Kernel (Linux) News: A Week's News in a Nutshell
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-12 08:25:09 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-12 08:25:09 UTC
Linux
The Imaging Source has announced the immediate availability of open source Linux support for all of its cameras.
If you are using any of the versions released until now in the Linux kernel 3.12.x branch, you should consider an update to this build. Keep in mind that this is an LTS release, which means that it's going to be around for a very long time. If you feel adventurous, you can ditch this LTS branch and go for the latest 3.14 version.
This is not the big update that everyone has been waiting for, but at least there are a few things that will definitely catch your eye. For example, support has been added for systemd and upstart to control the Hamachi service, the network list is now immediately updated after going online or offline in a network, and the update interval count is now reset after each manual update.
File Systems
Linux 3.15
A second Git pull request has been made for the ACPI and power management code within the kernel for Linux 3.15.
Earlier in April I wrote about link-time optimization support for the kernel nearing reality. LTO support for the Linux kernel has been in the works since 2012 but only with Linux 3.15 will it become a mainline possibility. Link-Time Optimizations via GCC and other compilers allow for various compile-time optimizations to be applied across the binary as a whole. Enabling link-time optimizations can yield some significant performance improvements but results in much slower compile times and with large programs can cause problems due to the size of optimizing the complete binary at once.
Graphics Stack
With OpenArena the frame-rate went from just 8 FPS on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to 19 FPS when using the Linux 3.14 kernel. Linux 3.14 allows for the R3 Graphics to re-clock to their highest performance state compared to Linux 3.13 where DPM isn't enabled by default for GCN GPUs. When going to Mesa 10.2-devel that will be officially released in about one month, the frame-rate rose to 25 FPS... That's over a three-fold performance improvement when pulling in the bleeding edge latest code.
Wayland
Intel developers continue experimenting with a Resize and Rotate protocol extension for Wayland's Weston compositor that was originally designed for the X.Org Server.
Intel
The "Cherryview" Atom processors feature "Gen8" graphics (Broadwell) capabilities, there's three display pipes, three HDMI/DisplayPort/EmbeddedDisplayPort ports, two MIPI DSI display ports, and VGA support has been dropped from Cherryview.
AMD
Alex Deucher sent out a set of three patches today to update the microcode used by the AMD "Southern Islands" graphics processors.
As expected AMD unveiled the Radeon R9 295X graphics card this morning as the "world's fastest" for those with $1500 USD to spare.
After much information being made public in March concerning AMD's AM1 platform that delivers socketed APUs for low-cost desktop systems, the first of these new socketed APUs are shipping today under the restored Athlon and Sempron branding. We've been fortunate enough to have one of the new Athlon AM1 APUs at Phoronix for a few days of testing.
Gallium3D
The Gallium3D HUD has gain some new reporting capabilities for the Radeon Gallium3D R600 and RadeonSI drivers.
X.Org
Keith wrote on the mailing list, "With this, the 1.16 merge window comes to a close. Thanks to everyone who contributed a huge pile of fixes and new features! We're a week behind schedule; Kristian was a bit late with Xwayland, and that included a driver-visible API change that needed fixing (this appears to have been my fault originally)."
NVIDIA
This latest driver update arrives only a day after the previous Beta release, which caused quite a stir because it featured the option to overclock the video card. It may not seem like much but, in fact, this is actually great progress for the NVIDIA drivers.
Benchmarks
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
- By Sami Tikkanen
- New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
- "In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
- Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
- Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
- António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
- António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
- Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
- one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
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- People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
- And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
- Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
- Examples of boasting about the association
- Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
- "I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
- [Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
- fake elections
- Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
- Windows TCO?
- Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
- Links for the day
- Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- [Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
- EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
- Catspaw With Attitude
- The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
- 'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
- decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
- Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
- Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
- Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
- Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
- Links for the day
- Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Our Plans for Spring
- Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
- Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
- Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
- RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
- This is totally normal, right?
- USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
- Not joking!
- The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
- the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
- Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
- There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
- Not About Linux at All!
- nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
- Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
- Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
- Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
- Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
- Links for the day