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Tag: Phoronix

  • Linux Kernel 6.2 Is Out and Brings Apple M1 Support

    Linux Kernel 6.2 Is Out and Brings Apple M1 Support

    Linux kernel 6.2 has been released, bringing support for the M1 processor, Apple’s Custom Silicon that powers its Mac computers.

    The Asahi Linux Project has been working to reverse engineer drivers for the M1 in an effort to bring native Linux support to Apple’s chip. The project has been making major progress and, thanks to their work, mainline support for the M1 is now in the kernel.

    Read More: Asahi Linux Shows the M1’s Greatest Limitation May Be macOS

    Phoronix details the extent of the support:

    There is now mainline support for the Apple M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra SoCs. There was already supported carried by Asahi Linux’s kernel build while more of that work has been upstreamed for Linux 6.2. There is additional driver work for these newer Apple Silicon SoCs still to be upstreamed. For now the best hardware support for Apple M1/M2 devices on Linux is with using the Asahi Linux code.

    Unlike Windows, where drivers must often be installed manually, most Linux users simply rely on the kernel — the core component of the OS — to provide the drivers for their hardware. Having mainline support for the M1 in the kernel is a major step forward, giving Linux users the ability to run some of the most powerful and efficient chips currently on the market.

  • Linux 5.19.12 Kernel May Cause Damage to Some Displays

    Linux 5.19.12 Kernel May Cause Damage to Some Displays

    Linux users are being advised to skip kernel 5.19.12 due to a major bug impacting Intel machines.

    The Linux 5.19.12 kernel appears to have a bug in it that can cause the LCD screens on Intel laptops to blink and flash, according to Phoronix. The issue is more than cosmetic, however, and can actually cause damage to the display as a result of “bogus panel power sequencing delays.”

    Intel Linux kernel engineer Ville Syrjäl noted the issue in the kernel mailing list:

    After looking at some logs we do end up with potentially bogus panel power sequencing delays, which may harm the LCD panel.

    Greg, I recommend immediate revert of this stuff, and new stable release ASAP. Plus a recommendation that no one using laptops with Intel GPUs run 5.19.12.

    According to Phoronix, Greg Kroah-Hartman has already released 5.19.13, which fixes the issue. He did note, however, that users who were not impacted do not need to upgrade.

  • Debian May Change How It Handles Non-Free Firmware

    Debian May Change How It Handles Non-Free Firmware

    Debian is currently investigating the possibility of changing how it handles non-free firmware, moving the discussion to a general resolution process.

    Debian is one of the oldest Linux distributions (distros) and serves as the basis of many others, including Canonical’s Ubuntu. Unlike Ubuntu, and the countless distros based on it, Debian does not currently include non-free software. According to Phoronix, that could be about to change.

    The discussion regarding whether or not to include non-free firmware has moved to a general resolution phase. There are three options being considered:

    • Include non-free firmware as part of the official installation, loading it by default when needed while still giving users the option to use only free firmware.
    • Include non-free firmware options, but not make them the default.
    • Separate the two different options into individual downloads — one installation download with non-free firmware and one without.

    If Debian does move forward with one of the proposed options, it could significantly lower the barrier to entry for new users. Debian is often touted as one of the most stable and reliable Linux distros, but many new users are intimidated by the prospect of manually installing non-free firmware their computers may need to run efficiently. Non-free firmware can include improved security for some machines as well.

  • Rust Could Be Included in the Linux Kernel in 5.20

    Rust Could Be Included in the Linux Kernel in 5.20

    Linux creator Linus Torvalds has said Rust could be included in the Linux kernel as soon as 5.20.

    Rust is a popular programming language created by Graydon Hoare while he worked at Mozilla, with the organization sponsoring the effort. According to Phoronix, Torvalds has said Rust could be merged into the Linux kernel in 5.2.0.

    The Linux kernel is currently written largely in the C programming language. Torvalds and other contributors played around with adding support for C++ some years ago before abandoning the effort.

    See also: Timeshift Backup Tool Finds New Home at Linux Mint

    Adding support for Rust would represent one of the biggest changes to the kernel in its history and would open the door for a number of significant improvements. Specifically, Rust was designed with safety and security in mind from the beginning. Rust has improved tools for memory management, built-in concurrency, and provides ownership and security paradigms. Its performance and low overhead also give it an advantage over many other languages.

    These various advantages have all helped add impetus to Rust becoming the second language for developing the Linux kernel, with even Google throwing its weight behind it.

    “We feel that Rust is now ready to join C as a practical language for implementing the kernel,” the company writes in its Security Blog. “It can help us reduce the number of potential bugs and security vulnerabilities in privileged code while playing nicely with the core kernel and preserving its performance characteristics.”

    With Rust support in the kernel now in sight, Linux users should start seeing the benefits sooner rather than later.

  • Nvidia Is Finally Open-Sourcing Its Linux GPU Kernel Drivers

    Nvidia Is Finally Open-Sourcing Its Linux GPU Kernel Drivers

    Nvidia is — at long last — open-sourcing its GPU kernel drivers for Linux, potentially ending a major pain point for users.

    Hardware support for Linux has come miles in recent years, but Nvidia drivers have continued to be a sore point for many users. Unlike AMD, Nvidia steadfastly refused to open-source its drivers. Users with Nvidia cards have had to use Nvidia’s proprietary drivers. Depending on the specific Linux distribution (distro), accessing Nvidia’s drivers could range from easy to painfully difficult.

    According to Phoronix, Nvidia has finally agreed to open-source its drivers. This means that even the most free and open source (FOSS) focused distro will now be able to include the drivers in their standard repositories (repos). Canonical / Ubuntu, Red Hat, and SUSE are already preparing to include the drivers. While Ubuntu already made it easy to install non-FOSS drivers and software, Red Hat and SUSE required users to enable specific, non-official repos to access the drivers.

    Nvidia’s previous stance not only drew constant criticism from the open source community, but it also drew the wrath of hackers. The Lapsus$ ransomware group stole Nvidia code, demanding the company open-source its drivers if it wanted to avoid having its source code leaked to the world. While company CEO Jensen Huang called the breach a “wake-up call,” few suspected the company would go this far.

    Either way, Nvidia’s decision is a major win for Linux users and FOSS advocates alike.

  • Asahi Linux Shows the M1’s Greatest Limitation May Be macOS

    Asahi Linux Shows the M1’s Greatest Limitation May Be macOS

    An alpha of Asahi Linux has been released for Apple’s M1, and the reviews are showing the potential it has, and the problems Apple has with macOS.

    The Asahi Linux Project has been working to port Linux to the M1 chip. Asahi is based off of the Arm version of Arch Linux. The team has been working without any assistance from Apple, adding to both the challenge and reward of releasing a working Alpha.

    Most impressive of all, however, is that Asahi is already proving to be much faster than macOS on the same hardware, in some cases as much as twice as fast, according to Lifewire.

    “My initial impression of Asahi Linux with its Arch Linux Arm desktop version was that it works better than anticipated, at least on a Mac mini,” Michael Larabel, founder of computer hardware website, Phoronix, told Lifewire. “There [are] still areas where the performance is lacking, but [it’s] already much faster than, say, a Raspberry Pi 4 or other low-end Arm single-board computers running Linux.”

    Other users have experienced similarly impressive performance.

    Hugo on Asahi Linux composites all 275 pages of my website in less than half of the time (210ms) it takes the same build of Hugo within macOS on the same machine (557ms)

    Jason W. Eckert (@the_unix_guru), March 20, 2022

    In spite of the impressive performance, Asahi still has some major limitations. Unlike traditional Linux installers, Asahi’s installer must be run from macOS. There is also no GPU acceleration, although the M1’s raw performance makes up for it in everyday tasks.

    Nonetheless, Asahi is clearly showing its potential, while raising some serious questions about why macOS is so much slower on hardware its ideally optimized for.

  • Linux Kernel Gaining Support For Hybrid Processors

    Linux Kernel Gaining Support For Hybrid Processors

    Linux will soon be able to take better advantage of Intel’s newest hybrid processors, adding support for Intel’s Hardware Feedback Interface (HFI).

    Beginning with the Alder Lake line of chips, Intel is adopting a hybrid design, feature multiple high-performance and high-efficiency cores. While this type of arrangement is popular in Arm designs, such as those Apple uses throughout its product line, Alder Lake represents the first such design within the x86 world that Intel and AMD dominate.

    According to Phoronix, Linux kernel 5.18 will include support for HFI, allowing the operating system (OS) to better utilize the different types of cores for the task at hand. The code has already been integrated into linux-pm’s linux-next branch, with 5.18 stable expected in late May.

    Windows 11 already has support for HFI, so the Linux kernel update will bring the same performance gains to the open source OS.

  • Linux Is Getting Valve’s Steam Platform Soon

    It’s a fun little joke to say that Mac doesn’t get any games, but we know that to be totally untrue. More and more developers are making sure their games can run on OS X ever since Apple switched to Intel processors. If anything, poor Linux users are the ones who never get any good games. Besides the few games built for Linux with the Humble Bundle, etc; there’s not much of an official distribution platform for games on Linux.

    That’s where our story begins today. Michael Larabel, founder of Phoronix, claimed to have been invited out to Valve’s headquarters in Washington. The reason? To start development of Steam and the Source Engine for Linux. When the story broke on Larabel’s Twitter account last night, he promised pictures and an article detailing the news.

    He didn’t get the story out last night as promised, but said it would come out sometime today. Turns out that he did keep his promise today with the story going up this morning. It details Larabel’s trip and discussions with Valve’s Gabe Newell. It’s even said that Newell is personally involved with the Linux development now which is why it’s only now that the news is coming into the spotlight.

    What should be noted at this point and is to be the most exciting part of this news is that Valve isn’t taking any shortcuts with the port. Previous attempts to bring games to Linux end up using the Wine library to port Windows games to Linux. Valve is building new code from the ground up for Steam and Source.

    Bringing Source to Linux is by far the most exciting part of the news. It could open up an entirely new wave of Linux game development. It’s the kind of thing that Linux fans could only dream of up until now and it seems to be really happening.

    The burning question now is when will Valve release the Linux client? Larabel says that we should expect it within the next few months, but most likely in a beta form. He also makes mention of Valve time so don’t get too frustrated if it takes longer than a few months to get off the ground.

    Still, this is exciting news and only shows that Valve is one of the ultimate good guys in game development. Everybody has seemingly forgotten the Linux platform so it’s good to see Valve taking up the torch.

    [h/t: The Verge]

    [Lead image: L4D2 running natively on Linux courtesy of Phoronix]