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Linus Announces the 2.6.25 Linux Kernel
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Apr 17, 2008 07:40 AM
from the those-servers-need-a-workout dept.
from the those-servers-need-a-workout dept.
LinuxWatch writes "'It's been long promised, but there it is now,' began Linux creator Linus Torvalds, announcing the 2.6.25 Linux kernel. He continued, 'special thanks to Ingo who found and fixed a nasty-looking regression that turned out to not be a regression at all, but an old bug that just had not been triggering as reliably before. That said, that was just the last particular regression fix I was holding things up for, and it's not like there weren't a lot of other fixes too, they just didn't end up being the final things that triggered my particular worries.' There were numerous changes in this revision of the OS. The origins of some of those fixes is detailed in Heise's brief history of this kernel update."
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Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm not sure that X11 is so lacking anymore - the recent versions have been making some nice improvements, an
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
And that has precisely what to do with the kernel? X is in user space. If you want to replace X with any other windowing system you like, just port it or write it. And when you've written something as powerful and stable as the X Window System, come back and tell us about it.
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Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Interesting)
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expand the X-library so that a) local connections don't necessarily use a protocol over a pipe, but make function-calls instead
What you are asking for would add substantial complexity to the codebase. Right now things are simple because X messages are just that, messages; it doesn't matter if they're carried over TCP/IP or a Unix Domain Socket. That's a feature. As computers get more powerful, message passing becomes more commonplace for convenience's sake. There ARE other GUIs available for Unix, especially on Linux where there's a kernel gui package. Perhaps one of those solutions would better be suited to your needs?
implement widgets in the X-client library much more detailed than the current window- and image-primitives; say a basic set of menu-bar, scrollbar, list, tabs etc. All pluggable in the X-server, of course
We have
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We have that already. It's called GTK+ or Qt or WxWidgets. Why should they be directly in X?
While I in part agree with your sentiment, I will say that richer X primitives would mean better default remote performance. Instead of 'here are *all* of the x primitives required to draw a GTK button with the word Cancel on it', which is a not insignificant number, it could say 'draw Cancel button' and cut down on network
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I said: expand the current functionality with something that simply *must* have better performance. Think laying out functioncalls in shared memory and calling interrupts for local clients. Think transporting events back to the client in the same way. Think painting directly in the frame buffer using shared memory.
Actually ipc is the fastest way if designed right. You are ignoring the fact that it can easily send MORE than one message in a single context switch, by buffering them. Windows only got modern speeds by changing as many of the calls as possible to ones that write messages in a buffer, only sending that buffer when a return value or sync is needed. So in some ways the design of X is already the correct one for maximum performance. Pipelines are how graphics hardware runs so fast, you know.
Also, I realize that there are a load of APIs on top of the X client library that paint beautiful (and sometimes less beautiful) widgets, but a) they can't be fast because they wrap both the way in (XCreateWindow) and the way out (XGetEvent), and b) it would be a lot nicer if the X server actually understood what you *meant* when you said: 'make a scrollbar'. It can implement a faultless scrollbar namely. And generate scrollbar specific events.
Here you are mak
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, for pity's sake. Throw all your engineering discipline out of the window (ha!) and fall back on gut feel. and superstition. The fact is that Linux (with X Windows) performs much better on the same hardware than either Windows or MacOS. Why is this? Until you've shown that X Windows is a significant cost, then you really don't have any argument beyond hand-waving.
I have this to add: I personally have been using the X Window system for eighteen years. I've used it on hardware which had an 8MHz - MHz, not GHz - processor. I've used it on hardware that had 8Mb - Mb, not Gb - of RAM. The X Window system performs perfectly well on that hardware spec. It's always outperformed every other windowing system on the same hardware, and it still does now.
Basic engineering tenet, known to all old engineers (but obviously not taught to young ones): if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:4, Insightful)
That has to be the most absurd thing I've read in a long time. Either you're not a software developer, or you're an incredibly bad one. Either way, it's clear your opinions regarding X can probably be safely ignored.
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There are imho two problems with how X works:
First there is the ICCCM window manager design. This makes it absolutely impossible to have clean updates and resizes of windows because two asyncrhonous processes are updating different parts of the window. Programs that bypass the window manager, such as media players that do it to make windows without borders, work obviously faster and
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Why is it that Macs came from the ashes and haves close to 10% marketshare, while Linux install base (is between 0.5% - 3%) and you need to pay for Macs, and for OS upgrades, get stuck on priority OS and Hardware. The Linux comunity really step on its foot durring the Late 90's and early 2000's It really could have been a huge player on the desktop area, but the comunity is so Anti-Corproate and so resistant to change that it left them off as a distant 3rd place.
Why should we care whether you use Linux or not? Hint: Steve Jobs makes a lot of money if MacOS becomes popular. He's in it for the money and he's making lots of it. Good for him! Linus Torvalds makes a reasonable salary if Linux becomes popular, but he's a talented guy and he'd make a reasonable salary anyway. He's not in it for the money, he's in it for the fun.
When you buy a Mac, Steve Jobs gets more money. When you use Linux, Linus doesn't have more fun (if anything, with all your moaning and whingi
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Most people who use XWindows don't use it over TCP/IP anymore. (Yes I will probable get comments from a bunch of Slashdot users say Yea I Do it is great...) But for normal use it is between the Computer and the Monitor.
I certainly use it all the time. I'm at university, and the ability to pull up Emacs running on my box in my room from any of the Linux workstations around the university (or in my friends' rooms) is really useful.
Here's an example of how it saved my arse once. I'd been writing a report using LyX, and was at my department to hand it in. Just as I was about to, I noticed that the caption of one of the figures was totally wrong. I logged onto one of the department's workstations, fired up SSH, launche
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Besides, most of us don't work on Linux to make money with it directly. We work on Linux because it's fun and it enables us to do what we want with a machine, rather than being told where to go today.
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Funny)
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Apple? OSX? 3d acceleration??? (Score:3, Insightful)
If Apple cared about 3d acceleration in OS X, they'd put decent graphics cards into their computers.
They don't.
In fact they sell you graphics cards which are crap for 3d applications, compared to what is available.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Lots of alternatives to choose from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowing_system [wikipedia.org] And thank you for posting your snarky comment before doing 30 seconds worth of research.
Pretty much all the alternatives listed are dead or dying, so pot kettle black on the amount of research done.
That's precisely the point. In a competitive environment, X Windows has won out. Why? Because it's extremely hard to write anything as good, and even harder to write anything sufficiently better to persuade any significant number of users to switch.
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Are you looking for any new kernel features in particular?
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Oh right, you meant things like Ubuntu. Complain to them about it.
Behold! Thus sayeth Linus! (Score:4, Funny)
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BTW I work with at a software company that writes software that runs under Windows. Even the most pro windows drone here has fallen back to "I am sure Microsoft will fix it soon". Don't bother with the it works just fine for
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux devs are working their asses off in their parents basements, hacking and testing drivers for hardware that they don't have access to the interface specifications for. If things still look a little shakey, just remember to be glad that they work at all, given the hours of work for $0 return.
When you are done giving thanks, complain to your hardware manufacturer, who does make money from the deal, and does have the full specifications - AND for reasons unknown, have turned down the offer of OSS developers writing the drivers for them, for free [slashdot.org].
*See also: Canon
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You paid for Windows. You have a contractual relationship with the people who wrote it.
Re:Wonderful. More Stable. ... So? (Score:5, Funny)
I truely don't understand this mentality of making everything stupid user friendly. Once upon a time you actually had to know a little bit about the tools you were using to make them work. Now instead of creating powerful tools that require some understanding we want to replace them all with stupid proof crippleware? And people wonder why well over 90% of all email on the internet is spam. People wonder why Windows infection rates are so high (aside from the security holes allowing the stupid user tricks, the stupid user still clicks on everything presented).
In this I propose that we place large concrete barriers along every major highway and paint tunnels on them with overhead messages like "Do you want a bigger penis? Drive here!" or "Get rich in this tunnel!" and maybe even "Protect your car from theives, enter here!"
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I like that one (Score:2, Funny)
LOLZ
Re:I like that one (Score:5, Funny)
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The Board wishes it to be known that:
1. Mr. Vidal has, in the parlance of second-rate spy movies, "gone rogue," and has posted on behalf of the Board without the required routing through several committees, endless cross-posted discussion, and explicit approval, and therefore his pay will be docked accordingly.
2. He is clearly an enormous Rick Astley fan, although he attempts to disguisse this fact through paraphrase.
3. We love you, Linus! *scream*
4. We wish for Mrs. Torvalds not to visit pain upon us, and thus thank our community for stepping in and helping Linus get this bug handled.
5. Because it's Friday, things may get a little silly around here. Oh, and mind the gap.
Paul W. Frields Fedora Project Leader
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worked. And what's the internet without the rick-roll?
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We appreciate your submission of a bug report for swfdec, and we have submitted it to the maintainers. However we are unable at this point to assign it "high" priority because it appears to be an interaction of a buggy ACPI BIOS with the Intel HDA audio codecs. We refer you to Toshiba for support details.
In the meantime, you may not be aware that the traditional SYSV "inittab" mechanism has been replaced in recent editions of Fedora with the newer "upstart" mechanism. Simply edit the "/e
A better link to the post is... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A better link to the post is... (Score:5, Funny)
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What does this mean for the Desktop? (Score:2)
Under the kernel for Mythbuntu 7.10, that getting that remote control to work is next to impossible...even after tinkering with all sorts of text configuration files. To cut it short, getting the remote control to work was an exercise in frustration.
If this kernel fixes this, I will be happy.
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Why on earth would you think the kernel would fix a remote control?
The program which MythTV uses for remote controls is called "lirc". You didn't say which version of the PVR-150 remote you have, but it sounds like the MCE version (which was tailored to the Microsoft MCE OS).
Google for whichever version of remote you have and lirc, and there'll be a dozen howtos to help you.
Trust me! (Score:2)
Almost slashdotted: copy of important stuff below (Score:5, Informative)
Also kernelnewbies.org seems to be very slow at the moment. Here is a copy of the important changes section from their 2.6.25 changelog page:
1.1. Memory Resource Controller
Recommended LWN article (somewhat outdated, but still interesting): "Controlling memory use in containers"
The memory resource controller is a cgroups-based feature. Cgroups, aka "Control Groups", is a feature that was merged in 2.6.24, and its purpose is to be a generic framework where several "resource controllers" can plug in and manage different resources of the system such as process scheduling or memory allocation. It also offers a unified user interface, based on a virtual filesystem where administrators can assign arbitrary resource constraints to a group of chosen tasks. For example, in 2.6.24 they merged two resource controllers: Cpusets and Group Scheduling. The first allows to bind CPU and Memory nodes to the arbitrarily chosen group of tasks, aka cgroup, and the second allows to bind a CPU bandwidth policy to the cgroup.
The memory resource controller isolates the memory behavior of a group of tasks -cgroup- from the rest of the system. It can be used to:
* Isolate an application or a group of applications. Memory hungry applications can be isolated and limited to a smaller amount of memory.
* Create a cgroup with limited amount of memory, this can be used as a good alternative to booting with mem=XXXX.
* Virtualization solutions can control the amount of memory they want to assign to a virtual machine instance.
* A CD/DVD burner could control the amount of memory used by the rest of the system to ensure that burning does not fail due to lack of available memory.
The configuration interface, like all the cgroups, is done by mounting the cgroup filesystem with the "-o memory" option, creating a randomly-named directory (the cgroup), adding tasks to the cgroup by catting its PID to the 'task' file inside the cgroup directory, and writing values to the following files: 'memory.limit_in_bytes', 'memory.usage_in_bytes' (memory statistic for the cgroup), 'memory.stats' (more statistics: RSS, caches, inactive/active pages), 'memory.failcnt' (number of times that the cgroup exceeded the limit), and 'mem_control_type'. OOM conditions are also handled in a per-cgroup manner: when the tasks in the cgroup surpass the limits, OOM will be called to kill a task between all the tasks involved in that specific cgroup.
Code: (commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
1.2. Real Time Group scheduling
Group scheduling is a feature introduced in 2.6.24. It allows to assign different process scheduling priorities other than nice levels. For example, given two users on a system, you may want to to assign 50% of CPU time to each one, regardless of how many processes is running each one (traditionally, if one user is running f.e. 10 cpu-bound processes and the other user only 1, this last user would get starved its CPU time), this is the "group tasks by user id" configuration option of Group Scheduling does. You may also want to create arbitrary groups of tasks and give them CPU time privileges, this is what the "group tasks by Control Groups" option does, basing its configuration interface in cgroups (feature introduced in 2.6.24 and described in the "Memory resource controller" section).
Those are the two working modes of Control Groups. Aditionally there're several types of tasks. What 2.6.25 adds to Group Scheduling is the ability to also handle real time (aka SCHED_RT) processes. This makes much easier to handle RT tasks and give them scheduling guarantees.
Documentation: sched-rt-group.txt
Code: (commit 1, 2, 3, 4)
There's serious interest in running RT tasks on enterprise-class hardware, so a large number of enhancements t
It's a kernel, not an OS (Score:5, Insightful)
"numerous changes in this revision of the OS"
Asking people to call it GNU/Linux [gnu.org] is one thing, but it's not much to ask Slashdot not to call a kernel changelog an OS changelog.
calling a kernel a kernel (Score:3, Interesting)
No one runs "just a kernel" on their phone. Look at OpenMoko, they use GNU libc just like Debian and Fedora do.
CIFS (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:CIFS (Score:4, Informative)
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The bug mentioned... (Score:2)
There was no range check on memory_present() so if you called it with a start/end range outside outside the scope of MAX_PHYSMEM_BITS it would overwrite areas of memory causing very weird and random effects during boot. Tracking it down was apparently a major effort by a good few people because the effects were so random.
Good that it's been found and cleaned up!
exec mode (Score:4, Funny)
It's an option in your system profile (usually /etc/profile).
Just add 'exec true' in there, and it'll start using the prefetch code. OK, so it's not a huge performance boost, but I'll take a free 5-7% any day of the week.
I think you can do it as a non-privileged user by adding it to your 'personal' profile (.profile or .bashrc typically) but obviously it's not then affecting the core system processes.
Re:exec mode (Score:5, Informative)
For the uninitiated: placing 'exec true' in your profile renders you unable to open a terminal (on 99% of linux desktops that use bash as shell)
(heh. Captcha: lecture)
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Re:Black monolith (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Black monolith (Score:5, Funny)
You're the proof that time travel is possible.
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