Linux 7.2 Preparing Intel Key Protection Technology "KPT" For Next-Gen QAT

([Intel] 9 June 06:37 AM EDT Intel Key Protection Technology)

Going back to the launch of 1st Gen Xeon Scalable processors in 2017 was Intel Key Protection Technology (KPT) promoted and there have been Key Protection Technology references in QuickAssist (QAT) documentation since 2016. Surprisingly we are only now seeing Key Protection Technology references for the upstream Linux QAT driver as Intel engineers prepare for their next-gen "Gen6" QuickAssist hardware support.

Lightweight Pragtical Code Editor Adds SDL GPU Backend

([Programming] 9 June 06:14 AM EDT Pragtical Editor)

Pragtical, the lightweight open-source code editor that prides itself on using just ~50MB of RAM and ~10MB of disk space while being a full-featured code editor, is tacking on more features. Most notable with the new Pragtical release is adding an SDL-based GPU back-end for this MIT-licensed editor.

Vortex 3.0 Released As Full-Stack, Open-Source RISC-V GPU Now With 3D Pipeline

([Hardware] 9 June 06:02 AM EDT Vortex 3.0)

The open-source developers at Georgia Tech working on Vortex as an OpenCL-compatible RISC-V GPGPU implementation are out with their next major release for this open-source GPU design.

Ubuntu MATE Is Continuing Despite No Ubuntu MATE 26.04 Release

([Ubuntu] 8 June 08:45 PM EDT Ubuntu MATE)

Back in March, Martin Wimpress stepped down as the longtime Ubuntu MATE leader and was looking for contributors to keep this Ubuntu derivative going with its GNOME2-derived desktop. That change in leadership paired with no Ubuntu MATE 26.04 release having occurred led to some concerns among users, but the plan is still for Ubuntu MATE to continue moving forward.

Fedora 44 RISC-V Images Released, Including New "Omni" Kernel For Broader RISC-V Hardware Support

([Fedora] 8 June 08:25 PM EDT Fedora 44 RISC-V)

Following the official Fedora 44 images released one month ago, Fedora 44 RISC-V images were published today for those wanting to run this newest Fedora Linux on RISC-V hardware.

AMD Support Being Added To UFS Host Controller PCI Driver In Linux 7.2

([AMD] 8 June 06:17 PM EDT ufshcd-pci)

Linux's ufshcd-pci as the Universal Flash Storage host controller PCI driver has supported a variety of Intel devices to this point while for Linux 7.2 the first AMD device is set to be added.

Running CachyOS With The BORE Scheduler While Disabling Ananicy-CPP

([Operating Systems] 8 June 01:56 PM EDT BORE Without Ananicy-CPP)

Last week I ran benchmarks of CachyOS with the BORE scheduler using its "linux-cachyos-bore" kernel option. The results didn't end up being as enticing as anticipated but the developer behind the BORE scheduler commented in the forums that he recently received reports from users experiencing game stuttering while using BORE that was attributed to CachyOS' default use of Ananicy-Cpp. So over the weekend I did another CachyOS BORE run without that CachyOS default.

Linux 7.1 Helping Intel Arc Battlemage Graphics Achieve Better Performance

([Display Drivers] 8 June 12:00 PM EDT 8 Comments)

Recent testing of the Intel Arc B580 Battlemage desktop graphics card has shown that the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel release is delivering superior graphics performance over the current stable Linux 7.0 kernel.

Xfce Ported To Rust-Written Redox OS For Better X11 Experience

([Operating Systems] 8 June 11:09 AM EDT Xfce + Redox)

The belated "This Month in Redox" was posted today for covering improvements made to this open-source, Rust-based operating system during the month of May. Most notable in May is seeing the Xfce desktop ported over to Redox OS.

Canonical Experimenting With x86-64-v3 Packages For Ubuntu 26.10

([Ubuntu] 8 June 10:35 AM EDT Ubuntu 26.10 amd64v3)

Canonical engineers are again evaluating the impact of building the Ubuntu Linux archive for the x86-64-v3 "amd64v3" micro-architecture feature level for its performance benefits on modern Intel and AMD systems. An amd64v3 archive is available of Ubuntu 26.10 for testing with the packages targeting this level that allows for AVX/AVX2 and other newer CPU x86_64 ISA capabilities of the past decade.

Linux 7.2 To Add ACPI CPPC v4 Support Authored By NVIDIA

([NVIDIA] 8 June 09:41 AM EDT ACPI CPPC v4)

Ahead of NVIDIA Vera ramping up, the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel is adding the ACPI CPPC v4 support authored by a NVIDIA engineer.

Flatpak 1.18 Released With Integration For AMD ROCm

([Desktop] 8 June 09:14 AM EDT Flatpak 1.18)

Flatpak 1.18 is out today for providing the latest improvements to this leading open-source app sandboxing and distribution tech.

Linux EFS File-System May Have New Maintainer - Or It Might Just Get Removed

([Linux Storage] 8 June 07:00 AM EDT EFS File-System)

An interesting quandary has arose on the Linux kernel mailing list over maintainership of old, unmaintained code within the Linux kernel. Someone has stepped up to maintain an old, very rare file-system driver but admittedly doesn't even use it and just submitted basic fixes. Or is it just better removing that old code?

Vintage AMD R600 Graphics Driver Sees Code Cleanups Thanks To GitHub Copilot

([Radeon] 8 June 06:41 AM EDT AMD R600)

As the discussions continue among developers over potentially branching off some of the older Mesa drivers, the AMD R600 Gallium3D driver saw 59 commits on Sunday to Mesa 26.2. Making this code restructuring and code cleaning all the more notable is that the improvements to this old AMD Radeon graphics driver was done in part by GitHub Copilot.

Last Call For The Phoronix 22nd Birthday Premium Special

([Phoronix] 8 June 06:33 AM EDT 22nd Birthday)

As a friendly reminder, if you wanted to join Phoronix Premium at a discounted rate to show your support for the 22nd birthday of Phoronix.com during these difficult times in the web publishing space, that special is ending later today.

BeagleV Ahead & Lichee Pi 4a RISC-V Boards To See Working WiFi With Linux 7.2

([RISC-V] 8 June 06:24 AM EDT Device Trees)

In addition to the SpacemiT K1 and K3 RISC-V SoC Device Tree updates sent out last week, the RISC-V T-HEAD Device Tree "DT" changes were also sent out last week ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel merge window.

Linux 7.1-rc7 Released: Stable Hopefully Next Sunday

([Linux Kernel] 7 June 08:26 PM EDT Linux 7.1-rc7)

Last week Linux 7.1-rc6 was larger than Linus Torvalds wished for and for Linux 7.1-rc7 it has come in still heavier than typically seen this late in the cycle, but is shrinking and making Linus comfortable in hopefully releasing Linux 7.1 stable next Sunday.

Firefox Merges Support For Vulkan Video Decoding

([Mozilla] 7 June 10:55 AM EDT Firefox + Vulkan Video)

As an exciting development for GPU-accelerated video decoding within the Mozilla Firefox web browser, initial support for Vulkan Video has landed in the web browser!

Wayland Protocols 1.49 Released With Improved Multi-GPU Support, Windows BT.2100

([Wayland] 7 June 09:32 AM EDT Wayland Protocols 1.49)

Simon Ser just published Wayland Protocols 1.49 as the latest version for this primary set of Wayland protocol definitions.

"Flatten The Pick" Linux Patches Progress For Better cgroup Scheduling While Linux Gaming

([Linux Kernel] 7 June 07:06 AM EDT Flatten The Pick)

A month ago I wrote about Linux scheduler work to help boost gaming performance on old "potato" hardware with Intel engineer Peter Zijlstra noting that Linux cgroup scheduling has continued to be "a pain in the arse." This work continues advancing with a third iteration of these "flatten the pick" patches being posted.