2.6.19 Linux Kernel Released

diegocgteleline.es writes, "After two months, Linux 2.6.19 has been released. It includes the clustering GFS2 filesystem, Ecryptfs, the first developer-oriented version of EXT4, support for the Atmel AVR32 architecture, sleepable RCU, improvements for NUMA-based systems, an "-o flush" mount option aimed at FAT-based hotpluggable media devices (mp3), physical CPU hotplug and memory hot-add in x86-64, support for compiling x86 kernels with the GCC stack protection, and many other things. You can check the full list of changes in LinuxChanges."

GFS2

[C_Kode (102755)]

Anyone know if any reviews of GFS2 in actual use compared to other clustered filesystems?

Hotplugging CPU and Memory?!?!?

[StarWreck (695075)]

All I can say is :-O

Re:

[bcmm (768152)]

AFAIK, CPU hotplugging is for special hardware, and always involves more than one CPU.

Re:

[Abcd1234 (188840)]

Meh, enterprise platforms like Solaris has been doing this for years. If you want to do real HA, it's a very important feature to have.

Re:

[fimbulvetr (598306)]

Except that real HA doesn't come with SPARC hardware because they can't even put ECC on the cpu's cache. This generally causes a reboot which introduces the potential for dataloss. Sometimes it will just be an error though, which only occasionally causes dataloss.

HA? Sparc procs? Not bloodly likely.

Re:

[diegocgteleline.es (653730)]

notice that this is *physical* hotplug, you already were able to enable/disable CPUs at runtime with /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online (if you enable CPU hotplugging)

Sounds like fun

[i_should_be_working (720372)]

From TF post:
It's one of those rare "perfect" kernels. So if it doesn't happen to compile with your config (or it does compile, but then does unspeakable acts of perversion with your pet dachshund), you can rest easy knowing that it's all your own d*mn fault, and you should just fix your evil ways.

You could send me and the kernel mailing list a note about it anyway, of course. (And perhaps pictures, if your dachshund is involved. Not that we'd be interested, of course. No. Just so that we'd know to avoid it next time).

So.. Who has a dachshund and a camera? And what does a kernel doing unspeakable acts of perversion with a dog look like anyway?

Re:Sounds like fun

[by Anonymous Coward]

And what does a kernel doing unspeakable acts of perversion with a dog look like anyway?

i'd describe it but, it's unspeakable.

this linux thingy must be taking off...

[advocate_one (662832)]

there's a torrent of it on torrentspy...

Do you have no shame?

[Kadin2048 (468275)]

Dude, pirating Linux off of bittorrent ... how low can you get?

It's people like you that make "Linux Genuine Advantage" necessary.

firefox 2.0 find vs quick find

[ville (29367)]

Howdy,

If you hit ctrl-f you get find with the [x]/next/previous/highlight all/match case widgets. If you hit / you activate quick find functionality which doesn't have those. No idea if there's a config setting to force quick find to have those widgets as well. // ville

Re:

[SiChemist (575005)]

After you type the text you want to find, hit F3 to advance to the next instance of it.

TPM encryption

[Pausanias (681077)]

Very interesting how ecryptfs [lwn.net] uses the TPM module for encryption. While there is plenty to worry about regarding treacherous computing [wikipedia.org], it is nice to see that the TPM can be put to uses that actually bolster privacy. This still does not prevent a possible future dystopia [gnu.org], but it still goes to show that devices such as TPM are not necessarily "pure evil."

Re:TPM encryption

[Marillion (33728)]

TPM is neither good nor bad

How operating systems and applications use TPM can be good or evil

In all that I've read about TPM, I've concluded that TPM is not much more than a glorified hardware based public/private key management system. The reference implementations I seen attach to the same slow hardware buses that PS/2 keyboard and mice sit. There is not enough bandwidth on that bus to encrypt/decrypt whole disks in real time.

Re:

[gillbates (106458)]

Except that TPM could easily hide weaknesses, backdoors, or worse from the user. Furthermore, the nature of TPM would prevent the user from ever discovering said "features".

No, not pure evil. But still not trustworthy, either. This is the kind of thing the NSA would love to have in every computer.

Slashdot anti-Linux bias

[commodoresloat (172735)]

Once again, slashdot reveals its pro-Microsoft, anti-Linux bias. Two stories, one about a new Linux kernel release, and one about Dvorak commenting on a not-quite-as-new Windows release. Which one gets a full story on the front page? I'm getting tired of all the Linux-bashing on this site.

Re:

[BiggyP (466507)]

Has anyone read that changes document yet?
First item under USB is Add Playstation 2 Trance Vibrator driver [kernelnewbies.org]

Is this the first sex toy to be officially supported by the Linux kernel?! Surely that's enough for front page news.

[FWIW] cryptfs

[Black Parrot (19622)]

FWIW, I just started using the dm-crypt based cryptfs on my Gentoo system over the past week. (I'm actually running it on top of LVM, which in turn runs on top of the kernel's RAID1.)

Pretty easy to set up, and no trouble so far, but annoying that it asks for the passphrase for each encrypted volume twice during boot, and and doesn't fail gracefully if you mistype anything.

Vista?

[Marton (24416)]

Way to steal Microsoft's thunder!

Re:

[porkThreeWays (895269)]

The Atmel AVR butterfly is an insanely cheap development platform (20 dollars). It comes with more things than you can shake your fist at. They are also extremely popular and sell out quick so good luck finding one! Speaking of... what do they mean by "AVR support"? They are true microcontrollers with very low clock speeds and very low amounts of storage and memory. Do they mean linux can now run natively on an ATMEGA in the same manner it runs on say a gumstix?! SWEET!!!!

Re:

[porkThreeWays (895269)]

Nevermind... it supports the 32bit arch not the 8bit one. BIG difference.

Re:Atmel AVR32

[plcurechax (247883)]

Most people are familiar with the 8-bit Atmel AVR [atmel.com] microcontrollers, similar to the Microchip 8-bit PIC [microchip.com] microcontollers. The AVR32 [atmel.com] is a 32-bit microcontoller. I believe it was developed by Atmel to be a easy to mirgrate to target to compete with Freescale's 32-bit [freescale.com] offerings, and various manufacturers' low cost 32-bit ARM [arm.com] processors.

Atmel AVR32 not AVR butterfly

[FuzzyDaddy (584528)]

The AVR butterfly is from the 8 bit line of microcontrollers. The AVR32 is a much more power beast - the dev kit [atmel.com] sells for $499 ($544 at Digikey [digikey.com]).

Don't get me wrong, I love the AVR microcontrollers - but we're talking a few K of RAM, 8 to 128K of Flash for the program, a smattering of EEPROM and a top speed of 16MHz. I would be impressed if you could run the Linux kernel on that.

Re:Atmel AVR32

[drinkypoo (153816)]

You can get the starter kit from Digi-Key here [digikey.com]. I only knew about this because I bought the AVR starter kit (not AVR32) which was dramatically cheaper - $100 rather than $550. Not sure if this even comes with an AVR32 chip, probably not, but they have that too (133MHz for $37.63 [digikey.com].) Not sure how hard these are to program, but the normal AVR has support for serial in-system programming and if you know your way around an AVR you might be able to use an AVR to make an ISP chip for an AVR32. :)

Re:

[drinkypoo (153816)]

No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm quite sure you're right that you can't use the AVR starter kit with the AVR32. However, the AVR can be programmed with a fairly simple in-system programmer, using a serial interface between the programmer and the AVR. All you need is power, and I think you tie some line on the chip high to perform a write enable. What I'm saying is that if the AVR32 has the same in-system programming (ISP) functionality, it might be possible to make an ISP using a normal AVR in order to p