CachyOS Rolls Out A Super-Charged Linux 7.0 Kernel

([Arch Linux] 19 April 06:44 AM EDT CachyOS + Linux 7.0)

The popular Arch Linux based CachyOS has now rolled out the Linux 7.0 kernel to its users. But beyond re-basing against the latest upstream kernel version it is also carrying some extra patches.

Intel QAT Zstd, QAT Gen6 Improvements Merged For Linux 7.1

([Linux Kernel] 19 April 06:30 AM EDT Linux 7.1 Crypto)

In addition to the notable libcrypto optimizations and improvements merged during this first week of the Linux 7.1 merge window, the main cryptography subsystem pull was also merged. Notable here are the Intel QuickAssist (QAT) improvements.

Linux 7.1 Sees RAID Fixes, IO_uring Enhancements

([Linux Storage] 18 April 08:25 PM EDT Linux 7.1 Block)

The block subsystem and IO_uring changes were merged this week for Linux 7.1 in continuing to enhance Linux storage capabilities.

GhostBSD 26.1 Now Based On FreeBSD 15.0, Switches to XLibre X Server

([BSD] 18 April 03:15 PM EDT GhostBSD 26.1)

GhostBSD 26.1-R15.0p2 released today as a big upgrade for this desktop-focused, BSD operating system derived from FreeBSD.

Linux 7.1 Adds New AMD SMCA Bank Types, Presumably For Upcoming EPYC Venice

([AMD] 18 April 02:41 PM EDT New AMD SMCA Bank Types)

The AMD Machine Check Exception "mce_amd" driver as part of the Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) subsystem is introducing support for new SMCA bank types on AMD platforms. Given the timing these new bank types are presumably for AMD's upcoming Zen 6 / EPYC Venice hardware.

WireGuard For Windows Reaches v1.0

([Microsoft] 18 April 01:40 PM EDT WireGuard)

For those making use of the WireGuard open-source, secure VPN tunnel software, WireGuard For Windows 1.0 is finally available.

Linux 7.1 Scheduler Changes May Benefit Some Workloads

([Linux Kernel] 18 April 07:06 AM EDT Linux 7.1 Scheduler)

The scheduler changes for Linux 7.1 are now in place and may bring performance benefits for at least some systems and workloads.

GNOME's Maps, Graphs, RustConn & Other App Improvements

([GNOME] 18 April 06:45 AM EDT GNOME Apps)

For pairing nicely with the GNOME 50 desktop release last month, a number of GNOME-associated apps have been seeing new features and refinements.

Linux 7.1 Lands High Resolution Timer "HRTIMER" Overhaul

([Linux Kernel] 18 April 06:36 AM EDT HRTIMER Rework)

Merged this week for Linux 7.1 was a rework of the high resolution timer "HRTIMER" subsystem for reducing the overhead of frequently-armed timers, such as the HRTICK scheduler timer. The HRTICK scheduler timer is useful for enhancing system responsiveness and fairness.

KDE Plasma 6.7 Ready With Wayland Session Management, Other New Improvements

([KDE] 18 April 06:05 AM EDT KDE Plasma 6.7)

KDE Plasma 6.7 enjoyed a lot of recent feature development work thanks to a developer sprint in Graz, Austria. Also because of that developer sprint, This Week In Plasma wasn't published last week and so in turn a new issue is now available to highlight the changes over the past two weeks.

The "NTFS Resurrection" Has Occurred For Linux 7.1

([Linux Storage] 17 April 08:57 PM EDT New NTFS Driver)

As a very exciting follow-up to the recent article around the new NTFS driver being submitted for Linux 7.1 to address the shortcomings of the current Paragon NTFS3 driver and the prior read-only NTFS kernel driver, that work has been merged!

AMD FP-DSS Security Bug For Zen 1 CPUs Made Public, Linux Kernel Patched

([AMD] 17 April 08:35 PM EDT AMD FPDSS)

Made public today was the Floating Point Divider State Sampling bug (stylized as FP-DSS or FPDSS) affecting original AMD Zen 1 (and Zen 1+) processors. The Linux kernel is already to go with a security fix for those still relying on the very first Ryzen or EPYC processors.

Wine 11.7 Brings VBScript Fixes, DirectSound 7.1 Channel Support

([WINE] 17 April 08:24 PM EDT Wine 11.7)

For those using upstream Wine for running your Windows games/apps on Linux rather than the likes of the Proton 11.0 beta, out today is Wine 11.7 as the newest bi-weekly development release.

Intel Xe2 Lunar Lake Linux Graphics Performance Up ~17% Over Past Year

([Display Drivers] 17 April 10:52 AM EDT 5 Comments)

Given the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release being imminent and also realizing it's been nearly one year to the day since reviewing the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition laptop under Linux, I ran some fresh benchmarks for seeing how the integrated Xe2 graphics have evolved on Linux over the past year.

Valve Developer Lands RADV/ACO Changes For AMD's GFX11.7 / RDNA 4m

([Radeon] 17 April 09:48 AM EDT AMD RDNA 4m)

The open-source Linux graphics driver work continues around AMD's GFX11.7 GPU target for some yet-to-be-launched APUs/SoCs and to be branded as "RDNA 4m".

Glibc Lands A Big Optimization For LoongArch CPUs

([Hardware] 17 April 08:47 AM EDT Faster LoongArch)

Loongson's LoongArch processors are running decent in our recent Loongson 3B6000 benchmarks but even better performance is on the way with the next GNU C Library "glibc" release.

Linux 7.1 Crypto Code Rework Enables More Optimizations By Default

([Linux Kernel] 17 April 08:27 AM EDT More Performance)

Linux libcrypto cryptography subsystem changes for the v7.1 kernel are enabling more optimizations by default and in turn helping to achieve better crypto/hashing performance on this next kernel version.

Fedora 44 Will Not Be Released Next Week

([Fedora] 17 April 08:17 AM EDT No-Go)

Fedora 44 final had been aiming for an early release target of 21 April, but due to outstanding blocker bugs, it's now revised to target a release on 28 April.

GCC Compiler Adds Arm AGI CPU Target

([Arm] 17 April 06:19 AM EDT -mcpu=armagicpu)

The GCC open-source compiler has landed initial targeting support for Arm's newly-announced AGI CPU.

Linux 7.1 x86/x86_64 Aligns With Other Architectures Now For Supporting Custom Restart Handlers

([Hardware] 17 April 06:07 AM EDT Custom Restart Handlers)

With the vast majority of x86/x86_64 systems supporting restarting the system using ACPi, BIOS, or even the KBD keyboard controller, with Linux 7.1 is now support in place for using custom restart handlers registered by drivers, such as in place for other CPU architectures.