section
FOSS
Kernel, distros, and the wider free and open source software world.
491 stories archived
Moxnox: NT-Like, POSIX-Compatible Hobby OS Running Atop Btrfs
Open-source developer Mark Harmstone who is known for his work on developing a Btrfs file-system driver for Windows has spent the past few years working on a new hobby operating system. Moxnox is an HT-like, POSIX-compatible operating system...
EXT4 Lands Optional Buffered IOmap For Significant Performance Win With Large Writes
The EXT4 file-system changes were merged Sunday night for the ongoing Linux 7.4 merge window. The headline feature of EXT4 in this new kernel version is opt-in support for buffered IOmap usage that can lead to "significant" performance improvements for large writes...
Redox OS Landed Nice Performance Improvements In September
The Rust-based open-source operating system Redox OS had a very eventful September as they outlined in a status update published this weekend...
Canonical’s Launchpad adds bug tracking for PPAs
Launchpad now offers bug tracking for personal package archives (PPAs), making it easier for users to report issues specific to software within a PPA. Why does that matter? Well, not all PPAs are maintained by their upstream counterparts – folks who, frankly, aren’t always minded to care about quirks in their software that might be down to someone else’s packaging methods. Plus, PPAs are often used to provide newer or experimental versions of software that the version in the standard Ubuntu repositories, and different PPAs can distribute different versions of the same software. With the new tracking support, users can […] You're reading Canonical’s Launchpad adds bug tracking for PPAs , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
New Wayland Protocol Proposed For VNC/Remote Software
Prominent Wayland developer Simon Ser sent out a merge request today for introducing the new ext-transient-output protocol. With ext-transient-output, it's intent is for helping remoting software like VNC servers in a Wayland world...
Linux 7.4 Sound Changes Merged: "The AI Flood Continues"
Linux sound subsystem maintainer Takashi Iwai of SUSE began the Linux 7.4 sound pull request by noting that "the AI flood continues" with there continuing to be a lot of new patches coming as a result of AI/LLM agents devising patches as well as uncovering new kernel bugs...
Cheap GameSir Nova Lite Gaming Controller Supported By Linux 7.4
Following all the HID driver updates/additions in Linux 7.4, the input subsystem changes were merged this weekend for this new kernel version...
AV2 Video Codec Adoption Talked Up, SVT-AV2 Being Developed
Back in May the AV2 v1.0 specification was released for this next-generaton, royalty-free video codec. This week the Alliance For Open Media issued a press release talking up the early adoption of AV2...
Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Deleted From Staging Area In Linux 7.4
After nearly a decade in the Linux kernel's staging area and being worked on by many different kernel developer newcomers, the Realtek rtl8723bs was deleted from the staging area. This comes as Realtek rtl8723bs was added onto the more mature RTW88 driver in the Linux networking subsystem...
AMD 600 Series Chipsets Now Have Temperature Monitoring Support On Linux
With the Linux 7.4 kernel and also marked for back-porting to the v7.2 and v7.3 series is finally the ability to monitor temperature sensors on AMD 600 Series chipsets that launched alongside the Ryzen 7000 series processors...
Google's C Binder Driver Removed With Rust Binder Ready For "Few Billion Devices"
Linus Torvalds merged the "char/misc" changes for the Linux 7.4 kernel driver on Saturday. Most notable this cycle for char/misc is what's being removed: Google's C-written Binder driver has left the kernel with the Rust-based modern Binder driver ready to take for the role of being used by all future Android devices...
PHP2Shell scare sees SuperTuxKart pull its online server
SuperTuxKart has taken several online services offline, having pulled the server that powers them rather than risk it being exploited by PHP2shell. The open-source karting game is not alone in ‘pitting’ to patch, with Wikimedia, DeviantArt, government websites and many more taking various systems offline to harden against it. While offline, gamers can’t reset their online account passwords, check rankings or upload new add-ons. Offline components, like split-screen and LAN multiplayer, do work, as do online add-on downloads and online play, but only for registered users. SuperTuxKart notes that attempts to exploit php2shell were recorded as early as 17 October, […] You're reading PHP2Shell scare sees SuperTuxKart pull its online server , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Linux 7.4 Block Updates Range From Floppy Disk Driver Fixes To Apple M4 NVMe Support
The Linux 7.4 block/storage and IO_uring updates were merged today for the ongoing merge window. With the breadth of Linux hardware support, the pull request varies from fixes to Linux's floppy driver to enabling support for NVMe storage on Apple M4 devices...
SteamOS 3.9.5 Released With Linux 7.2 Kernel, KDE Plasma 6.7 Desktop & Other Updates
On Friday Valve released SteamOS 3.9.5 as their first stable release in the SteamOS 3.9 series. This brings all the great improvements previously available in preview form with many package updates and other enhancements...
Linux's Early Boot-Time Physical Memory Allocator Sees Big Speed-Up: ~268s To ~50ms
Sent out today for the Linux 7.4 kernel were a set of memblock improvements. Most notable is a performance optimization within mm/memblock.c that implements the kernel's early boot-time physical memory allocator that is used prior to the bring-up of the full page allocator...
539 MM Patches Merged For Linux 7.4 From Optimizations To More DAMON
Andrew Morton sent out the big set of memory management "MM" related patches for the Linux 7.4 merge window. This cycle it topped out at 539 total patches and a reviewed rate of 76%...
systemd Merges Support For Rust Programs
As of today in systemd Git it's now possible for the systemd programs to be written in the Rust programming language as an alternative to C...
Wild 0.11 Linker Released - Now Able To Link Linux Kernel Modules, WASM By Default
Wild 0.11 is out as the latest feature release of this very fast linker currently targeting Linux systems and focused on iterative development...
Linux 7.4 Graphics Driver Changes Headlined By AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 Features
Merged overnight were all the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver updates consisting of many kernel graphics/display driver improvements. Arguably most exciting with these updates for Linux 7.4 is the AMD Radeon (AMDGPU) driver seeing HDMI 2.1 FRL enabled by default along with other HDMI 2.1 features...
Shader Effects is the coolest GNOME extension you’ll try this weekend
Ever wondered what your Ubuntu desktop would look like if you were watching it on a chewed up VHS tape or an old monochrome CRT monitor? You probably haven’t, but a new GNOME Shell extension lets you find out anyway. The Shader Effects extension applies GPU-accelerated filters, things like scan lines, NTSC RGB bloom and flickery green CRT glow, to your entire desktop or, if you’d rather, just a specific window(s). You can see three of the effects demoed in this video clip: The extension’s preference panel lets you fine-tune how intense the chosen effect is, and you can dial […] You're reading Shader Effects is the coolest GNOME extension you’ll try this weekend , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
KDE Plasma 6.9 Stabilizes KWin's Wayland Picture-In-Picture Support
With the wonderful KDE Plasma 6.8 having shipped just more than one week ago, KDE developers are beginning to go heavy on new features for Plasma 6.9...
OBS Studio 33.0 Released With Massive Update To CEF, Improved Plugin Loading
OBS Studio 33.0 is out tonight as the latest major update to this popular open-source and cross-platform video recording and live streaming application...
Linux 7.4 Merges Slab Updates With A Nice Performance Improvement
The slab pull request was just merged for Linux 7.4. For end users nothing too incredibly exciting but there is one change that does yield a 24% throughput improvement in a benchmark exercising the kernel's memory management subsystem...
[$] The first part of the 7.4 merge window
Since the merge window for 7.4 opened, there have been 6,753 non-merge changesets pulled into the mainline repository. Many more are expected, especially given the possibility that this merge window will be extended to three weeks. Still, even this initial set brought in a number of new features, in addition to the continued general cleanups and security fixes that the kernel has seen recently.