Mold 2.40.1 Delivers More Performance - Including A New Algorithm Generated By ChatGPT

([Programming] 9 June 06:46 AM EDT Mold 2.40.1)

While a point release, Mold 2.40.1 is another notable step forward for this high-speed linker alternative to GNU LD/Gold and LLVM LLD. Mold 2.40.1 brings yet more performance improvements.

NVIDIA VA-API Driver 0.0.14 Improves Compatibility & Fixes Various Issues

([NVIDIA] 9 June 06:00 AM EDT NVIDIA-VAAPI-Driver)

The open-source, unofficial VA-API driver implementation for NVIDIA GPUs is out with a new release. The NVIDIA-VAAPI-Driver project continues to build VA-API support atop NVIDIA's NVDEC interface to allow the NVIDIA proprietary driver stack to work with VA-API-only applications like the Mozilla Firefox web browser on Linux.

Linux's Turbostat Updated For Intel Diamond Rapids & Bartlett Lake

([Linux Kernel] 9 June 03:00 AM EDT Turbostat)

The turbostat utility that lives within the Linux kernel source tree for reporting processor frequency and idle statistics along with other CPU information saw some last minute updates during the Linux 6.16 merge window.

Sway 1.11 Released With New Wayland Protocols & More

([Wayland] 9 June 12:00 AM EDT Sway 1.11)

Simon Ser announced the release of Sway 1.11 on Sunday as the newest feature update to this popular i3-inspired Wayland compositor from which the wlroots library was originally born.

Linux 6.16-rc1 Released: New AMD & Intel Drivers, More Performance & Blackwell Support

([Linux Kernel] 8 June 05:03 PM EDT Linux 6.16-rc1)

Linux 6.16-rc1 was just released by Linus Torvalds. This first release candidate of Linux 6.16 marks the close of the two-week merge window where many new features and other changes were introduced.

AMD Announces New Ryzen AI Z2 SoCs For Gaming Handhelds

([AMD] 8 June 02:30 PM EDT AMD Ryzen AI Z2)

AMD in cooperation with ASUS and Microsoft used the Xbox Games Showcase for announcing their new Ryzen AI Z2 series processors for gaming handhelds. The new Ryzen AI Z2 series is launching with the new ASUS ROG Xbox Ally / ROG Xbox Ally X handhelds running Microsoft Windows.

Linux GPIB Drivers Maturing Into Good Shape 50+ Years After The Bus Was Introduced

([Linux Kernel] 8 June 08:42 AM EDT Linux GPIB)

Notable with the staging area updates for the in-development Linux 6.16 kernel is word that the GPIB driver code may be ready to leave the staging area in the next kernel cycle (Linux v6.17) in then being promoted to the main driver area in signifying the maturity of the code and being cleaned up to meet kernel coding standards. The GPIB drivers are for the General Purpose Interface Bus that was introduced back in 1972.

Last Call On The Phoronix 21st Birthday Premium Special

([Phoronix] 8 June 06:30 AM EDT 21st Birthday)

This week in marking Phoronix.com turning 21 years old there was a Phoronix Premium special for those wanting to enjoy the site ad-free, multi-page articles on a single page, and other benefits. That special deal is ending at end of day Monday (9 June) as your last chance to hop on this special.

GNOME 49 Alpha 0 Releases Begin As GNOME 49 Preps For X11 Disabled-By-Default

([GNOME] 8 June 06:41 AM EDT GNOME 49 Alpha 0)

The GNOME 49 Alpha release isn't expected until the end of June but for facilitating additional testing and a number of prominent changes this cycle, a number of GNOME packages have begun releasing "GNOME 49 Alpha 0" tags as part of plans to issue multiple alpha releases this cycle. Notable for GNOME 49 are plans moving forward for disabling X11 session support by default with that code then likely to be removed entirely with GNOME 50 for a Wayland-only desktop.

LoongArch Enables Multi-Core Scheduler Support In Linux 6.16

([Hardware] 8 June 06:18 AM EDT LoongArch)

All of the LoongArch CPU architecture changes have been merged for the Linux 6.16 kernel with the merge window set to wrap up later today.

Linux Mint Continues Working On Its libAdwaita Fork, Fingerprint Authentication

([Operating Systems] 8 June 06:06 AM EDT Linux Mint)

The Linux Mint project published its newest monthly status report to outline various interesting development activities around this Linux desktop distribution project building off Ubuntu and Debian bases.

Linux 6.16 Introduces New Helper For Restricting Symbols To Select Kernel Modules

([Linux Kernel] 7 June 08:39 PM EDT EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES)

All of the kernel build system "Kbuild" updates were merged today for the nearly-over Linux 6.16 merge window that is expected to conclude tomorrow with the Linux 6.16-rc1 release. Notable with the Kbuild pull is the introduction of the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES helper.

NumPy 2.3 Introduces OpenMP Parallelization Support

([Programming] 7 June 05:00 PM EDT NumPy 2.3)

NumPy 2.3 is out today as the latest release of this widely-used library for scientific computing. Notable with NumPy 2.3 is finally adding some parallelization support via OpenMP.

Linux 6.16 Preps For RISC-V's SBI Firmware Features Extension

([RISC-V] 7 June 03:04 PM EDT Linux 6.16 RISC-V)

The RISC-V architecture feature updates were merged on Friday for the Linux 6.16 merge window that is set to end on Sunday with the Linux 6.16-rc1 release.

Mesa 25.1.3 Released As Emergency Update For Radeon RX 9000 Series Linux Users

([Mesa] 7 June 11:03 AM EDT Mesa 25.1.3)

It was just earlier this week that Mesa 25.1.2 arrived as the newest bi-weekly bug-fix release for these open-source OpenGL and Vulkan drivers. Coming out today is an emergency bug-fix release to fix a regression affecting AMD Radeon RX 9000 series RDNA4 graphics card owners.

Vulkan 1.4.317 Introduces VP9 Video Decode, ARM Tensors & 8-bit Floating Point

([Vulkan] 7 June 09:00 AM EDT Vulkan 1.4.317)

Vulkan 1.4.317 was made public on Friday with a number of exciting new extensions, including VP9 video decoding for Vulkan Video, 8-bit floating-point data type support, and other additions.

GNOME's Papers App Lands Better Annotations Experience

([GNOME] 7 June 08:44 AM EDT GNOME Papers)

For those making use of GNOME Papers as the increasingly popular document viewer app for the GNOME desktop, a major rework was merged to enhance the annotations experience.

Hierarchical Constant Bandwidth Server "HCBS" Posted In Aiming To Replace RT_GROUP_SCHED

([Linux Kernel] 7 June 05:50 AM EDT HCBS)

Posted as a request for comments this week were the initial Linux kernel patches for the Hierarchical Constant Bandwidth Server (HCBS).

Intel's Clear Linux Rolls Out Software Packaging Bundle Improvements

([Clear Linux] 7 June 06:47 AM EDT swupd bundle-add)

Intel's Clear Linux distribution has made some packaging improvements to help better suit the needs of its users.

Linux 6.16 Lands Support For EcoNet MIPS Platforms

([Hardware] 7 June 06:30 AM EDT Linux 6.16 MIPS)

While there isn't much new MIPS activity taking place due to other CPU architectures like RISC-V and LoongArch taking the interest away, the MIPS code within the Linux kernel does continue seeing enhancements as well as upstreaming of hardware that has long been relegated to downstream kernels.