GCC To Decline Any Significant Contributions Made Via AI/LLMs - Except For Test Cases

([GNU] 29 July 05:43 AM EDT No AI Contributions)

The GCC Steering Committee announced today that they have accepted the recommended policy of the GCC AI Policy Working Group, which means no "legally significant" code contributions made via AI/LLM agents will be accepted into this open-source compiler.

ARCTIC Launches Its New Fan Controller That Already Has Mainline Linux Support

([Hardware] 28 July 08:38 PM EDT ARCTIC Fan Controller)

In over 22 years of Linux hardware reviews and testing at Phoronix, I have never been more excited for a fan controller... ARCTIC today launched their new Fan Controller and in making the product very unique for Linux users, it already has mainline Linux kernel support via a open-source driver contributed directly by ARCTIC.

Starling: A New Linux Desktop Written In Swift, Own Wayland Compositor & Written With AI

([Desktop] 28 July 11:50 AM EDT Starling)

There's yet another new open-source desktop option for Linux users in the era of new open-source projects largely written via AI/LLMs. Starling is this new project largely written via Claude and using the Swift programming language for the desktop while having its own Wayland compositor implemented in C. It also includes a built-in X11 server for handling X11 clients.

AMD P-State Linux Driver Patches Can Boost 1%-Low FPS Gaming Performance By 31%

([AMD] 28 July 06:03 AM EDT AMD P-State)

A set of patches posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list implement per-core Energy Performance Preference (EPP) boosting for recently-busy CPUs. This feature is designed to have a dramatic impact for Linux gaming and helping especially with the 1% low frame-rates improving by 31.8% on the Valve Steam Deck.

Linux's crypto_rng Abstraction Layer Next On The Chopping Block

([Linux Kernel] 28 July 05:41 AM EDT crypto_rng)

In addition to the deprecation and stripping down of AF_ALG, another piece of the Linux kernel crypto code steaming ahead toward removal is the crypto_rng abstraction layer.

KDE Developer Fixing Long-Standing Bug Over Very Long Small-File Copy Times

([KDE] 28 July 05:50 AM EDT Ridiculous File Copy Times)

Since 2014 there has been a KDE bug report titled Ridiculously slow file copy (multiple small files). With the Dolphin file manager or other KIO-based KDE programs, copying many small files can be much slower than using the cp command directly or other copying programs like rsync, Finally that issue is in the process of being resolved for addressing very slow copy times when dealing with many small files on the KDE Plasma desktop.

ASUS Laptop Whisper Mode Support Being Worked On For Linux

([Hardware] 28 July 05:25 AM EDT ASUS Whisper Mode)

ASUS laptops support a feature called "Whisper Mode" that intentionally slows down the fan speed and lowers the CPU clock speed in order to keep the device running cool and quiet. The open-source ASUS Armoury Linux kernel driver is now seeing patches to properly support this Whisper Mode on Linux.

AMD PMF Testing Tool Slated For Linux 7.3

([AMD] 27 July 05:28 PM EDT AMD PMF Testing Tool)

Looking to be added to the Linux kernel source tree for the upcoming Linux 7.3 cycle is test_amd_pmf, a small testing application for exercising the AMD Platform Management Framework (PMF) interfaces and dumping various system data points.

Mysterious 16-Tile & 32-Tile AMX Implementations Talked Up For More Performance

([Hardware] 27 July 12:41 PM EDT Advanced Matrix Extensions)

Last October on Phoronix we were first to point out there being some mysterious intrigue around a new x86 implementation from a "corporate entity other than Intel/AMD" with the developer involved not elaborating on the matter. Now that same developer has posted another semi-cryptic message to the Linux kernel mailing list to talk about 16-tile and 32-tile Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) implementations. To date Intel only has 8-tile AMX.

Fwupd 2.1.7 Released With Many Bug Fixes

([LVFS] 27 July 12:17 PM EDT Fwupd 2.1.7)

Fwupd 2.1.7 is out today as the newest update to this open-source firmware updating utility that pairs with the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) for offering a nice firmware upgrade story on Linux systems.

Framework Laptop 13 Pro: Aiming To Be One Of The Best Upgradeable Linux Laptops

([Computers] 27 July 11:00 AM EDT 31 Comments)

Back in April, Framework Computer announced the Framework Laptop 13 Pro as a ground-up re-design of their modular/upgradeable laptop. This new Framework Laptop 13 Pro features a much larger battery (74Wh), LPCAMM2 memory support, a full CNC aluminum chassis, haptic touchpad, and a new power-optimized touch display. Paired with the very efficient Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" SoCs, the Framework Laptop 13 Pro ends up being an incredible offering from the hardware perspective.

Ubuntu To Provide Virtualization HWE Stack For Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

([Ubuntu] 27 July 07:32 AM EDT Ubuntu Virtualization HWE Stack)

Ubuntu has long provided hardware enablement "HWE" stacks for Ubuntu LTS releases to provide a newer kernel and Mesa drivers and more for better supporting new/modern hardware on the long-term support Ubuntu Linux releases. With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Canonical will also now be providing a virtualization HWE stack for shipping newer virtualization / confidential computing features.

AMD "Low Power" CPU Core Type Patches Queued Ahead Of Linux 7.3

([AMD] 27 July 06:35 AM EDT TOPO_CPU_TYPE_LOW_POWER)

Last month I wrote bout new AMD Linux patches introducing a new "low power" CPU core type as an alternative to their standard performance cores and dense efficiency cores. That work now is poised to land with the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel.

Wayfire Wayland Compositor Closing In On v1.0 Release

([Wayland] 27 July 06:10 AM EDT Wayfire 0.11 Released)

The Wayfire modular and extensible Wayland compositor formerly used by default on Raspberry Pi SBCs is nearing its v1.0 release. Wayfire 0.11 was released on Sunday for this Compiz-inspired, wlroots-powered compositor with that being their hopeful last planned version before Wayfire 1.0 releases.

FreeBSD Developing New NTSYNC Driver For Accelerating Windows NT Sync Primitives

([BSD] 27 July 06:03 AM EDT Plus AMD ROCm Port Too)

The FreeBSD project published today their Q2-2026 status report that highlights all of their interesting open-source development initiatives for the past quarter. A lot is happening including FreeBSD seeing an AMD ROCm port and also their own NTSYNC driver being created.

NVIDIA & Others Form The Open Secure AI Alliance

([NVIDIA] 27 July 05:45 AM EDT Open Secure AI Alliance)

NVIDIA and more than two dozen other companies have started the Open Secure AI Alliance for helping to keep open-source AI models secure. The other founding members range from Microsoft to Adobe, IBM, Red Hat, SpaceX, OpenClaw, Palantir, and others.

Linux 7.2-rc5 Released: "Once More We Have Quite A Massive -rc5"

([Linux Kernel] 26 July 06:05 PM EDT Linux 7.2)

In working toward releasing the stable Linux 7.2 kernel in less than one month's time, out today is Linux 7.2-rc5 to ship this week's latest bug/regression fixes and help facilitate more testing of this in-development kernel version.

GNU Binutils 2.47 Released With More RISC-V Extensions, New Options

([GNU] 26 July 03:36 PM EDT GNU Binutils 2.47)

Along with this weekend's release of GNU C Library 2.44, the GNU Binutils 2.47 release is also now available for this important set of binary utilities common to Linux systems and other platforms with the GNU toolchain.

"KVM Chainsaw" Expected To Hit Linux 7.3 For Dealing With God Data Structure

([Virtualization] 26 July 11:32 AM EDT KVM Chainsaw)

A patch series that appears destined for the upcoming Linux 7.3 merge window is what's dubbed the "KVM Chainsaw" as a major code clean-up in dealing with the kvm_mmu "god data structure".

User Frustrations Over The "Tragic State of FreeBSD Audio/Sound" Support

([BSD] 26 July 09:24 AM EDT Tragic State of FreeBSD Audio)

Besides the FreeBSD graphics and WiFi drivers lagging behind Linux and other operating systems, the FreeBSD audio driver support and handling of audio streams with FreeBSD on the desktop can be problematic depending upon the hardware/system. One of the most active mailing list threads this week in the FreeBSD camp was over the "tragic state" of FreeBSD audio/sound support.