SVT-AV1 2.3 Brings More Performance Improvements: AVX-512 & LTO By Default, More Tuning

([Multimedia] 31 October 06:20 AM EDT SVT-AV1 2.3)

SVT-AV1 2.3 is now available as the newest feature release to this leading open-source AV1 encoder. With SVT-AV1 2.3 there are yet more performance improvements.

AMDVLK 2024.Q4.1 Adds A Few More Vulkan Extensions

([Radeon] 31 October 06:03 AM EDT AMDVLK 2024.Q4.1)

One month has passed since the AMDVLK 2024.Q3.3 driver release while today has brought the AMDVLK 2024.Q4.1 release with a few new Vulkan API extensions.

AMD "Cleaner Shader" Coming For GFX11.0.3 GPUs To Help Ensure User/App Isolation

([Radeon] 30 October 08:27 PM EDT AMD Cleaner Shader)

A new patch posted today for the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver is introducing a "cleaner shader" explicitly for GFX11.0.3 GPUs like the Radeon 780M integrated graphics to help ensure that there is sufficient data isolation between different workloads running on the GPUs. The motivation isn't clear if there is some GFX11.0.3 security vulnerability, some AMD Linux customer particularly concerned about security on said GPUs, or some other motivation for focusing this latest cleaner shader work on GFX11.0.3 hardware.

Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" Development Opens - Defaulting To -O3 Optimizations

([Ubuntu] 30 October 04:02 PM EDT Ubuntu 25.04)

Canonical has announced the formal state of the Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" development. Among other early changes are now defaulting to -O3 compiler optimizations rather than the default -O2 optimization level when building Debian packages.

Benchmarks Of Google's Axion Arm-based CPU: Competitive Performance & Compelling Value

([Processors] 30 October 12:00 PM EDT 7 Comments)

Earlier this year Google announced Axion as their first Arm-based CPU for the Google Cloud. Today already they are taking Axion to general availability with the new C4A instances. These new C4A instances are advertised as offering up to 50% better performance and up to 60% better energy efficiency than their current generation x86 instance types. In this article are some of the first public independent performance benchmarks of the Google Axion CPU along with comparing to existing GCE Arm and x86_64 instance types.

OpenPaX Announced As "Open-Source Alternative To GrSecurity" With Free Kernel Patch

([Linux Security] 30 October 11:00 AM EDT OpenPaX)

Enterprise security firm Edera today is announcing OpenPaX that they promoted in their advance press notice as a "new open-source alternative to GrSecurity." GrSecurity being the firm focused on providing out-of-tree Linux kernel patches focused in the name of security enhancements. With OpenPaX they are open-source and publicly available kernel patch for mitigating common memory safety errors and other system hardening.

DRM Panic "Screen of Death" Support Being Extended To All Recent AMD GPUs

([Radeon] 30 October 06:23 AM EDT DRM_Panic)

DRM_Panic is the functionality first added in Linux 6.10 for "Blue Screen of Death" type functionality when a kernel panic occurs or similar for displaying a nice graphical error message. Since the initial introduction it's been extended to handle QR code error messages, monochrome logos, and other customization options. The AMDGPU driver has new patches available for expanding the DRM_Panic support to all DCE/DCN-based graphics cards.

VirtIO-GPU Vulkan Support Approaching Upstream QEMU

([Virtualization] 30 October 06:01 AM EDT VirtIO-GPU Vulkan For QEMU)

Support for making use of Vulkan with VirtIO-GPU while using QEMU could very soon be upstream.

RadeonSI Lands Async Video Operations For Improving FFmpeg Performance

([Mesa] 30 October 06:09 AM EDT AMD Async Video)

The RadeonSI Gallium3D driver used by all modern AMD Radeon graphics hardware has landed support in Mesa 24.3 for async VCE/UVD video operations to enhance the performance with the widely-used FFmpeg multimedia library.

Shotcut 24.10 Open-Source Video Editor Adds Initial AI Feature

([Free Software] 30 October 05:38 AM EDT Shotcut 24.10)

Shotcut 24.10 is now available as the latest feature release to this open-source, cross-platform video editor built atop the MLT framework, Qt6, FFmpeg, SDL, and other software components.

Wasmer 5.0 WebAssembly Runtime Released With V8, WAMR & WASMI Backends

([Programming] 30 October 05:48 AM EDT Wasmer 5.0)

Wasmer 5.0 is now available as the latest major update to this WebAssembly (WASM) runtime focused on being able to allow developers to write "universal apps" that will run anywhere thanks to the power and versatility of WebAssembly.

Intel Posts Updated Raptor Lake Microcode For Linux: Fixes Voltage Issue & Other Bugs

([Intel] 29 October 08:36 PM EDT Raptor Lake Microcode)

Intel off their typical second Tuesday of the month patch regiment today posted new CPU microcode just for 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" and 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors for Linux systems. Notable with the updated Raptor Lake CPU microcode is the internal voltage handling fix for that well known problem plaguing many Raptor Lake owners plus two other fixes.

Coreboot Issues Rebuttal To Recent Laptop Vendor Controversy

([Coreboot] 29 October 02:30 PM EDT Disputing MALIBAL Claims)

Following the rather bizarre blog post two weeks ago of laptop vendor MALIBAL suggesting not supporting Coreboot due to their frustrating experiences dealing with Coreboot consulting firms, the Coreboot project itself has now issued a response.

Linux Use On Microsoft Azure Crosses 60%, AlmaLinux Now An Endorsed Distro

([Microsoft] 29 October 02:04 PM EDT Microsoft Azure + Linux)

For years there have been statements about how over half of the VMs running within the Microsoft Azure public cloud are Linux-based... In a new blog post today is the first time I am seeing Microsoft cite now "over 60%" Linux marketshare on Microsoft's cloud.

Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Affecting X.Org Server For 18 Years

([X.Org] 29 October 01:47 PM EDT CVE-2024-9632)

CVE-2024-9632 was made public today as the latest security vulnerability affecting the X.Org Server. The CVE-2024-9632 security issue has been present in the codebase now for 18 years and can lead to local privilege escalation.

Crucial Pro DDR5-6400 32GB Kit Performance With Intel Arrow Lake

([Memory] 29 October 10:42 AM EDT 9 Comments)

Earlier this year Micron announced the Crucial Pro DDR5-6000 memory for AMD and Intel desktops and catering to gamers. With the newest AMD Ryzen 9000 series (Zen 5) and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (Arrow Lake) processors out there and enjoying even faster memory, today Micron announced the Crucial Pro DDR5-6400 memory kits for greater performance. In advance of today's launch I have been testing the Crucial Pro DDR5-6400 32GB Kit (16GBx2) UDIMM Kit (CP2K16G64C38U5B) and have some initial benchmarks to share from the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Arrow Lake desktop.