's Flang.
Mesa 24.3-rc2 Brings Fixes For Intel & NVK Drivers
13 November 04:20 PM EST - Mesa - Mesa 24.3-rc2
Last week Mesa 24.3 was finally branched and Mesa 24.3-rc1 subsequently issued for getting the release process kicked off for this quarterly 3D graphics driver feature release. Out today is Mesa 24.3-rc2 with an initial batch of fixes.
Ubuntu 25.04 To Further Enhance Its Installer, Aims For Linux 6.14 Kernel
13 November 01:03 PM EST - Ubuntu - Ubuntu 25.04 Features
Canonical's Interim Engineering Director for Ubuntu Desktop, Oliver Smith, has shared some early roadmap plans for the Ubuntu 25.04 development cycle.
13 November 10:30 AM EST - Hardware - $928 For Laptop
Framework Computer has been promoting a RISC-V motherboard option for their Framework Laptop 13 to complement their existing Intel Core and AMD Ryzen motherboard options. This RISC-V motherboard is being developed in cooperation with DeepComputing. Early access pricing and more details on this quad-core StarFive JH7110 powered mainboard for the Framework 13 have now been announced.
GNU C Library Merges Support for getrandom vDSO
13 November 09:20 AM EST - GNU - glibc getrandom vDSO
Back in Linux 6.11 support for getrandom() in the vDSO was upstreamed for much better performance in providing speedy yet secure random number generation (RNG) needs. Since Linux 6.11 getrandom in the vDSO has expanded to more CPU architectures and now there's a notable user-space user ready to go: the GNU C Library "glibc" support was merged.
Intel's Zswap IAA Compress Batching Work Is Very Interesting For Linux Performance
13 November 08:21 AM EST - Intel - Zswap IAA Compress Batching
The Intel In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA) found in various Xeon SKUs since Sapphire Rapids can be of big benefit to Linux servers/workstations with a Linux kernel patch series that has been in the works to provide Zswap IAA compress batching.
NVIDIA MLX5 Introducing Data Direct Placement "DDP" In Linux 6.13 For Boosting Bandwidth
13 November 06:55 AM EST - NVIDIA - Data Direct Placement
The NVIDIA MLX5 driver for NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX-5 network adapters is preparing to introduce a new Data Direct Placement "DDP" feature with the upcoming Linux 6.13 kernel merge window.
Uncached Buffered IO Is Performing Great, Working Now On Btrfs / EXT4 / XFS
As covered last week Linux I/O expert Jens Axboe has been taking a fresh pursuit of uncached buffered I/O for Linux. This "RWF_UNCACHED" work was originally started back in 2019 while a renewed effort around it is showing ~65% faster read/write performance and so far has been extended to work across EXT4, Btrfs, and XFS file-systems.
AMD Continues Backing AlmaLinux For Community Enterprise Linux OS
The AlmaLinux operating system project that was started from the fallout of the RHEL/CentOS development shift several years ago has once again courted AMD as a sponsorship of this community enterprise Linux operating system.
xcompmgr 1.1.10 Released For Classic "Eye Candy" Compositor On X.Org
13 November 05:28 AM EST - X.Org - xcompmgr
Xcompmgr 1.1.10 was released yesterday as the newest update to this basic X11 compositor providing "eye candy" effects for classic X.Org usage.