Linux 6.8-rc2 Adds More Zen 5 IDs, AMD PMF Will Know If You're In Front Of Your Laptop

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 6.8-rc2 Adds More Zen 5 IDs, AMD PMF Will Know If You're In Front Of Your Laptop

New code submitted for the ongoing Linux 6.8 cycle are some AMD additions now set for premiering in today's Linux 6.8-rc2 release...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.8-More-Zen-5-And-PMF

[rrveex]

linux 6.8 - we know when you're there - it's for your own good! save up to 2Wh/century !! save the planet !! if you don't want to save the planet, you're a terrorist!

linux 6.9 - we know what you had for breakfast, how much coffee you drank, etc - it's for your own good, we'll show nicer colors for your tired eyes!

linux 7.0 - mandatory because of EU regulation (which came into effect now, because it's technically possible) - whole room surveillance in case somebody has a heart attack! save up to 3 people/decade. What, you don't want to save the children?? you're ... someone who has something to hide!

Of course, you could re-compile the kernel to turn it off. Easy enough. And "initially it's not enabled by default" (in kernel, systemd will turn it on for your convenience).

[Paradigm Shifter]

This is being done so the AMD PMF driver can potentially enact different intelligent power/performance behavior depending upon whether a user is detected in front of the Ryzen laptop or not.

I have a much less generous interpretation of why it's being done. I hope this is something which can be disabled (or faked to "True") without crippling the system.

[Volta]

Of course, you could re-compile the kernel to turn it off. Easy enough. And "initially it's not enabled by default" (in kernel, systemd will turn it on for your convenience).

I bet there's even more idiocy coming from EU and USA. At least on Linux we can turn it off, but it's important to have such crap disabled by default. It's time to wake up and do something about it while there's still time.

[rclark]

have such crap disabled by default.

Yep ... and same with cars phoning home and I hear inside cab cameras. One of the aggravations I have with my new Subaru is the 'connected' starlink part... Looking into how to disable the antenna once the weather warms up! Like to disable the eye-sight tech (its 'standard' now) as well.... But that's another story.

[ThomasD]

I don't think it is per-se bad. It depends on the implementation and what is done with the data. E.g. auto-locking the machine, when I go away - very much appreciated.
Does anybody know how this is implemented (how does the sensor detect, that I am present)?

[sophisticles]

AMD users on Linux: I don't trust Windows, Intel, Nvidia, and their proprietary crap, or any other closed source crap because you don;t know if "they" are spying on you, telemetry, security, blah, blah, conspiratorial nonsense,

Reality:

As part of those "fixes" are some AMD Platform Management Framework (PMF) driver updates. With that the AMD PMF driver is now able to read human presence information and ambient light information from the AMD Sensor Fusion Hub (SFH) driver. For two years already the AMD SFH Linux driver with modern Ryzen laptops is able to provide human presence functionality for determining if somebody is in front of the laptop's screen or not.

Linux lovers / Windows haters complain about the very real Windows 11 telemetry but have no problem with running an OS and hardware that literally is spying on you:

As part of those "fixes" are some AMD Platform Management Framework (PMF) driver updates. With that the AMD PMF driver is now able to read human presence information and ambient light information from the AMD Sensor Fusion Hub (SFH) driver. For two years already the AMD SFH Linux driver with modern Ryzen laptops is able to provide human presence functionality for determining if somebody is in front of the laptop's screen or not.

Does anyone understand why this is being done? Bog corporations and governments want this and it's because of a concept in law known as non-repudiation.

In cybersecurity, repudiation is the ability to deny having performed some digital act by claiming it wasn't you and that is was the work of someone having stolen your credentials, using your computer without permission or something similar.

In many cases where sensitive work is done, it is very common to have security cameras pointed at computer users so you can match the time stamp on the video with the time stamp of a specific act, like they do with ATMs.

This functionality is meant to provide the same non-repudiation mechanism, for instance "I didn't send that email, someone spoofed the email address", with this a government agency or other employers can say "here's the time stamp of email sent and here's video of you using the computer it was sent from.

I don't think it's that big a deal, even if you could disable the driver, as long as you have root access you could easily have a script that scrubs the logs it keeps on a daily basis.

Linux, Windows, Android and Mac OS already collect lots of information in what you do, the files you download, when you change the names, it goes on.

If you don't clean those log files and they haven;t been overwritten, you would be surprised how much info an investigator can retrieve from your system.

I know from reading the comments on this forum that most Linux users have no idea how much information Linux records.

[Volta]

blah blah blah trolling blah blah blah

If you didn't notice you can easily turn telemetry off on Linux. You can't do this on Windows and macOS, because they're spyware. You're either a moron or one of the worst trolls ever. The main problems here are hardware vendors and spying institutions like EU and US government. It must be solved on a different level. It doesn't matter much how much information Linux records (I want system logs, last accessed files and so on). It matters how much it shares with the outside world and it's ZERO (I'm not counting installed package information) in comparison to mentioned spyware.

[dlq84]

If you didn't notice you can easily turn telemetry off on Linux. You can't do this on Windows and macOS, because they're spyware. You're either a moron or one of the worst trolls ever. The main problems here are hardware vendors and spying institutions like EU and US government. It must be solved on a different level. It doesn't matter much how much information Linux records (I want system logs, last accessed files and so on). It matters how much it shares with the outside world and it's ZERO (I'm not counting installed package information) in comparison to mentioned spyware.

He also wrote all that after 5 comments complaining about it and yet claims "nobody has a problem with this". Can't make it up.

[Volta]

He also wrote all that after 5 comments complaining about it and yet claims "nobody has a problem with this". Can't make it up.

Yep, he's definitely a troll and I should put 'AND' in my assumption.