Phoronix

  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)

Phoronix: news regarding free and open-source software



Linux Kernel Considers Linking The Relocatable x86 Kernel As PIE In 2026

([Linux Kernel] 7 Minutes Ago Linux x86 PIE)

To allow for additional security hardening of the Linux kernel, a patch series has been updated more than one year later to link the relocatable x86_64 kernel as Position Independent Executable (PIE) code.


FFmpeg Integrates Video Encoder For Advanced Professional Video (APV)

([Multimedia] 5 Minutes Ago APV Encoder)

One week ago FFmpeg merged decode support for Samsung's Advanced Professional Video "APV" codec. APV is designed for professional-grade video recording purposes and is a royalty-free video codec geared for prosumers. Now arriving within FFmpeg Git is APV video encode support.


AWS Graviton4 96-Core Performance vs. AMD EPYC & Intel Xeon CPUs

([Processors] 1 Minute Ago)

Last week I published some initial benchmarks of the Amazon/AWS Graviton4 processors now available within the EC2 cloud using the new "R8g" instances. That initial comparison was a 64 vCPU comparison of Graviton4 against AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon 64 vCPU AWS instances. In today's article is a look at the 96-core Graviton4 bare metal performance using the "r8g.metal-24xl" AWS instance type. The Graviton4 r8g.metal-24xl performance was then compared in today's article against various bare metal AMD EPYC, Ampere Altra Max, and Intel Xeon processors in the lab at Phoronix.


Canonical Builds Steam Snap For Ubuntu ARM64 Leveraging FEX

([Ubuntu] 4 Hours Ago Steam + FEX on Ubuntu ARM64)

Canonical is making it easier for ARM64 Ubuntu users like those on the NVIDIA DGX Spark to do a bit of gaming with Steam. Canonical engineers have assembled a Steam Snap for 64-bit ARM that comes complete with the FEX emulator for running Windows/Linux x86-based games on ARM64 Linux.


Mesa 26.0 RADV Merges The Big Ray-Tracing Improvement For UE5 Lumen

([Radeon] 9 Hours Ago RADV Ray-Tracing)

The RADV ray-tracing improvement covered earlier this week for some big performance gains for Unreal Engine 5 titles running under Linux thanks to Steam Play has been merged for Mesa 26.0.


Logitech MX Anywhere 3S Mouse With Linux 6.19 Now Supports High Resolution Scrolling

([Hardware] 8 January 01:34 PM EST Logitech MX Anywhere 3S)

For those that happen to have a Logitech MX Anywhere 3S mouse connected via Bluetooth, the upcoming Linux 6.19 kernel release is enabling HID++ support for it to enjoy high resolution scrolling and other functionality of the updated protocol.


Mesa 26.0 Now Supports GPU Hardware Replay With The Intel Xe Kernel Driver

([Intel] 8 January 12:57 PM EST intel_hang_replay)

The Intel Mesa graphics drivers have supported a GPU hardware replay feature for making it easier to reproduce issues. But until now that functionality has only worked with the i915 kernel driver while for Mesa 26.0 the Intel Xe driver will also be supported.


Linux 6.18 LTS vs. Liquorix Kernel On AMD Ryzen Threadripper Workstation Performance

([Software] 8 January 10:00 AM EST 9 Comments)

It's been a while since running benchmarks of the Liquorix kernel as an enthusiast-tailored downstream version of the Linux kernel focused on responsiveness for gaming, audio/video production, and other creator/enthusiast workloads. In today's article is a look at how the latest Liquorix kernel derived from Linux 6.18 is competing against the upstream Linux 6.18 LTS kernel on the same system.


Intel Panther Lake Laptops For Pre-Order Scarce So Far

([Intel] 8 January 09:11 AM EST And Many Shipping In February)

On Monday at CES Intel announced Panther Lake as Core Ultra Series 3 with the initial laptop designs to be available for pre-order starting the following day, 6 January, while global availability is expected around 27 January. Now a few days after pre-orders opened up, few options are available and some of the models will not be shipping until mid-February.


NVIDIA Optimizes Printing Of Linux Memory Stats For 11% System Time Savings

([Linux Kernel] 8 January 08:19 AM EST printf restructuring)

A NVIDIA engineer restructuring some of the printf-related code within the memory resource controller "memcg" statistics printing code to reduce the system time by 11% for dumping those stats.


Linus Torvalds: "The AI Slop Issue Is *NOT* Going To Be Solved With Documentation"

([AI] 8 January 06:37 AM EST Linus Torvalds On Kernel AI Slop)

The Linux kernel developers for months now have been debating proposed guidelines for tool-generated submissions to the Linux kernel. As part of the "tools", the main motivator for this documentation has been around the era of AI and large language models with coding assistants and more. Torvalds made some remarks on the Linux kernel mailing list around his belief in focusing the documentation on "tools" rather than explicitly focusing on AI, given the likelihood of AI-assisted contributions continuing regardless of documentation.


Linux Patches Enable Intel GPU Firmware Updating From Non-x86 Systems

([Intel] 8 January 06:25 AM EST dGPU Firmware Updating On Non-x86)

The modern Intel Xe kernel graphics driver was designed from the start to be more broadly compatible with non-x86 architectures given their discrete graphics processors being front and center, unlike the legacy i915 kernel graphics driver being very x86 minded. While this allows running Intel Arc Graphics on ARM or RISC-V, there are some other kinks still being ironed out with using Intel graphics in the non-x86 world. One of those limitations currently being worked through is the lack of GPU firmware updating on non-x86 systems.


Etnaviv Driver Wires Up PPU Flop Reset Support Needed By Some Vivante Hardware

([Linux Kernel] 8 January 06:14 AM EST PPU Flop Reset)

Sent out today was the latest batch of drm-misc-next changes to DRM-Next for staging ahead of the upcoming Linux 6.20~7.0 kernel cycle. The reverse-engineered Etnaviv DRM driver for Vivante graphics/NPU hardware has added a new "PPU flop reset" feature gleaned off studying the downstream vendor kernel driver.


Linux Kernel Considers Linking The Relocatable x86 Kernel As PIE In 2026

([Linux Kernel] 8 January 05:53 AM EST Linux x86 PIE)

To allow for additional security hardening of the Linux kernel, a patch series has been updated more than one year later to link the relocatable x86_64 kernel as Position Independent Executable (PIE) code.


FEX 2601 Brings Various Fixes, Improvements For Wine & DXVK/VKD3D-Proton

([Free Software] 7 January 08:03 PM EST FEX-Emu 2601)

FEX, the open-source emulator for running x86 and x86_64 binaries on AArch64 (ARM64) Linux and that is sponsored by Valve and to be used by the Steam Frame, is out with a new monthly feature release.


AMD Linux GPU Driver Improvement Coming For DP-HDMI Dongles

([Radeon] 7 January 03:24 PM EST AMDGPU + DP-HDMI Dongles)

For those using a DisplayPort to HDMI dongle currently with the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver may find some higher resolutions / modes unavailable. Fortunately, a fix is on the way for dealing with this situation due to an oversight in the kernel driver.


Intel FSP Improvements With Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake"

([Intel] 7 January 01:24 PM EST Firmware Support Package)

While for years open-source firmware enthusiasts have been after an open-source Firmware Support Package "FSP" for Intel CPUs and back during Raja Koduri's tenure at Intel it sounded like it might happen, it has yet to happen. But at least with the forthcoming Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" there are some FSP improvements.


Dell Pro Max GB10 vs. AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Framework Desktop For Llama.cpp, OpenCL & Vulkan Compute

([Computers] 7 January 11:42 AM EST 14 Comments)

Over the past number of weeks the Dell Pro Max with GB10 has been undergoing a lot of testing at Phoronix. This NVIDIA GB10 powered mini PC with its 20 Arm cores (10 x Cortex-X925, 10 x Cortex-A725) and Blackwell GPU offers a lot of combined compute potential for AI and other workloads. In this article is a look at how the Dell Pro Max with GB10 competes with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" within the Framework Desktop SFF PC.


Next-Gen AMD Server SoCs To Enjoy Firmware-Agnostic Platform Configuration Approach

([AMD] 7 January 10:31 AM EST Firmware Configuration Improvements)

Next-generation AMD server SoCs -- presumably the AMD EPYC "Venice" on Zen 6 -- is poised to introduce a firmware-agnostic platform configuration platform configuration change method/format. This is This aims to improve server platform interoperability and eliminate redundant configuration efforts for different firmware solutions.


Radeon RADV Vulkan Driver Is On The Verge Of Another Big Ray-Tracing Performance Gain

([Radeon] 7 January 06:18 AM EST More RT Performance!)

Natalie Vock as one of the open-source developers on Valve's Linux graphics team has been spearheading another big ray-tracing performance improvement for the AMD Radeon Vulkan driver. RADV ray-tracing performance improved a lot in 2025 but it's looking like 2026 could be even more exciting.


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My My, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay The king is gone but he's not forgotten
It's better to burn out This is the story of a Johnny Rotten
Than to fade away It's better to burn out than it is to rust
My my, hey hey The king is gone but he's not forgotten

It's out of the blue and into the black Hey hey, my my
They give you this, but you pay for that Rock and roll can never die
And once you're gone you can never come back There's more to the picture
When you're out of the blue Than meets the eye
And into the black
-- Neil Young
"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue), Rust Never Sleeps"