Slackware-Based Zenwalk Linux Aims For "True Low Latency Desktop Experience"

([Operating Systems] 14 August 05:30 AM EDT Zenwalk + BORE)

It's been a long time since hearing much out of the Zenwalk project, the Linux distribution built off Slackware. It's still around though and with their latest kernel work are hoping for a "true low latency desktop experience" by employing the BORE scheduler.

AMD GAIA 0.23 Delivers Ability To Install/Run AI Agents From The Terminal

([AMD] 13 August 08:33 PM EDT AMD GAIA 0.23)

AMD's GAIA open-source AI software built atop Lemonade for serving as an AI companion for emails, a Bash coding agent, and other AI agent skills is out with a new version today with more features while also improving security and making other improvements.

KDE, Techpaladin & Kubuntu Focus Announce The Bullet-Proof KDE Software Initiative

([KDE] 13 August 04:08 PM EDT Bullet Proof KDE)

KDE e.V. along with Linux PC vendor Kubuntu Focus and KDE-aligned consulting firm Techpaladin Software have announced a collaboration of the "bullet-proof KDE Software initiative" for providing at least three years of bug fixes and security updates to KDE Plasma 6.6 LTS and related software.

The Best Linux 7.2 Features: Cache Aware Scheduling, AMD Zen 6, AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 FRL

([Linux Kernel] 13 August 03:57 PM EDT Linux 7.2 Best Features)

With the Linux 7.2 kernel expected to be released on Sunday, 16 August, here is a look at some of the most interesting new features and changes to find with this next kernel version to be used by Ubuntu 26.10 and other upcoming Linux distribution releases.

Updated Coreboot/Dasharo For MSI PRO Z690-A / Z790-P Motherboards, Adds Overclocking

([Coreboot] 13 August 03:08 PM EDT 3mdeb Dasharo)

In addition to 3mdeb providing their Coreboot-based Dasharo built atop AMD openSIL on a Gigabyte EPYC server motherboard and recently making their first Dasharo release for an AMD Ryzen AM5 platform with the MSI PRO B850-P WIFI, the firmware consulting firm today released updated versions of their MSI PRO Z690-A and MSI PRO Z790-P Dasharo ports to those Intel Core motherboards.

The Beneficial Performance Gains Running The Framework Laptop Pro 13 / Core Ultra X9 388H With Linux 7.1+

([Software] 13 August 10:00 AM EDT Add A Comment)

The recently launched Framework Laptop 13 Pro powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" runs well on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and other modern Linux distributions. In the case of Ubuntu 26.04 with Linux 7.0, while everything works, if upgrading to Linux 7.1 or the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel is even better performance. Here are benchmarks of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro with Core Ultra X9 388H across the Linux 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 kernels.

GeForce NOW On Linux Native App Exits Beta

([NVIDIA] 13 August 09:21 AM EDT GeForce NOW On Linux)

At the beginning of the year NVIDIA released a native build of GeForce NOW for Linux using Flatpaks. Today their native Linux build has exited beta to reach official production status for this cloud gaming solution from NVIDIA.

MSI Claw Gamepad Driver Set To Be Merged For Linux 7.3

([Hardware] 13 August 09:11 AM EDT MSI Claw Gamepad)

The MSI Claw Gamepad driver is set to be merged for the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel for enabling RGB lighting and controller configuration support with the mainline kernel.

Linux Patches Enable Apple M4 NVMe Support

([Linux Storage] 13 August 07:30 AM EDT Apple M4 NVMe)

While the Apple M4 SoCs aren't yet supported by the mainline Linux kernel and the Apple M3 series hardware isn't yet ready for end-users, there are some early elements of the Apple M4 support beginning to come together by open-source developers working on the Apple Silicon support. Sent out to the Linux kernel mailing list were patches for enabling NVMe solid state drive support with the M4.

Microsoft's Azure Linux 3.0.20260809 Ships With 233+ CVE Fixes

([Microsoft] 13 August 06:38 AM EDT Azure Linux 3.0.20260809)

While Microsoft continues working on Azure Linux 4.0 as its overhauled Linux distribution built atop Fedora, Azure Linux 3.0 remains the current stable production series. Released overnight was Azure Linux 3.0.20260809 and it comes with more than 233 security patches for recent CVEs in the AI era.

Intel XPU Manager 2.1 Released For Monitoring Arc Pro Graphics On Windows/Linux

([Intel] 13 August 06:24 AM EDT Intel XPU Manager 2.1)

Intel XPU Manager 2.1 is now available as the latest version of this open-source tool for Linux and Windows systems for the monitoring and management of Arc Pro graphics cards. The Intel XPU Manager helps in keeping an eye on device utilization and other metrics via the xpu-smi command and other components.

Rsync 3.5 Released As "Extraordinary" Update To Fix 33 Security Issues

([Free Software] 12 August 09:26 PM EDT Rsync 3.5)

Rsync as the widely-used, open-source remote sync software for synchronizing files and directories across networks is out today with a very important update.

Comma.ai Launches A PCIe Gen4 x4 To USB4 Dock With Open-Source Firmware

([Hardware] 12 August 08:35 PM EDT Or Mount It In Your Car)

George Hotz of Comma.ai and Tinygrad today announced the Tiny Chestnut eGPU Dock and the "Chestnut" Dock complete with an AMD Radeon RX 9060 8GB GPU too. Making this Chestnut / Tiny Chestnut Dock interesting is that it runs on open-source firmware.

Tenstrorrent Posts GCC Compiler Patches For Ascalon XG Core

([GNU] 12 August 04:14 PM EDT Tenstorrent Ascalon XG)

While the Tenstorrent Ascalon X is known as their high performance out-of-order RISC-V RVA23 CPU core for extreme performance over the H and S models, a new GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) patch today from Tenstorrent makes known a new Ascalon XG core.

GCC 17 Compiler Adding "-m128bit-atomic" For 128-bit Atomic Memory Operations

([GNU] 12 August 02:40 PM EDT -m128bit-atomic)

Merged today to the GNU Compiler Collection Git code is the new -m128bit-atomic option for next year's GCC 17 feature release.

Manjaro Linux 26.1 Released With GNOME 50 & KDE Plasma 6.7 Desktops

([Operating Systems] 12 August 02:28 PM EDT Manjaro 26.1)

Manjaro 26.1 Bian-May is now available as the newest feature release to this desktop Linux distribution built atop an Arch Linux base.

Intel AMX Performance With The Xeon 678X Workstation CPU

([Processors] 12 August 01:07 PM EDT 9 Comments)

One of the most compelling features for Intel Xeon 6 Granite Rapids alongside MRDIMMs is Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) for helping accelerate AI workloads and more. AMX is also found with the new Granite Rapids WS processors and in currently having my hands on an Intel Xeon 678X in the HP Z4 G6i workstation, I ran some benchmarks looking at the AMX performance and power impact for this high-end workstation.

Linux Finally Seeing Patches For Better Hybrid Graphics On 2018~2019 Era MacBook Pros

([Apple] 12 August 10:15 AM EDT Dynamic Power Savings)

Patches posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list provide support for Apple GMUX hybrid graphics support on 2018~2019 Apple MacBook Pros. This allows for better power savings on these nearly decade old MacBook Pro laptops by allowing the discrete GPU to power down and be properly restored as needed.

Intel ANV Driver Enables Vulkan Video AV1 Encoding For DG2/Alchemist GPUs

([Intel] 12 August 09:57 AM EDT Vulkan Video AV1)

Hyunjun Ko of Igalia continues working on Vulkan Video support for Intel graphics hardware on Linux with the ANV driver. Merged now for Mesa 26.3-devel is enabling AV1 video encoding via Vulkan Video on DG2/Alchemist hardware.

Linux 7.2 To Revert Back To The FIFO DRM Scheduler Policy Due To "Fair" Regressions

([Linux Kernel] 12 August 06:31 AM EDT Fair Scheduler Policy)

One of the Direct Rendering Manager changes made for Linux 7.2 was switching to "fair" as the DRM scheduler default in place of the existing FIFO policy. The intent was on making the DRM scheduler policy more fair with this being used by AMDGPU and various other DRM kernel graphics drivers. But due to a last minute regression report, the fair policy is being reverted for Linux 7.2.