Linux Kernel News Archives


3,542 Linux Kernel open-source and Linux related news articles on Phoronix since 2006.

Up To 162% Faster AES-GCM Encryption/Decryption For Intel & AMD CPUs On Linux
Up To 162% Faster AES-GCM Encryption/Decryption For Intel & AMD CPUs On Linux

With the in-development Linux 6.10 kernel Eric Biggers of Google landed new AES-XTS implementations for much faster performance for Intel/AMD processors via new AES-NI + AVX, VAES + AVX2, VAES + AVX10/256, and VAES + AVX10/512 code paths. Biggers has since begun tackling even better AES-GCM encryption/decryption performance by leveraging a new code path to utilize AVX-512/AVX10 and/or VAES.

3 June 2024 - AES-GCM With AVX-512/AVX10 + VAES - 16 Comments
Linux 6.11 To Bring Nouveau NVreg_RegistryDwords Support, Intel NPU Enhancements
Linux 6.11 To Bring Nouveau NVreg_RegistryDwords Support, Intel NPU Enhancements

Now past the Linux 6.10 merge window, this week brought an initial batch of drm-misc-next changes submitted to the Direct Rendering Manager subsystem's DRM-Next for queuing until the Linux 6.11 merge window opens up in July. The changes this week include a notable addition for the open-source NVIDIA (Nouveau) driver and some improvements for the Intel iVPU driver for their Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

2 June 2024 - drm-misc-next - 1 Comment
Linux 6.10 Supports NUMA Balancing For Multi-Size THPs
Linux 6.10 Supports NUMA Balancing For Multi-Size THPs

With the memory management "MM" updates merged for the Linux 6.10 there is now NUMA balancing support for multi-size transparent hugepages (THPs). This is yielding some nice performance results and there is also other work in this new kernel around multi-size THPs.

26 May 2024 - Transparent Hugepages - Add A Comment
Newer AMD Radeon Graphics Cards Now Work On RISC-V With Linux 6.10
Newer AMD Radeon Graphics Cards Now Work On RISC-V With Linux 6.10

Andrew Morton sent out more patches on Wednesday that have been pulled into the Linux 6.10 kernel. Notable from this latest round of "non-MM" updates is enabling more compiler warnings by default and getting newer AMD GPUs working on the RISC-V architecture.

23 May 2024 - AMD Radeon + RISC-V + Linux 6.10 - 14 Comments
Initial Windows NT Sync Driver Merged Into Linux 6.10 But Not Yet Complete
Initial Windows NT Sync Driver Merged Into Linux 6.10 But Not Yet Complete

Greg Kroah-Hartman today sent in the char/misc updates for Linux 6.10 alongside the other areas of the kernel he oversees. Among the char/misc changes is adding the NTSYNC driver that exposes the /dev/ntsync character device for use by the likes of Wine and Valve's Steam Play (Proton). But for Linux 6.10 the driver is effectively "broken" as most of the feature patches have yet to be included.

22 May 2024 - NTSYNC Driver - 1 Comment
Linux 6.10 Scheduler Changes Bring More Refinements
Linux 6.10 Scheduler Changes Bring More Refinements

Alongside all of the other pull requests by Ingo Molnar submitted at the start of the week during the opening of the Linux 6.10 merge window were the scheduler updates. As usual, the kernel scheduler work continues to see various tweaks and refinements to enhance its behavior.

19 May 2024 - Kernel Scheduler - 7 Comments
Linus Torvalds On Dogfooding The Linux Kernel
Linus Torvalds On Dogfooding The Linux Kernel

Besides Linus Torvalds examining various elements of code he's merging and build testing it on his AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstation and now also testing more on ARM64 with Ampere Altra, he does these days still believe in "dogfooding" and is in fact running the leading-edge Linux kernel code even during the merge window.

16 May 2024 - Yes He Does - 22 Comments
Linus Torvalds Is Doing More ARM64 Linux Testing Now That He Has A More Powerful System
Linus Torvalds Is Doing More ARM64 Linux Testing Now That He Has A More Powerful System

Linux kernel and Git creator Linus Torvalds is known for his current use of an AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstation as his main system after years of using Intel hardware. The past few years he's also been doing more ARM64 testing now that he has an Apple MacBook using Apple Silicon that serves as a nice travel device and for routinely compiling new ARM64 Linux kernel builds. More recently, his ARM64 Linux testing has increased now that he has a more powerful AArch64 system to complement his collection of routine gear.

14 May 2024 - Ampere Altra - 27 Comments
Linux 6.10 Makes AES-XTS Disk/File Encryption Much Faster For Modern Intel/AMD CPUs
Linux 6.10 Makes AES-XTS Disk/File Encryption Much Faster For Modern Intel/AMD CPUs

The work written about one month ago on Phoronix for much faster AES-XTS on modern Intel/AMD CPUs for speeding up disk and file encryption by as much as 155% with AMD Zen 4 CPUs has been submitted for Linux 6.10! As expected, this work providing new AES-XTS implementations for modern x86_64 processors is going into Linux 6.10 as part of the crypto subsystem updates.

13 May 2024 - Faster AES-XTS Crypto - 14 Comments
Linux 6.10 Features Expected From The NTSYNC Driver To Performance Optimizations
Linux 6.10 Features Expected From The NTSYNC Driver To Performance Optimizations

Barring any last minute reservations by Linus Torvalds, Linux 6.9 stable should release later today. In turn the Linux 6.10 merge window will then open for the next two weeks and already some early pull requests have been submitted for this next kernel version. Here is a look at some of what to expect with the Linux 6.10 kernel.

12 May 2024 - Linux 6.10 Feature Preview - 12 Comments
Linux 6.9 Features Many Great Improvements For Both Intel & AMD
Linux 6.9 Features Many Great Improvements For Both Intel & AMD

Barring any last minute reservations by Linus Torvalds, the Linux 6.9 kernel should be released as stable on Sunday. It's been a fairly quiet week so Linux 6.9 stable will likely happen as opposed to going through an extra week with a 6.9-rc8 candidate. With this spring 2024 kernel there are many great features and improvements, especially for modern Intel and AMD platforms.

10 May 2024 - Linux 6.9 Features Reminder - Add A Comment
SLUB Updates Submitted Ahead Of Linux 6.10 Merge Window
SLUB Updates Submitted Ahead Of Linux 6.10 Merge Window

If all goes well the Linux 6.9 stable kernel will be released on Sunday and in turn mark the opening of the Linux 6.10 merge window. In hoping for an on-time release, some Linux kernel subsystem maintainers have been already submitting early pull requests of their feature material for v6.10. Among those early pulls are the SLAB (SLUB) updates.

9 May 2024 - Linux 6.10 SLAB/SLUB - Add A Comment
Linux 6.10 Goes Ahead In Removing Sysctl Sentinel Bloat
Linux 6.10 Goes Ahead In Removing Sysctl Sentinel Bloat

Over the past year there's been much work happening within the Linux kernel's sysctl code for clearing up ~64 bytes of bloat per array throughout the kernel by dropping the last sysctl "sentinel" entry at the end of each array. This also helps in reducing the build time of the kernel and is a nice improvement. With Linux 6.10, the sysctl sentinel clearing throughout different subsystems is set to happen.

7 May 2024 - Savings Per Array - 10 Comments
Linux 6.10 Preps A Kernel Panic Screen - Sort Of A "Blue Screen of Death"
Linux 6.10 Preps A Kernel Panic Screen - Sort Of A "Blue Screen of Death"

While systemd 255 last year introduced a "blue screen of death" inspired solution with systemd-bsod for presenting logged error messages full-screen, it's not appropriate for all errors. Systemd-bsod can work out for presenting full-screen messages in case of boot failures and other problems where user-space is alive. But the user-space code does little good in case of a kernel panic and similar issues bringing the system to a halt. Set to be introduced now with Linux 6.10 is a parallel "blue screen of death" like error presenting experience with the introduction of the DRM panic handler.

19 April 2024 - DRM Panic Handler - 31 Comments
Linux 6.10 AES-XTS For Disk/File Encryption As Much As ~155% Faster For AMD Zen 4 CPUs
Linux 6.10 AES-XTS For Disk/File Encryption As Much As ~155% Faster For AMD Zen 4 CPUs

For those making use of AES-XTS crypto for the likes of disk and file encryption on x86_64 CPUs, the upcoming Linux 6.10 kernel cycle is bringing some very tantalizing improvements especially if you are running recent AMD and Intel processors. With AMD Zen 4 processors the benefits can be as much as 155% faster while even Intel Ice Lake and Sapphire Rapids server processors can enjoy 127~151% faster AES-XTS-256.

8 April 2024 - Faster AES-XTS - 28 Comments
Linux 6.9-rc3 Released With Many Bcachefs Patches
Linux 6.9-rc3 Released With Many Bcachefs Patches

Linux 6.9-rc3 is released and most notable are the Bcachefs fixes to which Torvalds quipped, "if you had a corrupted bcachefs filesystem you'd probably want this, and if you thought bcachefs was stable already, I have a bridge to sell you. Special deal only for you, real cheap." Plus various other fixes throughout.

7 April 2024 - Linux 6.9 - 20 Comments
Linux Enabling Shadow Stack Support For x32
Linux Enabling Shadow Stack Support For x32

Back in Linux 6.6 the Shadow Stack support was finally merged as part of Intel's Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET). This years-in-the-making effort allows for better defending against ROP attacks for newer generations of Intel processors. For Linux 6.10, Shadow Stack support is being extended to x32.

26 March 2024 - x32 Shadow Stacks - 4 Comments
Rust Bindings Posted For KMS Drivers, VKMS Ported To Rust
Rust Bindings Posted For KMS Drivers, VKMS Ported To Rust

So far when it comes to Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) / Kernel Mode-Setting (KMS) display drivers for Linux, there are Rust efforts underway for the Apple Silicon kernel graphics driver with the Asahi Linux project as well as the new Nova effort for a modern open-source NVIDIA kernel driver from Red Hat. Also now out from Red Hat is posting the Rust bindings for KMS to review plus porting the existing Virtual KMS driver over to Rust as the "RVKMS" driver.

23 March 2024 - RVKMS - 29 Comments

3542 Linux Kernel news articles published on Phoronix.