Steam Client Beta Improves Big Picture Mode, Several Linux Enhancements

([Valve] 9 September 08:27 PM EDT Steam Client Beta)

Tonight Valve released a big Steam client beta update with a number of new features and fixes.

ReactOS Dev Gets FEX Running For x86_64 Games On This "Open-Source Windows" OS Under ARM

([Operating Systems] 9 September 04:15 PM EDT ReactOS + FEX)

A ReactOS developer for this open-source operating system project striving for binary compatibility with Windows drivers and applications has achieved an intriguing software stack. With the experimental ReactOS ARM64 build for running on 64-bit ARM hardware like Raspberry Pi SBCs, he's paired that "open-source Windows" OS with the open-source FEX emulator for in turn being able to run Windows x64 games/apps on ReactOS atop native ARM hardware.

Running AMD openSIL + Coreboot On The First Available Ryzen AM5 Motherboard

([Motherboards] 9 September 12:10 PM EDT 20 Comments)

Earlier this year the 3mdeb firmware consulting firm ported AMD openSIL CPU open-source silicon initialization library and Coreboot to an EPYC motherboard, the Gigabyte MZ33-AR1. Their next feat now achieved is bringing AMD openSIL and Coreboot to a desktop AMD Ryzen motherboard with their downstream Dasharo firmware solution. I have been running this alternative firmware on the MSI PRO B850P WiFi motherboard and it's been working out and performing well as an alternative to the closed-up motherboard firmware.

XWayland 26.1 RC2 Released For Testing With More Fixes

([Wayland] 9 September 11:52 AM EDT XWayland 26.1)

Following last month's initial release candidate of XWayland 26.1 with its many new features, a second release candidate is now available with a number of fixes.

System76 Launches The Thelio Mira AI With AMD Ryzen + NVIDIA Or AMD Graphics

([Hardware] 9 September 10:57 AM EDT Thelio Mira AI)

System76 today unveiled their newest desktop computer as the Thelio Mira AI. The System76 Thelio Mira AI is designed for multi-GPU AI training, model fine-tuning, AI inferencing, computer vision and image generation tasks on tthe AI side. Or with its AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPU and NVIDIA/AMD GPU options is also a good candidate for simulations and other HPC-type workloads.

OpenSSL 4.1 Alpha 1 Released With DTLS 1.3, GREASE & More AVX-512 Optimizations

([Programming] 9 September 10:46 AM EDT OpenSSL 4.1)

The first alpha release of the upcoming OpenSSL 4.1 release is now available for testing with some GREASE and DTLS 1.3 support along with more AVX-512 performance optimizations.

NVIDIA 615.71.09 Linux Driver Released With Vulkan Improvements

([NVIDIA] 9 September 10:02 AM EDT NVIDIA 615.71.09)

NVIDIA today debuted the 615.71.09 Linux driver that comes with a number of improvements, especially from the Vulkan API perspective.

A Nice Improvement Coming For Faster Btrfs Zstd Decompression

([Linux Storage] 9 September 08:52 AM EDT Btrfs Zstd Faster Decompression)

In addition to the still-pending kernel work for improving the in-kernel Zstd code, sepaarately the Btrfs file-system driver has an improvement on the way in its decompression code path for the Zstd transparent file-system compression.

AMD Posts New GCC Compiler Patch For Extended Load Optimization

([GNU] 9 September 06:26 AM EDT AMD Extended Load Optimization)

It's nice seeing a new GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) patch out of AMD today that is a general optimization for the x86_64 compiler code and not exclusively tied to their Zen processors. It's an Extended Load Optimization to benefit code where there is a narrower type and then an arithmetic type with a wider type.

Experimental Patches Get Nouveau+NVK Working On NVIDIA DGX Spark GB10

([Nouveau] 9 September 06:13 AM EDT Open-Source NVIDIA Driver)

Red Hat's David Airlie has managed another open-source graphics engineering feat... Getting the Nouveau reverse-engineered kernel graphics driver and Mesa NVK Vulkan driver running on the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip with the DGX Spark system.

YSERVER 1.5 Released With Reverse PRIME Support & Other New Features

([X.Org] 9 September 06:03 AM EDT YSERVER 1.5)

Announced a few months back was YSERVER as a modern X11 server written in the Rust programming language. In getting the project off the ground quickly and given the size of X11, it was largely vibe coded with Claude Code. The project continues and is attracting contributions from more users with today marking the YSERVER 1.5 release.

AI Made A Lot Of "Hideous" Code But Found Major Bottlenecks For Faster Linux Compilation

([Linux Kernel] 8 September 08:49 PM EDT Faster Kernel Compilaton)

An ARM Linux engineer leveraged AI/LLMs to help uncover some improvements to "significant speed up" the Linux kernel build times. In the process the LLM used generated "a lot of code, much of it hideous" but in the end was used to find some very significant time savings for faster kernel builds via more task parallelization in different areas of the kernel build process.

systemd 262-rc2 Adds An AI Canary For Detecting Unreviewed AI/LLM Code Contributions

([systemd] 8 September 06:30 PM EDT systemd 262)

One week after releasing systemd 262-rc1, systemd 262-rc2 is now available with further fixes and refinements for this init system and service manager. Systemd is also the latest open-source project introducing an AI canary for aiming to detect AI/LLM-based code contributors that weren't reviewed by an actual person in advance of the pull request.

DLSS5VKLayer Wires Up NVIDIA DLSS 5 For Native Linux Games & Steam Play

([NVIDIA] 8 September 03:31 PM EDT DLSS5VKLayer)

An interesting new open-source project for those looking to make use of NVIDIA DLSS 5 on Linux is DLSS5VKLayer. The DLSS5VKLayer is a Linux Vulkan layer that works for both native Linux games as well as Steam Play (Proton) Windows games for experimental DLSS 5 support.

KDE's KWin Merges Wayland Commit-Timing Protocol Support

([KDE] 8 September 12:55 PM EDT Wayland Commit Timing)

Merged today to the latest KDE KWin compositor development code is support for Wayland's important commit-timing protocol that is useful for video playback as well as for gamers relying on Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync support.

The Linux Kernel Planning To Remove Around ~55k Lines Of Old ARM Platform Code

([Arm] 8 September 12:06 PM EDT Dropping Old ARM Code)

For the current Linux 7.3 kernel many older 32-bit ARM platforms are deprecated and in turn orphaning hundreds of drivers only relevant to those out-of-date ARM platforms. The removal of that now deprecated code is planned for the next kernel cycle or two.

DaVinci Resolve 21.1 Released - Now With AI Assistant Integration

([Multimedia] 8 September 09:58 AM EDT DaVinci Resolve 21.1)

For those using the Linux-friendly DaVinci Resolve video editing and color correction/grading and visual effects software, DaVinci Resolve 21.1 is out today as a major update to this cross-platform solution.

CHUWI UniBook With Intel Wildcat Lake For A $449 Linux-Friendly Laptop

([Computers] 8 September 10:05 AM EDT 13 Comments)

CHUWI recently launched the UniBook laptop powered by the Intel Core 3 304 "Wildcat Lake" SOC and priced at just $449 USD. Especially with today's high component pricing, a brand new sub-$500 laptop is extremely rare. Rather than using some dated SoC, it uses Wildcat Lake as Intel's new value option alternative to the Core 3 Series Ultra "Panther Lake" SoCs. This was our first time testing out Intel Wildcat Lake and that SoC plus the overall CHUWI UniBook has been working out well on Linux for those looking at a laptop in the sub-$500 space.

New Patches Provide HDMI 1.4 3D Mode Support For AMD Radeon Graphics On Linux

([Radeon] 8 September 09:11 AM EDT HDMI 1.4 3D Mode Support)

It turns out one of the feature limitations of the AMDGPU Linux graphics driver is HDMI 1.4 3D output support with frame packing, top-and-bottom, and side-by-side options for transmitting simultaneous video streams. I wasn't aware of this limitation for the lack of any 3D displays and many Linux enthusiasts/gamers as well, but if you happen to have a compatible HDMI 1.4 3D display, there are pending patches to finally make this a reality.

Linux 7.4 To Support Realtek RTL8127atf & RTL8116af Networking

([Linux Networking] 8 September 06:41 AM EDT RTL8127atf + RTL8116af)

Queued this past week into the net-next development tree of the latest networking additions for the Linux kernel is enabling support for Realtek's newer RTL8127atf and RTL8116af wired networking ASICs.