Linux Hardware Reviews & Performance Benchmarks, Open-Source News (original) (raw)

Ubuntu Core Desktop Seeing KDE Plasma Snap'ed Up, Other Ubuntu 24.10 Progress

11 Minutes Ago - Ubuntu - Ubuntu 24.10 Development

Oliver Smith as the Interim Engineering Director for Ubuntu Desktop at Canonical is out with a new status update on Ubuntu 24.10 development and related ambitions. This also includes more details about bringing the KDE Plasma desktop to Ubuntu Core Desktop in Snap form.

AMD AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 Performance With The Ryzen 9 9950X On Linux

There has been a lot of talk the past few days over the AMD AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 update that has begun rolling out to AMD AM5 motherboards with BIOS updates. The AGESA 1.2.0.2 is said to improve inter-core latency for Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" processors when cores from different CCDs are cross-communicating. Some -- at least under Windows -- have reported performance improvements and thus several Phoronix readers have requested I run some of my tests with AGESA 1.2.0.2. Here are said comparison benchmarks using an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X on Ubuntu Linux.

Linux 6.12 Lands QR Code For DRM Panic Messages, Intel LNL & BMG Graphics Enabled

The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics/display driver updates have been submitted and already merged for the in-development Linux 6.12 kernel.

Linux 6.12 Perf Updates Bring Intel Lunar Lake & Arrow Lake Additions

5 Hours Ago - Intel - Linux 6.12 Perf

The core perf subsystem updates have been merged for the in-development Linux 6.12 kernel.

OpenVINO 2024.4 Prepares For Core Ultra Series 2, New Gen AI Models

6 Hours Ago - Intel - OpenVINO 2024.4

Intel engineers today released OpenVINO 2024.4 as the newest version of their open-source AI toolkit. OpenVINO 2024.4 prepares for upcoming Intel Core Ultra Series 2 "Lunar Lake" processors, supports newer Gen AI models, now supports Python 3.12, and finally adds official support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Linux 6.12 Scheduler Code Adds SCHED_DEADLINE Servers & Complete EEVDF

The scheduler updates have been submitted for the Linux 6.12 kernel and come with several notable enhancements.

Microsoft Optimizes Hyper-V Code To Boot Linux Faster When Having Many CPUs

The Microsoft Hyper-V updates have been submitted for the Linux 6.12 kernel. They are mostly small changes but does bring work to optimize the boot time for large Hyper-V VMs.

XFS With Linux 6.12 Adds New Ioctls To Exchange Contents Of Two Files

The XFS file-system changes have been merged for the Linux 6.12 kernel and introduce new ioctls for being able to exchange the contents of two files.

18 September

Mesa's Zink Driver Now Supports OpenGL VR Extensions

18 September 04:50 PM EDT - Mesa - Mesa OVR Extensions

For anyone still relying upon virtual reality (VR) applications written for the OpenGL API rather than the Vulkan API that has been dominant among VR apps (and other modern games / software) for years, the Mesa code and in particular the Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver now supports the OpenGL VR (OVR) extensions.

Autodesk Contributes Mesa Vulkan WSI Support For Apple's Metal

18 September 03:51 PM EDT - Mesa - Software Vulkan To Apple Metal

An interesting merge request opened this week and already merged for Mesa 24.3 comes from an Autodesk engineer adding Vulkan Windowing System Integration (WSI) around Apple's Metal API for use on macOS.

H.264/H.265 Vulkan Encoder Support Merged Into FFmpeg

18 September 01:08 PM EDT - Multimedia - FFmpeg + Vulkan Video

The FFmpeg multimedia library continues to enhance its support around the Vulkan Video APIs with the latest commits seeing H.264 and H.265/HEVC Vulkan encode support merged.

GNOME 47 Released With Accent Colors, Improved Apps & More

18 September 11:35 AM EDT - GNOME - GNOME 47

GNOME 47 is out today as the latest major update to this popular open-source desktop environment.

NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation vs. Radeon PRO Performance On Ubuntu Linux 24.04 LTS

For those wondering about the performance of the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation workstation performance on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with the up-to-date NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers now relying on the open-source kernel modules, this article is for you in looking at the performance of this high-end workstation graphics card on the up-to-date Linux software stack. The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation is tested alongside the RTX 2000 / 4000 Ada Generation graphics cards and also the AMD Radeon PRO W7000 series competition atop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Linux 6.12 Adds Build Options For Greater Control Over CPU Security Mitigations

18 September 08:00 AM EDT - Linux Security - Linux 6.12 Kconfig Options

Not to be confused with the proposal a few days ago by an AMD engineer for Attack Vector Controls for broader control over CPU security mitigation handling, the in-development Linux 6.12 kernel is adding new Kconfig options to allow for more build-time control over what CPU security mitigation code is compiled for the kernel.

Many Intel & AMD Power Management Improvements For Linux 6.12

18 September 07:00 AM EDT - Hardware - Linux 6.12 Power Management

The big set of power management updates for Linux 6.12 have landed.

Intel Compute Runtime Offers "Preview" Support For Lunar Lake

18 September 06:00 AM EDT - Intel - Intel Compute Runtime

Intel Compute Runtime 24.35.30872.22 released today as the newest tagged version of this open-source GPU compute stack providing oneAPI Level Zero and OpenCL support for Linux and Windows systems.

Linux 6.12 Landing Integrity Policy Enforcement "IPE" Module

Merged as part of the Linux Security Modules (LSM) updates for the Linux 6.12 kernel is the new Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE) module that has been years in the making. Integrity Policy Enforcement is an alternative to access controls.

Btrfs Sees Minor Performance Optimizations With Linux 6.12

The Btrfs file-system continues marching ahead with the Linux 6.12 kernel.

17 September

Patch Proposed For Adding x86_64 Feature Levels To The Kernel - But It's Likely D.O.A.

17 September 03:30 PM EDT - Linux Kernel - x86_64 Microarchitecture Feature Levels

A patch was sent out on Sunday for adding new Linux kernel configuration options for tuning the kernel build to different x86_64 micro-architecture feature levels. The intent is on generating kernel builds that are faster for use on modern Intel and AMD systems. However, this patch is likely to not be accepted in the mainline kernel and has already been criticized upstream Linux kernel developers.

Initial AMD Zen 5 "Znver5" Support Merged For LLVM/Clang

17 September 02:17 PM EDT - AMD - Znver5 For LLVM Clang

Last week the initial AMD Zen 5 "znver5" enablement for LLVM/Clang was posted by an AMD compiler engineer. That code has since undergone review and merged for LLVM 20 Git and yesterday then back-ported for LLVM 19.

OpenJDK Java 23 Released With ZGC Generational Mode By Default

OpenJDK 23 is now generally available as the reference implementation to Java 23.

The Printk Blocker For Upstreaming Real-Time "PREEMPT_RT" Has Been Merged

17 September 10:19 AM EDT - Linux Kernel - Linux 6.12 Printk Merged

The printk changes to finish the NBCON consoles work has been merged for Linux 6.12! This is the last remaining blocker on real-time "PREEMPT_RT" support from being upstreamed. We're now tantalizing close to seeing the real-time kernel support merged after many years of being out-of-tree patches.

LLVM 19.1 Released With C++17 Support "Complete", More C & C++ Features

17 September 09:00 AM EDT - LLVM - LLVM 19.1

LLVM 19.1 is out today as the first stable version of the LLVM 19 compiler stack including the Clang 19 C/C++ compiler.

Fedora 41 Beta Released With Many Leading-Edge Linux Enhancements

17 September 08:00 AM EDT - Fedora - Fedora 41 Beta

The beta of Fedora 41 is out today ahead of the planned stable release in October for this leading-edge Linux distribution with many new features.

Mir 2.18 Released With Wayland Server-Side Decorations

17 September 07:44 AM EDT - Wayland - Mir 2.18

Canonical today shipped Mir 2.18 as the latest version of this set of open-source libraries for assembly Wayland-based shells. Mir 2.18 brings a number of new features including Wayland server-side decorations.

Intel Linux NPU Driver 1.8 Released Ahead Of Lunar Lake

17 September 07:35 AM EDT - Intel - Intel NPU Driver 1.8

Ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" laptops beginning to ship starting next week, the Intel Linux NPU Driver 1.8 is now available as the latest software update for embracing the Intel NPU for AI offloading.

Device Memory TCP Included With The Networking Changes For Linux 6.12

Jakub Kicinski submitted the networking subsystem updates over the weekend for the Linux 6.12 merge window. Most notable this cycle is Device Memory TCP for zero-copy receive of TCP payloads to DMA-BUF regions.

FreeBSD 13.4 Released With Many Software Updates & Driver Improvements

17 September 12:00 AM EDT - BSD - FreeBSD 13.4-RELEASE

The FreeBSD camp today released FreeBSD 13.4 as the newest point release to the FreeBSD 13 stable series for those that haven't yet migrated to the FreeBSD 14 series.

ARM / RISC-V / LoongArch KVM Updates Submitted For Linux 6.12

Red Hat engineer Paolo Bonzini submitted the initial batch of KVM changes targeting the Linux 6.12 kernel. This is just the first batch and notably lacking all of the KVM x86 Intel/AMD changes for the cycle. But in the non-x86 space there is a fair amount of activity for this next kernel version for those making use of KVM as part of the open-source virtualization stack.

16 September

AMD Publishes RDNA 3.5 ISA Documentation

16 September 06:00 PM EDT - Radeon - RDNA 3.5 ISA Guide

AMD today made public their RDNA 3.5 instruction set architecture (ISA) programming guide for these updated RDNA3 graphics found within new Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" APUs thus far.

Initial Raspberry Pi 5 Support & More Snapdragon X1 Laptops Submitted For Linux 6.12

16 September 04:00 PM EDT - Arm - ARM SoC Updates

All of the ARM SoC and platform updates have been sent out for the Linux 6.12 merge window. Exciting this cycle is finally having initial support for the Raspberry Pi 5 plus supporting several more Snapdragon X1 Elite laptops.

Replay Protected Memory Block "RPMB" Subsystem Submitted For Linux 6.12

16 September 03:00 PM EDT - Linux Storage - Replay Protected Memory Block

The MMC updates for the Linux 6.12 kernel include the introduction of a new kernel subsystem for Replay Protected Memory Block (RPMB) drivers.

A Re-Implementation Of The EROFS File-System In Rust Has Started

The EROFS read-only open-source file-system has seen initial patches posted today for beginning to re-implement the C code within the Rust programming language for better safety guarantees and the possibility of more performance optimizations.

Idea Raised For Reducing The Size Of The AMDGPU Driver With Its Massive Header Files

16 September 11:30 AM EDT - Radeon - Moving To External Repo

Following the weekend news of the AMDGPU kernel driver becoming too large that it's causing the Plymouth boot splash screen on slower Linux systems to time-out, longtime AMD Linux graphics driver engineer Marek Olšák expressed a new idea for helping to reduce some bloat from this AMD kernel graphics driver.

AmpereOne Performance With GCC vs. LLVM Clang Compilers

While having the Supermicro ARS-211M-NR R13SPD server in the lab for AmpereOne benchmarking with the flagship AmpereOne A192-32X processor, I took the opportunity to run some fresh GCC vs. LLVM Clang compiler performance benchmarks on AArch64. Here are those results for that healthy competition between these open-source C/C++ compilers on AmpereOne cores.

GNU Linux-libre 6.11 Makes Adaptations For Rust, Warns Of Hidden Binary Bits In v6.11

16 September 09:32 AM EDT - GNU - GNU Linux-libre 6.11-gnu

Building off yesterday's Linux 6.11 release, the GNU Linux-libre 6.11-gnu kernel is now available that is the downstream stripping out driver support/features depending upon closed-source microcode/firmware and other modifications in the name of software freedom and ensuring no closed-source bits are used on Linux-libre-enabled systems.

The File Struct Is Smaller In Linux 6.12 - May Help File Heavy Workloads

16 September 06:30 AM EDT - Linux Kernel - Optimizing File Struct

The file structure is one of the most widely-used data structures by Linux kernel drivers. The file struct represents an open file and thus obviously very important and ubiquitous throughout the kernel. With the Linux 6.12 kernel the file struct has been adjusted so it's smaller than before and in turn could help with performance for file-heavy workloads.

TamaGo Allows Executing Go Language Code Bare Metal On ARM/RISC-V SoCs

Presented earlier this month at the Open-Source Firmware Conference was TamaGo as a means of running Go programming language code bare metal on Arm SoCs as well as eyeing RISC-V too. TamaGo can allow for "0% C and 100% Go code" for ARM/RISC-V device firmware to enhance security.

Linux 6.12 EDAC Prepares For Address Translation On Future AMD Platforms

16 September 05:00 AM EDT - AMD - Linux 6.12 EDAC / RAS

The Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) driver updates were among the early pull requests submitted for the Linux 6.12 kernel cycle in advance of this week's Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in Austria. Among the EDAC work this cycle is preparing memory address translation support for future AMD platforms.

Linux 6.12 To Support Arm's Permission Overlay Extension

16 September 12:00 AM EDT - Arm - Arm Confidential Computing

The 64-bit ARM changes were submitted in advance for the now-open Linux 6.12 kernel merge window. There is work for Arm on the confidential computing side this cycle and other new features.

15 September

Valkey 8.0 Released As Speedy Redis Fork Achieving One Million RPS

Valkey 8.0 was released today as this leading fork of the Redis open-source code that was started by the Linux Foundation early in the year and backed by organizations from Amazon/AWS to Google Cloud, Oracle, and others. With the Valkey 8.0 release a big focus has been on increasing performance and striving to being capable of delivering one million requests per second.

IO_uring Async Discard Submitted For Linux 6.12

15 September 03:51 PM EDT - Linux Storage - IO_uring async discard

Jens Axboe submitted the block and IO_uring changes already for the now-open Linux 6.12 merge window. Most notable from this Linux I/O work is adding async discard support to IO_uring.

Linux 6.11 Kernel Released With Some Snapdragon X1 Laptop Support & Other New Hardware

As expected the Linux 6.11 kernel has been promoted to stable and in time for appearing in the likes of Ubuntu 24.10, Fedora 41, and other autumn Linux distribution releases.

Linux 6.11 Features Many Exciting Updates For AMD Hardware & More

15 September 09:03 AM EDT - Linux Kernel - Linux 6.11 Updates

It's expected to be the Linux 6.11 release day! We are just hours away from hopefully seeing Linux 6.11 stable christened as the kernel set to power the likes of Ubuntu 24.10 and Fedora 41. Here's a reminder of some of the most interesting new features and changes to look forward to with Linux 6.11.

AMD GPU Linux Driver Becoming "Really Really Big" That It's Starting To Cause Problems

15 September 06:00 AM EDT - Radeon - AMDGPU Driver

The modern AMD kernel graphics driver "AMDGPU" is the biggest driver within the mainline Linux kernel and is approaching six million lines of code albeit a large chunk of that is made up of auto-generated header files for each supported GPU. But this AMDGPU kernel driver is becoming "really really big" that it's beginning to cause issues for Plymouth that commonly provides the initial boot splash screen experience on modern Linux desktops.

Legacy Intel Sound Driver Support Being Removed In Linux 6.12, Other Big Changes

15 September 05:00 AM EDT - Multimedia - Linux 6.12 Sound

Yet another early pull request for the imminent Linux 6.12 merge window is the sound (audio) driver updates for this next kernel cycle. There is a lot of sound driver work this cycle from new audio bits to removing legacy Intel driver support.

Many ACPI Updates Head To The Linux 6.12 Kernel

15 September 04:00 AM EDT - Hardware - Linux 6.12 ACPI Updates

Ahead of the expected Linux 6.11 stable release today and the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit happening this coming week in Vienna, Intel engineer Rafael Wysocki submitted early the ACPI updates among the other areas of the kernel he oversees as part of the imminent Linux 6.12 merge window.

Ubuntu Developers Begin Working On Snapdragon X1 Elite Support

15 September 12:00 AM EDT - Ubuntu - Snapdragon X1 + Ubuntu

With the mainline Linux kernel beginning to see DeviceTree support for a few Snapdragon X1 powered laptops like the ASUS Vivobook S15 and Lenovo Yoga Slim7x, Ubuntu developers at Canonical appear to be beginning their exploration around supporting some of the Snapdragon X1 hardware with Ubuntu Linux.

14 September

Linux 6.11 Adds Last Minute Addition For Intel Arrow Lake

14 September 03:57 PM EDT - Intel - Pin Control

The Linux 6.11 kernel is expected to be christened as stable tomorrow. Ahead of that stable release one of the last minute "fixes" is adding in another ID for upcoming Intel Arrow Lake processors.

GNOME Mutter Merges XDG Session Management Wayland Protocol

14 September 10:33 AM EDT - GNOME - XDG Session Management

As a very last minute change ahead of tagging GNOME Mutter 47, merged this morning to Mutter is support for the XDG session management Wayland protocol. This protocol is useful for letting clients request support from the compositor for saving the window state for use on future executions. However, it's currently disabled by default and won't be entirely baked until GNOME 48.

Niri 0.1.9 Scrollable-Tiling Wayland Compositor Brings New IPC Functionality

14 September 09:00 AM EDT - Wayland - Niri 0.1.9

Niri 0.1.9 is out today as the latest update to this scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor that is written in Rust.

Casilda Is A New Project As A GTK4 Wayland Compositor Widget

14 September 07:10 AM EDT - GNOME - Casilda Wayland Compositor Widget

Casilda is a new open-source project by GNOME developer Juan Pablo Ugarte to serve as a Wayland compositor widget. Casilda allows for embedding other processes windows within a GTK4 application.

Printk Changes Submitted For Linux 6.12 Finish NBCON Console Preparations

Ahead of the Linux 6.12 kernel merge window opening on Monday, the printk updates were submitted in advance given the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit also taking place next week in Vienna. Notable with the printk updates is finishing up the NBCON console work that is notable as the last major blocker before real-time (PREEMPT_RT) support can be finally mainlined.

EROFS Adding Support For File-Backed Mounts To Benefit Containers & Sandboxes

The EROFS read-only file-system changes have been submitted now for ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.12 merge window. Notable this cycle is EROFS adding support for file-backed mounts.

KDE Releases Plasma 6.2 Beta, Early Feature Work Begins For Plasma 6.3

14 September 06:30 AM EDT - KDE - KDE This Week