Linux 6.0 Arrives With Support For Newer Chips, Core Fixes, and Oddities (arstechnica.com) 26
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A stable version of Linux 6.0 is out, with 15,000 non-merge commits and a notable version number for the kernel. And while major Linux releases only happen when the prior number's dot numbers start looking too big -- there is literally no other reason" -- there are a lot of notable things rolled into this release besides a marking in time. Most notable among them could be a patch that prevents a nearly two-decade slowdown for AMD chips, based on workaround code for power management in the early 2000s that hung around for far too long. [...]
Intel's new Arc GPUs are supported in their discrete laptop form in 6.0 (though still experimental). Linux blog Phoronix notes that Intel's ARC GPUs all seem to run on open source upstream drivers, so support should show up for future Intel cards and chipsets as they arrive on the market. Linux 6.0 includes several hardware drivers of note: fourth-generation Intel Xeon server chips, the not-quite-out 13th-generation Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake chips, AMD's RDNA 3 GPUs, Threadripper CPUs, EPYC systems, and audio drivers for a number of newer AMD systems. One small, quirky addition points to larger things happening inside Linux. Lenovo's ThinkPad X13s, based on an ARM-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, get some early support in 6.0. ARM support is something Linux founder Linus Torvalds is eager to see [...].
Among other changes you can find in Linux 6.0, as compiled by LWN.net (in part one and part two):
- ACPI and power management improvements for Sapphire Rapids CPUs
- Support for SMB3 file transfer inside Samba, while SMB1 is further deprecated
- More work on RISC-V, OpenRISC, and LoongArch technologies
- Intel Habana Labs Gaudi2 support, allowing hardware acceleration for machine-learning libraries
- A "guest vCPU stall detector" that can tell a host when a virtual client is frozen Ars' Kevin Purdy notes that in 2022, "there are patches in Linux 6.0 to help Atari's Falcon computers from the early 1990s (or their emulated descendants) better handle VGA modes, color, and other issues."
Not included in this release are Rust improvements, but they "are likely coming in the next point release, 6.1," writes Purdy.
Intel's new Arc GPUs are supported in their discrete laptop form in 6.0 (though still experimental). Linux blog Phoronix notes that Intel's ARC GPUs all seem to run on open source upstream drivers, so support should show up for future Intel cards and chipsets as they arrive on the market. Linux 6.0 includes several hardware drivers of note: fourth-generation Intel Xeon server chips, the not-quite-out 13th-generation Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake chips, AMD's RDNA 3 GPUs, Threadripper CPUs, EPYC systems, and audio drivers for a number of newer AMD systems. One small, quirky addition points to larger things happening inside Linux. Lenovo's ThinkPad X13s, based on an ARM-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, get some early support in 6.0. ARM support is something Linux founder Linus Torvalds is eager to see [...].
Among other changes you can find in Linux 6.0, as compiled by LWN.net (in part one and part two):
- ACPI and power management improvements for Sapphire Rapids CPUs
- Support for SMB3 file transfer inside Samba, while SMB1 is further deprecated
- More work on RISC-V, OpenRISC, and LoongArch technologies
- Intel Habana Labs Gaudi2 support, allowing hardware acceleration for machine-learning libraries
- A "guest vCPU stall detector" that can tell a host when a virtual client is frozen Ars' Kevin Purdy notes that in 2022, "there are patches in Linux 6.0 to help Atari's Falcon computers from the early 1990s (or their emulated descendants) better handle VGA modes, color, and other issues."
Not included in this release are Rust improvements, but they "are likely coming in the next point release, 6.1," writes Purdy.
Interesting... (Score:1)
Re: Interesting... (Score:1)
....or does linux run it? I never thought this was a question not related to iso standization.... Yes I'm thinking of rust as I say this.
Re: (Score:2)
And here I thought you were actually referring to Emacs.
Re: Interesting... (Score:1)
I thought you were going say X11...
Re: (Score:2)
...but does it run Linux?
Yes as there are a couple virtual machines available in the Linux kernel. Linux can run Linux, As yet however no one has manged to do so recursively so it would be Linux all the way down yet though.
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately all non-trivial uses of infinite recursion will rapidly consume all available resources.
It's easily solvable using reflection though, so that the original instance of Linux is actually running on a virtual machine within the child instance.
Such tricks are usually the domain of the wisest and oldest of greybeards lurking deep in the bowels of the internet. But once properly configured you can then migrate the co-virtual machines off of the initialization hardware entirely - which among other t
Re: Interesting... (Score:1)
Low on resources? I suggest turning off your window manager....
How improvements are chosen, a speculation (Score:1)
Disclaimer: I have no insider knowledge about how the decisions are made. These are just guesses. If somebody with real knowledge knows better, feel free to correct me, or add to the list:
Some improvements come because there is quite a demand for them. Major bug fixes for example.
Some are made because a company wants linux support for their product and provides the technical assistance to implement it. (I remember when I used to buy ethernet cards some companies had clearly written the device drivers fo
Re: (Score:2)
No, just confusing phrasing. The comment on major releases simply referred to calling it 6.0 versus 5.19.13, not what improvements are included.
The H.265/HEVC user-space API becomes stable! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
There are a few drivers already included, including one for Raspberry Pis.
Correcting myself: the Raspberry PI "RPI" driver that uses this API is currently out of tree.
Re: (Score:2)
and Oddities? (Score:2)
So... adding, supporting, fixing them -- what?
Re:and Oddities? (Score:4, Funny)
Remember that recent bug news where playing Janet Jackson's Control could crash hard drives? This version fixes a similar bug but with David Bowie's Space Oddity instead.
You Realize (Score:4, Informative)
Your realize Linux Version Numbers have absolutely no meaning. Release 6.0 is just as important as release 5.15 :)
But nice changes anyway.
Re:You Realize (Score:4, Insightful)
major release number upticks are there to make me feel old.
and it's working.
wtf (Score:2)
Why?? "SMB3 file transfer inside Samba"
Why does the kernel need to be roped into this application?
Re: (Score:3)
The kernel has had support for SMB2/CIFS for some time. I suppose it is for performance. Stands to reason they would add SMB3 protocol as well.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess the last time I did a manual compile of kernel and selected all the options I do remember seeing SMB2 in there.
SMB3 has been around forever. Probably came out around the last time I ever meaningfully tried to make an Ubuntu based machine be a file server. I definitely remember wanting to throw things because performance was so bad. I always wondered why ubuntu sucked at SMB so bad and everybody else got it right the first time. Perhaps those kernel options weren't enabled on standard ubuntu kern
Re: (Score:2)
SMB3 support has been limited to the userspace option, so in most DEs, SMB mounts are done using that just for a "more likely to work solution".
Re: (Score:2)
The kernel has had support for SMB2/CIFS for some time.
Do you mean the smbfs filesystem? Or something other that Samba now requires?
Positive developments (Score:1)
Elantouch touchpad? (Score:2)
Still wanna see some sort of resolution for Elantouch touchpads. Seems like you have to rmmod and lsmod the driver just to get it to (sometimes) work; and, even then, it's sort of wonky - it likes to stick for a second or two before doing anything. I though it was a GPIO issue but the problem persists...
Bluetooth 5? (Score:2)