Linux Developers Consider Ending 32-bit KVM Host Virtualization Support`

([Virtualization] 12 December 08:29 AM EST 32-bit KVM Hosts?)

Earlier this month as part of patches for cleaning up x86 32-bit kernel code for x86_64 systems, there was a patch to drop support for 32-bit x86 KVM host support. That patch has now been split off into its own patch series with also now raising the prospects of ending 32-bit KVM host support across all CPU architectures rather than being just an x86-only change.

Intel Begins Readying Graphics Driver Changes For The Linux 6.14 Kernel

([Intel] 12 December 07:00 AM EST Intel i915 + Xe For Linux 6.14)

While the Linux 6.13 merge window only recently ended and that kernel won't be out until around the end of January followed by the start of the Linux 6.14 merge window, Intel software engineers on Wednesday sent out their first two pull requests to DRM-Next of new kernel graphics driver features they are readying for this next version of the Linux kernel.

AMD GFX 11.5.3 Graphics Support Added To Mesa 25.0

([Radeon] 12 December 06:38 AM EST GFX11.5.3)

AMD has added support for another RDNA 3.5 refresh variant to the Mesa graphics driver code for Linux systems.

PanVK Advertises "Broken" Vulkan 1.1 Support With Mesa 25.0-devel

([Mesa] 12 December 05:21 AM EST PanVK + Vulkan 1.1)

The PanVK open-source Vulkan API driver for Arm Mali graphics hardware within Mesa is now advertising Vulkan 1.1 support rather than Vulkan 1.0. But it's known to be "broken" so don't be too excited about it yet.

KDE Gear 24.12 Released With Many Improvements To KDE Apps

([KDE] 12 December 06:13 AM EST KDE Gear 24.12)

Right ahead of the holidays, KDE Gear 24.12 is out to deliver four months worth of refinements to the KDE desktop applications.

Linux Mint 22.1 Beta Released With Cinnamon 6.4 Desktop, Updated Apt Code

([Operating Systems] 12 December 05:49 AM EST Linux Mint 22.1)

The beta release of Linux Mint 22.1 "Xia" is now available for testing of this desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS releases and known for its Cinnamon desktop environment.

Linux Fixes Regression That Broke File Names With ❤️ & Other Special Characters

([Linux Storage] 11 December 09:11 PM EST Case Folding Gone Wrong)

Linus Torvalds took to reverting some code tonight within the mainline Linux kernel that inadvertently had broken support having filenames with ❤️ and other special Unicode characters in filenames when on file-systems with case-folding (optional case insensitive file/folder name) support.

OpenZFS 2.2.7 Released With Linux 6.12 Support, Many Fixes

([Linux Storage] 11 December 08:18 PM EST OpenZFS 2.2.7)

While we are awaiting the release of OpenZFS 2.3 that has been seeing release candidates since early October, OpenZFS 2.2.7 is out today as the newest stable release of this ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems.

Proton 9.0-4 Released To Improve More Windows Games On Linux

([Valve] 11 December 04:03 PM EST Proton 9.0-4)

Valve and CodeWeavers today released Proton 9.0-4 as the newest version of their Wine downstream that powers Steam Play for running an incredible number of modern Windows games on Linux.

Linux 6.13 Delivering Some Incremental Gains With AMD EPYC 9575F Performance

([Software] 11 December 11:30 AM EST 3 Comments)

With the in-development Linux 6.13 kernel one of the biggest features for those using new AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" processors is using the AMD P-State driver by default for servers/motherboards with ACPI CPPC support enabled. But even for platforms without that where ACPI CPUFreq remains the default, the Linux 6.13 kernel is still showing some nice incremental uplift at large on these new AMD server processors. Here are some Linux 6.11 vs. 6.12 vs. 6.13 Git kernel benchmarks using an AMD EPYC 9575F 64-core server.

SiFive HiFive Premier P550 RISC-V Price Lowered, Ubuntu 24.04 Support Ready

([RISC-V] 11 December 11:10 AM EST HiFive Premier P550)

Going back to April 2024, SiFive announced the HiFive Premier P550 as an interesting RISC-V developer board to succeed their HiFive Unleashed that was a nice little RISC-V board. There were delays in shipping the HiFive Premier P550 but they have been making progress and are now ready to ship Ubuntu 24.04 LTS pre-installed on this RISC-V board. They have also lowered the pricing on these RISC-V boards.

OpenMandriva ROME 24.12 Released With KDE Plasma 6 Desktop By Default

([Operating Systems] 11 December 10:16 AM EST OpenMandriva ROME 24.12)

For fans of OpenMandriva or just wanting to reminisce over the former Mandrake Linux days, OpenMandriva ROME 24.12 is out today as the newest update to this Linux distribution.

AlmaLinux 10 Beta Released For Testing

([Operating Systems] 11 December 08:36 AM EST AlmaLinux 10)

It was just a little more than one month ago that AlmaLinux Kitten 10 became available for testing for this new OS release derived from the CentOS Stream 10 sources that is upstream to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. Today the AlmaLinux crew announced the first beta release of AlmaLinux 10.

Miracle-WM 0.4 Released With i3 IPC Support

([Wayland] 11 December 07:24 AM EST Miracle-WM 0.4)

Miracle-WM is the Mir-based Wayland tiling window manager that is inspired in part by the likes of i3 and Sway. Miracle-WM also has a goal to be a flagship example of a Mir-based full featured window manager with this project being led by a Canonical engineer. Out today is Miracle-WM 0.4 to deliver the latest features.

How AMD Is Taking Standard C/C++ Code To Run Directly On GPUs

([LLVM] 11 December 08:00 AM EST LLVM Cross-Compiling)

Back at the 2024 LLVM Developers' Meeting was an interesting presentation by AMD engineer Joseph Huber for how they have been exploring running common, standard C/C++ code directly on GPUs without having to be adapted for any GPU language / programming dialects or other adaptations.

QEMU 9.2 Released With VirtIO GPU Vulkan Support, AVX10 & Experimental Rust Support

([Virtualization] 11 December 06:23 AM EST QEMU 9.2)

QEMU 9.2 is out today for this processor emulator that plays an important role within the open-source Linux virtualization stack.

Haiku OS Developers Fixed Plenty Of Bugs In November

([Operating Systems] 11 December 06:12 AM EST November 2024 Status Update)

The BeOS-inspired Haiku open-source operating system project is out with a new monthly status update to detail their latest efforts.

Intel Compute Runtime 24.45 vs. AMD ROCm 6.3 vs. NVIDIA R565 Linux GPU Compute Benchmarks

([Display Drivers] 10 December 08:20 PM EST 26 Comments)

Complementing yesterday's fresh Linux gaming benchmarks of mid-range Intel Arc Graphics "Alchemist" vs. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 vs. AMD Radeon RX 7000 series cards ahead of the upcoming Battlemage availability, today's article is providing a fresh look at the latest Intel Compute Runtime performance for Level Zero / OpenCL on current-gen Intel discrete graphics compared to mid-range AMD Radeon GPUs on ROCm 6.3 and similar NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Ada graphics cards on the R565 driver.

systemd 257 Debuts With systemd-keyutil & systemd-sbsign Tools, Other Improvements

([systemd] 10 December 02:51 PM EST systemd 257)

Coincidentally coming one day after the GNU Shepherd 1.0 service manager release, the systemd 257 release is now shipping as the newest feature release for this widely-used service manager / init system to Linux systems. Systemd 257 brings a number of new features and improvements for powering late 2024 and early 2025 Linux distributions.

Ptyxis Becomes Ubuntu's Recommended Replacement To GNOME Terminal

([Ubuntu] 10 December 01:23 PM EST Ubuntu + Ptyxis)

While the Ubuntu desktop has been offered the newer GNOME Console as an alternative to GNOME Terminal, there's been a recent fondness around Ptyxis and apparently is becoming the recommended replacement to GNOME Terminal for the Ubuntu camp.