Ubuntu 15.10 Kernel Regression That Broke Graphics Displays In VMWare Patched 76
prisoninmate writes: On Monday, February 22, 2016, Softpedia reported on the availability of new kernel updates for several of Canonical's supported Ubuntu Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu 15.10, for which five kernel vulnerabilities have been patched at that point in time. And from the looks of it, the respective kernel updates introduced a regression, which Canonical patched four days later, on February 26, 2016, saying that the issue was introduced along with the fixed vulnerabilities for Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) and it broke graphics displays for those running the OS in VMWare VMs.
Linus Torvalds: "WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!" (Score:1, Insightful)
As Linus Torvalds himself would say in this case, "Anonymous Coward, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" [lkml.org]
Seriously, read how our God and Savior has responded to similar kernel regressions in the past:
It's a bug alright - in the kernel. How long have you been a
maintainer? And you *still* haven't learnt the first rule of kernel
maintenance?
If a change results in user programs breaking, it's a bug in the
kernel. We never EVER blame the user programs. How hard can this be to
understand?
WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!
Don't go fucking blaming VMware. It's a kernel bug. And as Lord Torvalds himself says, "WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!"
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Because virtualization software has a kernel component.
It highlights the sorry state of Linux today. (Score:2, Interesting)
News like this is important because it highlights the sorry state of Linux today.
Linux used to be all about quality, stability, reliability, and robustness. Linux is what we used to use when we wanted our computers to just work, and continue working.
Yet over the last 5 to 10 years, we've seen a massive decrease in quality across the board. It isn't just Ubuntu. This affects pretty much all distros.
Many of us switched to Linux in the first place because we were fed up with Windows repeatedly crashing, or Mac
Re: It highlights the sorry state of Linux today. (Score:2, Insightful)
One regression that wasn't fixed for four days... yep, that's clearly the least stable OS in history.
Re:It highlights the sorry state of Linux today. (Score:5, Informative)
Sheesh. This is Canonical. They don't have the reputation of stability to begin with.
Bunch of monkeys tampering with the kernel as if they were competent. Linus snubbed their proposal of maintaining the long term branch for a reason.
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initd works just fine
Funny I had the same thought about systemd. I mean when I downloaded the latest Ubuntu ISO I had the fire extinguisher in hand, ensured 911 was on quick dial, and talked to my dear sweet mother on the phone during the entire installation.
When the entire world didn't get sucked into a blackhole originating from the systemd bits on my server's HDD it was all a bit of a let down. I didn't actually want to talk to my mother in the first place, and then she wouldn't get off the phone.
Side note: Does anyone want
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It's a distro that takes all the magic out of Linux.
The only thing that's going to wither here is Ubuntu. Because it's not very good.
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It's exactly these reasons why I moved back to Windows about two years ago. All the warning signs are there for Linux, but they all seem to have their hands on their ears.
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I would be modding it up if I had points.
As it is, i'll just call you a thin-skinned fool. it's the Linux community's complete failure to move beyond the 70s (but still trying, in an adorably pathetic way) that drove me, and a large number of paid professionals, to OS X and even Windows. Linux is increasingly relegated to cloud and local development VMs. That's as close as Linux is ever going to get to the desktop market.
I am also posting an OPEN CALL for Linux developers to create a Linux platform which is
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amen. what a goddam travesty.
apart from the appalling lack of features, the closest thing i've found to what i might want is the Apple office suite. again, it's like Apple are the only people around who even fucking bother to try having an idea of what users might want, instead of throwing in the kitchen sink. their word processor and spreadsheet are, unfortunately, too limited for me to recommend, but i'd rather claw my eyes out than use anything but Keynote for non-mathematical presentations, even if only
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Like we see in this incident, Linux has become less-stable than Windows.
Oh wow. So much ignorance in one post, I'd mod you troll if I didn't want to actually write a rebuttal.
Let's start with "this incident".
Many of use run linux on servers. Many of us continue to run linux on servers. Linux is still and has been a stability god compared to Windows on servers. This incident here affects running graphics on one very specific piece of hardware (or virtual hardware). The result was that graphics were stuffed up in this scenario. At not point did the resulting system become unboota
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Paid Shill?
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If you run any NON LTS version of Ubuntu in Production then frankly, you deserve anything you get.
NON LTS versions are by their very nature unstable.
This is even truer because of the way Canonical use their own kernels which are forked from the mainstream one AND that they don't seem to contribute any patches back into the mainstream line.
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I loaded up LTS on my vmware yesterday because I hit this bug on updating. Not production, but disappointing nonetheless.
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When I initially updated and it borked, I didn't see anything in the googles that it broke and/or a fix, so I copied my home directory and installed LTS (via ssh). If I had been running something important, I wouldn't want that to crop up just because I updated on a whim, so I learned my lesson.
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My daily driver runs Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon under VMware 12 under Windows 10. All of those have been stable enough that the only unplanned reboots are due to power failures longer than what the UPS can handle, or me attaching flakey hardware (i.e., my own damn fault). That's way more stable than Windows 95 ever was. Not to mention Win95's propensity for forced reboots ("You have moved your mouse. Windows 95 must be restarted for this to take effect. Would you like to reboot your computer now?").
1000 eyes (Score:1)
And the thousand eyes didn't see this one? What's their excuse for the lack of proper QA this time?
14.04 LTS was also broken (Score:3, Informative)
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LTS is the way to go (Score:2)
I'm not surprised... (Score:2)
it broke graphics displays for those running the OS in VMWare VMs.
I used to run Ubuntu for a home file server on a desktop PC with a Nvidia Geforce 4200 AGP video card. Every time the Nvidia driver got updated, it hosed the system and wouldn't boot. Every two to three months this would happen. I switched to FreeNAS in 2010 and haven't looked at Ubuntu since then.
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And if it's a server, why do you need the nvidia display driver? It's not like you're running 3d programs on it.
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And if it's a server, why do you need the nvidia display driver?
The only old AGP video cards that I had at the time were Nvidia video cards. I no longer had any of my old PCI cards from the late 1990's. When I switched to FreeNAS in 2010, I didn't have to worry about the video card driver hosing the system.
Not a big deal (Score:1)
I am surprised to see this on Slashdot, but this bit me. VM under VMWare fusion would not boot so I spent about 15 minutes on it and eventually booted under a previous kernel.
Normally, I do not reboot my Linux machines after every kernel update, but this was my desktop and I just want to get rid of the reboot notifications.
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Lowercase "w" in VMware (Score:3)
It's VMware, not VMWare. #pet #peeve
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OK, nazi. J/K. Yeah, I agree. I'm picky like that too and people call us crazy. :P
Hosed system after update (Score:1)