Linux News: Systemd, Linux 3.14 Release, Future Releases
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-03 11:38:39 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-03 11:38:39 UTC
Systemd
Systemd has been working on network support for this leading open-source init system. As part of this, systemd developers have now achieved support for obtaining a network connection in less than one millisecond... With that said, systemd developers are working towards having DHCP client and server capabilities built into the init system for having a super-fast booting OS and quicker network connections when resuming the system.
When systemd sees "debug" as part of the kernel command-line, it will spit out so much informaiton about the system that it fails to boot... The init system just collapses the system with too much information being sent to the dmesg when seeing the debug option as part of the kernel command-line parameter. Within the systemd bug report it was suggested for systemd not to look for a simple "debug" string to go into its debug mode but perhaps something like "systemd.debug" or other namespaced alternatives. The debug kernel command-line parameter has been used by upstream Linux kernel developers for many years. However, upstream systemd developers don't agree about changing their debug code detection. Kay Sievers of Red Hat wrote, "Generic terms are generic, not the first user owns them."
kGraft
SUSE has released kGraft to the public, the technology it developed to deliver live runtime patching of the Linux kernel.
Kgraft, which allows live patching of the Linux kernel without downtime, is available under the GPLv3 license
Future Releases
The highlights covered by Daniel for "neat" i915 DRM 3.15 changes include per-process address space support (currently limited to Ivy Bridge and Haswell but Bay Trail and Broadwell support is coming), fine-grained display power domain handling, runtime power management infrastructure work, support for inheriting the firmware frame-buffer as another step in Fastboot support, a lot of Broadwell patches, improved support for frame-buffer compression, 5.4GHz DIsplayPort support, generic DisplayPort aux helpers, and large cursor support to benefit HiDPI displays. For Intel's 4K display support, they now support 5.4GHz DisplayPort but they don't yet support multi-stream support (MST) as most 4K DisplayPort screens expose themselves as two displays to the driver.
There's many bug and performance fixes that landed while some corruption fixes and other patches will land later in the 3.15 merge window. The Btrfs code was also changed to avoid using its own async threads in favor of regular kernel work-queues, in hopes of using more generic code, but it might affect the file-system's performance.
Hopefully the Linux kernel LTO support will finish up in the Linux 3.15 kernel otherwise Linux 3.16 so we can move onward with some benchmarks of an LTO-optimized Linux kernel to see the performance wins at the cost of greater compile times and memory usage during the compilation process. It's worth noting that with the upcoming GCC 4.9 are also some significant link-time optimization enhancements.
With the Linux 3.14 kernel that was released over the night, Intel UMS support was deprecated. Intel hasn't maintained their user-space mode-setting support on Linux in about a half-decade with pushing everything these days through kernel-based mode-setting. The Radeon and Nouveau drivers have also become completely dependent upon kernel mode-setting too, with user-space mode-setting these days mostly being left to really old X.Org drivers without a DRM/KMS module. Modern Linux distributions are also beginning to drop support for these old GPUs.
Latest Release
After adding an extra release candidate to solidify the final result -- to the tune of a week's delay -- Linux creator Linus Torvalds on Sunday unleashed version 3.14 of the Linux kernel.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, formally released the Linux 3.14 kernel March 30. The new 3.14 Linux kernel follows the Linux 3.13 kernel that was released in January. Given that the new kernel carries the release number 3.14, which is a number that is also well-known as the mathematical Pi constant, there was early speculation that Torvalds might name the new kernel Pi. It's something that Torvalds shot down early on in the Linux 3.14 development process.
Latest Linux kernel has baked-in support for more cutting-edge ARM and MIPS processors, adds hardware support for Xen paravirtualuzation
While no official announcement has come down yet, the Linux 3.14 kernel will most likely be released in the hours ahead.
Kernel Level Misc.
Jovi Zhangwei, the lead KTAP developer, has posted the 28 patches implementing KTAP on the Linux kernel mailing list and is looking for code review in hopes it will be accepted into the mainline Linux kernel. KTAP is a script-based dynamic tracing tool that has a powerful scripting language, a register-based interpreter, is considered lightweight, and supports multiple architectures. The currently supported architectures for KTAP include x86/x86_64, ARM, PowerPC, and MIPS.
Linux kernel block maintainer, Btrfs lead developer and new Facebook employee Chris Mason revealed the news at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Napa Valley on Thursday, Phoronix reported. Mason said that Facebook will trial Btrfs in its "web tier" servers, explaining that's the easiest tier to recover if necessary, though we imagine Facebook might ask the NSA for its backup copy in the event of disaster.
This small but important change would support a cgroup to swap to a particular file as setup by a new control file. This change is to allow the limiting of cgroups to a given swap file without being able to thrash the entire system's swap file. With this set of three patches, individual cgroups can be limited in their swap capacity.
Graphics Stack
While most of the open-source driver efforts around accelerating 2D with OpenGL are centered on GLAMOR, a set of patches were published today that provide performance improvements to the XA Gallium3D state tracker that also accelerate 2D using 3D driver code.
Benchmarks
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Garrett Does Not Just Try to Cover Up for Himself, He's Clearly Covering Up for His Mates From Microsoft (and Admits Third Parties Fund His Litigation, With Their Legal Bills Estimates Already Approaching $1,000,000)
- They have already sent us about 75 KG of legal papers. How is any judge supposed to keep up?
- Richard Stallman in the United States - Part IV - Back to Switzerland
- The "cancel mob" tried to "finish off" RMS 5 years ago
- Dr. Richard Stallman in Ada Lovelace Lecture Series 20 Hours From Now in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Rotkreuz)
- Well-connected and affluent corporations want everything to be controlled by them, ranging from culture to words and news
- GNU/Linux Seen as Rising to 20% in Eritrea, But That's statCounter Identifying "Unknown" as GNU/Linux
- What if statCounter managed to figure out what all those "unknowns" are?
-
- Links 06/03/2026: LLM Prompt-injection Vulnerability in Microsoft's Proprietary GitHub, "260,000 Federal Jobs Lost"
- Links for the day
- It's Friday and Many People Publicly Announce Leaving IBM (Which is Engineering 'Willful' Departures to Mask RAs' Scale)
- We understand from whistleblowers that IBM already destroyed Red Hat's culture
- Dr. Richard Stallman (RMS), the Man Whose Mind Scares GAFAM et al, Began Speaking in Switzerland
- His ideas and ideals are not obscene
- Gemini Links 06/03/2026: "Setting up the Feed" and Using Molly Brown
- Links for the day
- Links 06/03/2026: Can't Copyright Slop in US, Microsoft Became Slop Provider for Militarism
- Links for the day
- Threats Issued to Daniel Pocock Having Launched the JuristGate Web Site Which Covers Financial Fraud in "Legal Insurance" Clothing
- Is our world governed by laws or by rich corporations (or nations/superpowers) with well-connected lawyers/politicians?
- International Women's Day: At the EPO, for Women to Become Managers They Need to Sleep With Well-connected Men and Mingle With Corrupt Men
- Sunday is International Women's Day
- Dr. Richard Stallman Starts His Talks in Switzerland in 8 Hours
- They try to assess how many people plan to attend to ensure everyone gets a seat (without compromising the privacy/identity of those attending)
- IBM Red Hat Layoffs: It's Not About "AI"
- "Automation" is not "AI", it's just a generic term which can describe jobs left for machines to do, sometimes computers
- Microsoft Windows Used to be Identified on Over 99% of Web Requests From Benin. Now It's Around 50%.
- Or a lot less
- Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Has Severe Financial Problems, Version Inflation ("GPT-5.4") is Mindless Hype and a Misleading Distraction
- In practice, both users and sponsors of ChaffGPT are fleeing
- The Techrights Static Site Generator (SSG) Turns 5 Next Year
- It's still under active development in our Git servers
- New XBox Boss (Sharma) Implicitly Confirmed XBox (the Console) is Now Dead
- Vista 11 is now also known as "XBox"
- Murder as a 'Joke' to GAFAM People (Sociopathy)
- When it comes to Microsoft and Salesforce, they profit from this mentality
- Microsoft ‘Project Helix’ is Just a Tweet in MElon's "X"
- Some "tweet" is easy, as words are cheap
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 4 Out of 200: Rianne’s Version of Events and Narrative
- today we tell Rianne's experience
- EPO Staff to 'Meet' This Coming Tuesday to Plan Industrial Actions Including Upcoming Strikes
- using Microsoft spyware to organise this can be an own goal because Microsoft serves the dictators, not the union that tries to topple them
- Thousands of EPO Workers Rally Against EPO Management
- The staff is furious to see what became of the EPC and the EPO. This is not sustainable.
- In Argentina Firefox is Measured at Only 1%, Google Chrome (Proprietary) at About 90%
- And it has long been that way
- IBM's March 2026 Layoffs Already Happening (to Accelerate Soon in Europe and America)
- We're probably seeing some of the last years of IBM and it's anything but certain that IBM can survive the coming decade
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, March 05, 2026
- Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Industrial Panettone, Cancel, and LLMs
- Links for the day
- It's Not "AI", IBM is Collapsing Due to Financial Difficulties, "All Small Country Offices Will Close"
- IBM is in trouble. Insiders know it.
- "AI Companies" Running Out of Money, GAFAM Layoffs Are Signs of Weakness, Not "AI Efficiency" or Novelty
- In the past, this term ("AI") had another meaning and connotation
- Libel/Defamation Law Does Not Exist to Cover up Crimes
- The projection tactics are nothing new
- Myanmar/Burma: Growing Acceptance of GNU/Linux, Big Losses for Windows
- GNU/Linux has come close to 5% there
- Without IBM, Microsoft Would Not Have Taken Off. Both Companies Need to be 'Taken Down'.
- Maybe it's time to boycott IBM as well
- 'Former' Red Hat Staff Upset That Techrights Covers IBM Accounting Problems
- Are we touching a sensitive subject at IBM?
- Ubuntu is Controlled by a Youngster From the British Army (Background in Mass Surveillance), So One Can Expect Ubuntu to Not Respect Privacy
- "Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel"
- IBM Hates Computer Freedom. This Means Red Hat Too is an Enemy of Software Freedom.
- A summary of Fedora's position when it comes to "attestation"
- IBM Union Says Many IBM Layoffs in Europe, With Netherlands and Belgium Confirmed, Allegedly Italy Soon (200 Layoffs)
- IBM's demise will harm Red Hat and already harms Red Hat, according to whistleblowers
- Microsoft and Microsoft's 'Open' 'AI' Seeking Bailout From the Pentagon Means Brand Erosion
- Microsoft and its offshoots growing more and more dependent on military ("defence"; "Department of War") budget
- Another EPO Strike a Fortnight From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Shares 127-Page Document Explaining How Policies Impact EPO Staff
- The Office is circling down the drain
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 3 Out of 200: A More In-Depth Breakdown
- presents the narrative in a less chronological and more logically coherent fashion
- 2026 Seems Like (Potentially) the Last Year of Slop Drowning News Sites
- Sites that do so perish [...] It's getting hard to find slop in news sites which cover "Linux" because many gave up
- Links 05/03/2026: New LexisNexis Data Breach Confirmed, "Goldman Sachs Head During Financial Crisis Says He “Smells” a Similar Crash Coming"
- Links for the day
- "Silent Layoffs" or "Forever Layoffs" at IBM and Red Hat (After Bluewashing)
- Like every day (all day long) we can see people who leave IBM and say something that's based on a 'script'
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Others Promoting String of RMS Talks, Starting Tomorrow in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology
- Well done, FSF!
- Links 05/03/2026: A Bet Against Substack, American Government Openly Hostile Towards Environment
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Greed and Sentiments Shifting Against Slop
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, March 04, 2026
- FSF Promoting Richard M. Stallman (RMS) Talk in Switzerland in Just Over a Day From Now
- RMS may have more talks on the way
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part IV - We've Seen the End of It
- Some years ago they insisted blockchains would revolutionise everything
- Android is Proprietary 'Linux' and It Becomes More Malicious Over Time, Google Only Delayed What It Planned All Along
- Google is a proprietary software giant, GSoC is only a distraction and confusion
- Links 04/03/2026: Scam Altman Causes Chatbot Sub Numbers to Plunge, "Stocks Drop as Inflation Risk Emerges"
- Links for the day
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part III - Our Relationship With Slop (and Yours)
- I never - except inadvertently - "used" an LLM-based chatbot
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part II - Devil in the Details
- News sites or social control media sites which tolerate slop are digging their own grave
- Simpler Means Faster
- Do you know your bottlenecks?
- Gemini Links 04/03/2026: About a Missing Symbol and "Good Manners"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Takes Money From Chinese Surveillance Threat to Promote a Ponzi Scheme
- "Sponsored by Huawei."
- Nicaragua's GNU/Linux Usage Measured at Over 8% by statCounter
- Nicaragua is a poor country, but it also has rich culture
- Why Slop Will Flop - Part I - Slop Fatigue Prevalent
- See, sooner or later people (audiences of colleagues) find out and as soon as they find out you are slopping, they will lose interest
- Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 2 Out of 200: Detailed Timeline From 2012 (Attack on Reporters That Question Restricted Boot) to 2024 (Lawsuit Against Reporter and His Wife in Another Continent)
- we reproduce a document produced 2 years ago to give people more context and more facts
- Links 04/03/2026: "The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling" and a call to "Nationalize Amazon"
- Links for the day
- Coming Soon: Evidence of Abuse in Our IRC Network
- IRC's freedom can sometimes be its 'weakness' if not properly guarded
- High GNU/Linux Adoption in Brunei Darussalam
- It's worth noting (or at least noticing) that Microsoft loses ground in some of the countries where the government contracts paid the most
- Media Blackout Reducing or Preventing Press Coverage of Microsoft Layoffs in 2026
- Worse yet, there will be gaslighting and deceit
- GNU/Linux in Laptops/Desktops Still Matters, It's Likely the Only Way to Achieve Software Freedom
- Software Freedom requires all sorts of things at the "OS level"
- Gemini Links 04/03/2026: The Garnet Star, The Hunt, The SYN Attacks
- Links for the day
- The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Discussion Illuminates How Much Worse Things Have Gotten ("on Strike and Participated in the 'Meeting'")
- a videoconference - not a physical meeting - discussed EPO policies
- Free Software Foundation Supports Its Founder, Advertises His Talks in Switzerland
- When you suppress voices, assuming the reasons for suppression are bunk, it is always bound to backfire very badly
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, March 03, 2026