Linux 4.16 Gets Three New Driver Subsystems Plus VirtualBox Guest Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 4.16 Gets Three New Driver Subsystems Plus VirtualBox Guest Driver

Greg Kroah-Hartman's pull request of the char/misc driver work usually isn't too exciting each kernel cycle, but for Linux 4.16 it's definitely on the heavier side with introducing three new subsystems for different hardware busses...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.16-Three-New-Subsystems

[some_canuck]

I thought virtualbox guest driver versions had to match the version of virtualbox running on the host. How does that work if the drivers are in mainline kernel?

[Michael]

I thought virtualbox guest driver versions had to match the version of virtualbox running on the host. How does that work if the drivers are in mainline kernel?

The VirtualBox developers have said they will try to maintain a stable ABI now for the drivers.

[boxie]

The VirtualBox developers have said they will try to maintain a stable ABI now for the drivers.

pretty sure if they break user space Linus might get shouty at them

[treba]

Pretty cool to have virtualbox mainline. That allows things like secureboot to finally work. In the moment I have to disable it if I want to use virtualbox.

[gnarlin]

pretty sure if they break user space Linus might get shouty at them

Now that you say that I kind of hope that they do it. Reading angry Linus is soothing for the soul.

[starshipeleven]

pretty sure if they break user space Linus might get shouty at them

It's the other way around. If Virtualbox developers add features to Virtualbox that break with the mainline driver (because it's not in sync), Linus won't care as that's userspace breaking itself.

[Ronshere]

SIOX? Shouldn't the kernel be trimmed down and not have bloatware added? Why does a single company have to have their own peculiar software added to the kernel? Oh wait, there's a 7-11 in Paramus that has their own software that unlocks the toilets. Maybe we should add that to the next kernel.

[jacob]

Pretty cool to have virtualbox mainline. That allows things like secureboot to finally work. In the moment I have to disable it if I want to use virtualbox.

I may be wrong but I think these are the *guest* drivers, to run Linux inside a VirtualBox VM. That does nothing for your problem. To run VirtualBox on a Linux host, you still need VB's third party kernel drivers and so you still can't use secureboot (unless you sign them yourself).

[boxie]

Now that you say that I kind of hope that they do it. Reading angry Linus is soothing for the soul.

the word that describes that is: Schadenfreude