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)

Hyprland Wayland Compositor Launches Subscription Service For "Premium Desktop Experience"

([Wayland] 28 July 04:01 PM EDT Hyprperks)

The Hyprland Wayland compositor that is popular with some Linux enthusiasts today formally announced Hyprperks, its new paid subscription service offering a "premium desktop experience" and other benefits.



Linux 6.17 Preps Many Networking Changes From Broadcom 800G To More WiFi 7

([Linux Networking] 28 July 02:41 PM EDT Linux 6.17 Networking)

Jakub Kicinski on Sunday sent out the big set of networking subsystem updates heading into the Linux 6.17 kernel. From high-end enterprise and data center hardware down to consumer Ethernet and WiFi devices, the Linux networking space continues to be as busy as ever.



Bcachefs To Remove Its Experimental Label In Linux 6.18 - If It's Still In The Kernel

([Linux Storage] 28 July 01:10 PM EDT Bachefs)

With the Linux 6.17 merge window now open, Bcachefs file-system lead developer Kent Overstreet has submitted his planned changes for this next kernel version. But we await to see how Linus Torvalds will respond.



Linux 6.16's New "X86_NATIVE_CPU" Option Enhances I/O & Some Graphics/Gaming Workloads

([Software] 28 July 11:46 AM EDT 17 Comments)

With the newly-released Linux 6.16 kernel there is the new X86_NATIVE_CPU build option if wanting to optimize your kernel build for your local CPU in use. Enabling CONFIG_X86_NATIVE_CPU is setting the "-march=native" compiler optimizations for the kernel build in an effort to ensure peak performance/optimizations for the local system. Here are some benchmarks looking at the impact of X86_NATIVE_CPU on Linux 6.16 while using the HP ZBook Ultra G1a laptop with AMD Strix Halo SoC as an interesting test target for squeezing additional performance.



Ubuntu To Keep Up-To-Date With Linux Kernel Versions During Development

([Ubuntu] 28 July 10:10 AM EDT Ubuntu Kernel Versions)

Last year Canonical established a policy to always ship the latest Linux kernel version at Ubuntu release time which for the upcoming Ubuntu 25.10 will mean shipping with Linux v6.17. But during the Ubuntu development cycles they typically don't aggressively update to new interim versions tracking upstream, except that will now change to allow for better kernel test coverage.



Runtime PM For The V3D Raspberry Pi Driver Will Finally Lower The GPU Clock When Idle

([Raspberry Pi] 28 July 09:02 AM EDT Runtime Power Management)

While the Broadcom V3D driver has been part of the mainline kernel for supporting the graphics found on recent Raspberry Pi boards, currently it doesn't support run-time power management. The lack of runtime PM has meant the GPU clock remains at full-speed even while idle.



Intel QAT Accelerators Being Demoted On Linux By FSCRYPT: Bug Prone & Slow

([Intel] 28 July 07:12 AM EDT Intel Accelerator Challenges)

Intel's accelerator efforts in recent generations of Xeon processors have been challenging to say the least. From limited software support and configuration obstacles to some current-generation accelerators not being safe for VM use due to security issues to having to deal with higher latency and other nuances if wanting to achieve decent performance. One of the Linux kernel users of Intel's QuickAssist Technology "QAT" accelerators has been the FSCRYPT code for native file encryption support. But the Linux kernel with the FSCRYPT usage is now demoting the Intel QAT accelerator support along with other problem-causing accelerator drivers.



Rockchip NPU Driver "Rocket" Expected By Linux 6.18, Mesa 25.3 Brings User-Space Code

([Linux Kernel] 28 July 06:40 AM EDT Rockchip NPU)

The open-source, reverse-engineered Rockchip NPU driver "Rocket" developed by Tomeu Vizoso will soon be in the mainline kernel. The Rocket Gallium3D driver was also merged today for Mesa 25.3 in the user-space code for their AI accelerator support.



Linux 6.17 Power Management Refines Async Suspend/Resume, Adds More Intel Hardware

([Hardware] 28 July 06:24 AM EDT Linux 6.17 Power Management)

Among the number of early pull requests submitted in advance for the Linux 6.17 merge window were all the power management updates as well as to related areas like ACPI and thermal control drivers.



Ubuntu 25.10 TPM-Backed Full Disk Encryption Will Be Considered Experimental

([Ubuntu] 28 July 06:07 AM EDT Ubuntu 25.10 + TPM + TDE)

For the past two years Ubuntu developers have been talking about adding TPM-based full disk encryption to the installer for those wanting to leverage their system's Trusted Platform Module 2.0 capabilities to enhance security. It looks like for Ubuntu 25.10 this October that support will finally be in good shape.



Intel Panther Lake Perf Integration Ready For Linux 6.17

([Intel] 28 July 05:55 AM EDT Linux 6.17 Performance Events)

The Linux support for Intel's next-generation Panther Lake SoCs appears to be largely set with Linux 6.16 ahead of the Core Ultra Series 3 laptops debuting in the coming months. There are though a few stragglers of Panther Lake support such as the performance events code in Linux 6.17 only now landing the perf integration.



GNU Linux-libre 6.16 Fights Firmware In Nouveau, NOVA, Ath12k & Other Drivers

([Linux Kernel] 28 July 05:40 AM EDT GNU Linux-libre 6.16-gnu)

Following the Linux 6.16 kernel release from Sunday evening, GNU Linux-libre 6.16-gnu is now available for that kernel downstream that strips out driver/kernel code dependent upon non-free-software microcode/firmware, the ability to load proprietary kernel modules, and carving out other bits of the Linux kernel not meeting their stringent free software standards.



Linux 6.16 Released - Better Performance, NVIDIA Blackwell Open-Source & Intel APX

([Linux Kernel] 27 July 05:31 PM EDT Linux 6.16)

As anticipated the Linux 6.16 kernel was promoted to stable. Linux 6.16 now greets the world with various performance improvements, NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell open-source GPU driver support in Nouveau, Intel Advanced Performance Extensions (APX) preparations, and many other exciting enhancements.



AMD Kernel Graphics Driver Exceeds 5.9 Million Lines In Linux 6.16

([Radeon] 27 July 11:26 AM EDT AMDGPU Driver Size)

The modern AMD Kernel graphics driver consisting of AMDGPU, the AMDKFD compute code, and associated infrastructure continues to easily be the largest mainline open-source driver. With the Linux 6.16 kernel debuting as stable as soon as later today, the AMD kernel graphics driver cracks the 5.9 million line threshold. In comparison, the entire Linux kernel source tree comes in at



Linux 6.17 Introducing Support For The NVIDIA Tegra T264/Thor, New RISC-V SoCs

([Linux Kernel] 27 July 09:55 AM EDT Linux 6.17 SoCs)

In advance of the Linux 6.17 merge window expected to open soon following the Linux 6.16 release, all of the SoC updates have been submitted to Linus Torvalds for this next kernel version.



New Ubuntu Concept Snapdragon X Laptop ISOs Published - Your Mileage May Vary

([Ubuntu] 27 July 08:37 AM EDT Ubuntu 25.04 Concept)

A few days back I wrote about Canonical releasing new Ubuntu 25.04 "Concept" ISOs for the Snapdragon X laptops with the new install images being re-based to the Linux 6.16 kernel and expanding the device support. But as I found out from my own testing, depending upon the laptop the support was still less than ideal. Since then there have been two more ISO releases and addressing one of my show-stopping problems albeit encountering another.



GNU Binutils 2.45 Released With Continued Work Around SFrame Stack Tracing

([GNU] 27 July 06:43 AM EDT GNU Binutils 2.45)

GNU Binutils 2.45 was released on Sunday morning as the newest version of this set of open-source binary tools.



AMD SEV Optimizations Ready For Linux 6.17 Plus A 10x Improvement For Intel TDX

([Virtualization] 27 July 06:29 AM EDT AMD SEV Optimizations)

There are a few AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization improvements on the way for the Linux 6.17 kernel worth noting.



Shotcut 25.07 Video Editor Brings Numerous Improvements

([Multimedia] 27 July 06:04 AM EDT Shotcut 25.07)

Shotcut 25.07 is out today as the newest feature release for this prominent open-source and cross-platform video editing solution.



Linux 6.17 Looks To Address An Old & Obscure Kernel Limitation From 1993

([Linux Kernel] 26 July 08:34 PM EDT Whoops)

Assuming no objections are raised by Linus Torvalds, an early pull request has been submitted for the upcoming Linux 6.17 merge window to address an obscure kernel limitation that has been in place going back all the way to 1993 during the Linux v0.99 kernel days.



More

It should be fixed, but it won't be easy and it won't be fast. If you want
to help - wonderful. But keep in mind that it will take months of wading
through the ugliest code we have in the tree. If you've got a weak stomach -
stay out. I've been there and it's not a nice place.

- Al Viro on fixing drivers