ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Coming soon: Fedora on Lenovo laptops (Fedora Magazine)

([Distributions] Apr 24, 2020 14:46 UTC (Fri) (corbet))

Fedora Magazine [1]announces that Lenovo will start offering three laptop models with Fedora Workstation preinstalled. " The Lenovo team has been working with folks at Red Hat who work on Fedora desktop technologies to make sure that the upcoming Fedora 32 Workstation is ready to go on their laptops. The best part about this is that we’re not bending our rules for them. Lenovo is following our existing trademark guidelines and respects our open source principles. That’s right—these laptops ship with software exclusively from the official Fedora repos! When they ship, you’ll see Fedora 32 Workstation. (Models which can benefit from the NVIDIA binary driver can install it in the normal way after the fact, by opting in to proprietary software sources.) "



[1] https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-laptops/

Six new stable kernels

([Kernel] Apr 24, 2020 13:16 UTC (Fri) (jake))

Greg Kroah-Hartman has released six new stable kernels: [1]5.6.7 , [2]5.4.35 , [3]4.19.118 , [4]4.14.177 , [5]4.9.220 , and [6]4.4.220 . They all contain a rather large set of fixes throughout the tree; users of those series should upgrade.



[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/818568/

[2] https://lwn.net/Articles/818569/

[3] https://lwn.net/Articles/818570/

[4] https://lwn.net/Articles/818571/

[5] https://lwn.net/Articles/818572/

[6] https://lwn.net/Articles/818573/

Security updates for Friday

([Security] Apr 24, 2020 12:45 UTC (Fri) (jake))

Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (lib32-openssl), Debian (git), Gentoo (chromium, firefox, git, and openssl), Oracle (kernel and python-twisted-web), Red Hat (python-twisted-web), Scientific Linux (python-twisted-web), and SUSE (file-roller, kernel, and resource-agents).

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) released

([Distributions] Apr 23, 2020 23:04 UTC (Thu) (jake))

The 20.04 long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu, code named "Focal Fossa", is out. There are desktop and server editions, as well as all of the different Ubuntu flavors: Ubuntu Budgie, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu. " The Ubuntu kernel has been updated to the 5.4 based Linux kernel, with additional support for Wireguard VPN, AUFS5, and improved support for IBM, Intel, Raspberry Pi and AMD hardware. [...] 20.04 LTS also brings support for installing an Ubuntu desktop system on top of ZFS. The latest version brings performance enhancements and optional encryption support. Zsys, Ubuntu’s ZFS system tool, provides automated system and user state saving. Tight integration with GRUB allows a user to revert to any system state on boot and go back in time to pave the way to a bulletproof Ubuntu Desktop. " More information can be found in the [1]release notes .



[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes

LWN.net Weekly Edition for April 30, 2020


Security updates for Thursday

([Security] Apr 23, 2020 14:12 UTC (Thu) (jake))

Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (openssl), openSUSE (freeradius-server, kernel, thunderbird, and vlc), Oracle (git, java-1.7.0-openjdk, java-1.8.0-openjdk, and java-11-openjdk), SUSE (ardana-ansible, ardana-barbican, ardana-db, ardana-monasca, ardana-mq, ardana-neutron, ardana-octavia, ardana-tempest, crowbar-core, crowbar-ha, crowbar-openstack, documentation-suse-openstack-cloud, memcached, openstack-manila, openstack-neutron, openstack-nova, pdns, python-amqp, rubygem-puma, zookeeper, cups, kernel, ovmf, and pacemaker), and Ubuntu (openjdk-8, openjdk-lts and re2c).

Rosenzweig: From Bifrost to Panfrost - deep dive into the first render

([Development] Apr 23, 2020 14:08 UTC (Thu) (corbet))

Alyssa Rosenzweig has posted [1]a detailed look at progress on the Panfrost driver (a reverse-engineered driver for Arm Mali GPUs) on the Collabora blog. " Putting it all together, we have the beginnings of a Bifrost compiler, sufficient for the screenshots above. Next will be adding support for more complex instructions and scheduling to support more complex shaders. "



[1] https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/blog/2020/04/23/from-bifrost-to-panfrost-deep-dive-into-the-first-render/

[$] Controlling realtime priorities in kernel threads

([Kernel] Apr 23, 2020 19:05 UTC (Thu) (corbet))

The realtime scheduler classes are intended to allow a developer to state which tasks have the highest priorities with the assurance that, at any given time, the highest-priority task will have unimpeded access to the CPU. The kernel itself carries out a number of tasks that have tight time constraints, so it is natural to want to assign realtime priorities to kernel threads carrying out those tasks. But, as Peter Zijlstra [1]argues in a new patch set, it makes little sense for the kernel to be assigning such priorities; to put an end to that practice, he is proposing to take away most of the kernel's ability to prioritize its own threads.



[1] https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/20200422112719.826676174@infradead.org/

[$] Bringing openSUSE Leap and SLE closer

([Distributions] Apr 24, 2020 19:00 UTC (Fri) (mrybczyn))

[1]OpenSUSE Leap is a community distribution built on top of source packages from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). Recently, Gerald Pfeifer, chair of the openSUSE board, [2]posted an announcement describing a proposal from SUSE to unify some packages between SLE and openSUSE Leap. Here we analyze the proposal and the community's reaction to it.



[1] https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Leap

[2] https://lwn.net/Articles/817140/

Yocto Project 3.1 LTS (Dunfell 23.0.0)

([Distributions] Apr 22, 2020 16:00 UTC (Wed) (corbet))

The [1]Yocto Project has announced its 3.1 LTS release of its distribution-building system. Changes include a 5.4 kernel, the removal of all Python 2 code, improvements in the build equivalence mechanism (described in [2]this article ), and more.



[1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/

[2] https://lwn.net/Articles/804640/

Security updates for Wednesday

([Security] Apr 22, 2020 14:33 UTC (Wed) (ris))

Security updates have been issued by Oracle (java-1.7.0-openjdk and java-1.8.0-openjdk), Red Hat (git, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk, and kernel), Scientific Linux (kernel), Slackware (git), SUSE (openssl-1_1 and puppet), and Ubuntu (binutils and thunderbird).

Garrett: Linux kernel lockdown, integrity, and confidentiality

([Kernel] Apr 21, 2020 22:02 UTC (Tue) (corbet))

Matthew Garrett has posted [1]an overview of the kernel lockdown capability merged in 5.4. " If you verify your boot chain but allow root to modify that kernel, the benefits of the verified boot chain are significantly reduced. Even if root can't modify the on-disk kernel, root can just hot-patch the kernel and then make this persistent by dropping a binary that repeats the process on system boot. Lockdown is intended as a mechanism to avoid that, by providing an optional policy that closes off interfaces that allow root to modify the kernel. "



[1] https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/55105.html

Four stable kernels

([Kernel] Apr 21, 2020 15:45 UTC (Tue) (ris))

Stable kernels [1]5.6.6 , [2]5.5.19 , [3]5.4.34 , and [4]4.19.117 have been released. This is the last 5.5.y kernel and users should move to 5.6.y at this time. Users of the other series should upgrade to get the latest fixes.



[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/818231/

[2] https://lwn.net/Articles/818232/

[3] https://lwn.net/Articles/818234/

[4] https://lwn.net/Articles/818235/

Security updates for Tuesday

([Security] Apr 21, 2020 15:12 UTC (Tue) (ris))

Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (webkit2gtk), Debian (awl, git, and openssl), Red Hat (chromium-browser, git, http-parser, java-1.7.0-openjdk, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk, qemu-kvm-ma, rh-git218-git, and rh-maven35-jackson-databind), Scientific Linux (advancecomp, avahi, bash, bind, bluez, cups, curl, dovecot, doxygen, evolution, expat, file, firefox, gettext, git, GNOME, httpd, ImageMagick, java-1.7.0-openjdk, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk, kernel, lftp, libosinfo, libqb, libreoffice, libsndfile, libxml2, mailman, mariadb, mod_auth_mellon, mutt, nbdkit, net-snmp, okular, php, polkit, poppler and evince, python, python-twisted-web, python3, qemu-kvm, qt, rsyslog, samba, squid, taglib, telnet, texlive, thunderbird, unzip, wireshark, and zziplib), SUSE (apache2), and Ubuntu (git and python2.7, python3.4, python3.5, python3.6, python3.7).

Python keyword argument auto-assignment

([Development] Apr 22, 2020 21:47 UTC (Wed) (jake))

A recent thread on the python-ideas mailing list explores adding a feature to Python, which is the normal fare for that forum. The problem being addressed is real, but may not be the highest-priority problem for the language on many people's lists. Function calls that have multiple keyword arguments passed from a variable of the same name (e.g. keyword=keyword ) require developers to repeat themselves and can be somewhat confusing, especially to newcomers. The discussion of ways to fix it highlighted some lesser-known corners of the language, however, regardless of whether the idea will actually result in a change to Python.

Python 2.7.18, the end of an era

([Development] Apr 20, 2020 16:12 UTC (Mon) (ris))

Python 2.7.18 is out. This is the last release and end of support for Python 2. " Python 2.7 has been under active development since the release of Python 2.6, more than 11 years ago. Over all those years, CPython's core developers and contributors sedulously applied bug fixes to the 2.7 branch, no small task as the Python 2 and 3 branches diverged. There were large changes midway through Python 2.7's life such as PEP 466's feature backports to the ssl module and hash randomization. Traditionally, these features would never have been added to a branch in maintenance mode, but exceptions were made to keep Python 2 users secure. Thank you to CPython's community for such dedication. "

How to unbreak LTTng

([Kernel] Apr 20, 2020 22:37 UTC (Mon) (corbet))

Back in February, the kernel community [1]discussed the removal of a couple of functions that could be used by loadable modules to gain access to symbols (functions and data structures) that were not meant to be available to them. That change was [2]merged during the 5.7 merge window. This change will break a number of external modules that depended on the removed functions; since many of those modules are proprietary, this fact does not cause a great deal of anguish in the kernel community. But there are a few out-of-tree modules with GPL-compatible licenses that are also affected by this change; one of those is [3]LTTng . Fixing LTTng may not be entirely straightforward.



[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/813350/

[2] https://git.kernel.org/linus/0bd476e6c671

[3] https://lttng.org/

Security updates for Monday

([Security] Apr 20, 2020 14:53 UTC (Mon) (ris))

Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (openvpn), Debian (awl, file-roller, jackson-databind, and shiro), Fedora (chromium, git, and libssh), Mageia (php, python-bleach, and webkit2), openSUSE (chromium, gstreamer-rtsp-server, and mp3gain), Oracle (thunderbird and tigervnc), SUSE (thunderbird), and Ubuntu (file-roller and webkit2gtk).

Debian Project Leader Election 2020 Results

([Distributions] Apr 19, 2020 22:14 UTC (Sun) (corbet))

The results are in from this year's Debian project leader election; the winner is Jonathan Carter.

Kernel prepatch 5.7-rc2

([Kernel] Apr 19, 2020 22:12 UTC (Sun) (corbet))

The [1]5.7-rc2 kernel prepatch is out for testing. " Everything continues to look fairly normal, with commit counts right in the middle of what you'd expect for rc2. And most of the changes are tiny and don't look scary at all. "



[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/817924/
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