FUTEX2 Revised Again For Helping Steam Play But Will Miss Out On Linux 5.15

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FUTEX2 Revised Again For Helping Steam Play But Will Miss Out On Linux 5.15

One of the kernel patch series that has seen ongoing work for more than one year now is around introducing the FUTEX2 system call to better match the behavior of Microsoft Windows' NT kernel in order to allow for more efficient Proton/Wine usage that powers Steam Play for enjoying Windows games on Linux...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FUTEX2-Revised-v2

[aufkrawall]

Bummer, this would have made me stick with default kernel from repo and made 5.15 a particularly interesting release due to NTFS3. Well, hopefully three months later.

[perpetually high]

Well, hopefully three months later.

Doesn't have to be that way.

[perpetually high]

[b]Given the timing this new system call will have to wait until at least Linux 5.16. Unfortunately that's cutting it close for finding in a mainline kernel ahead of the Steam Deck shipping, so presumably Valve will end up shipping FUTEX2 in a patched kernel at least initially for the Steam Deck but we'll see as the end of year approaches for improving the Windows gaming experience on Linux

That's a good point. Will be very easy to release after the fact in a patched kernel. Especially since they cleaned up the patches.

[bple2137]

So SteamOS 3.0 will probably run a custom kernel, at least for some time, isn't it? Will anybody give a damn about that?

[Sakuretsu]

So SteamOS 3.0 will probably run a custom kernel, at least for some time, isn't it? Will anybody give a damn about that?

Yes, much likely.

People using SteamDecks certainly won't, but some people using Linux distros probably will.

[enigmaxg2]

How much of an improvement over no futex we're talking about? is there any way to try it currently?

[carewolf]

How much of an improvement over no futex we're talking about? is there any way to try it currently?

Depends on the application using it. If I understand correctly it especially affect an idling event loop in some wine games, while it has less impact when the loop is actually doing things.

[bple2137]

Yes, much likely.

People using SteamDecks certainly won't, but some people using Linux distros probably will.

We already have custom kernels like XanMod. It will be just one of those patches until/if it's mainlined.

[skeevy420]

So SteamOS 3.0 will probably run a custom kernel, at least for some time, isn't it? Will anybody give a damn about that?

I take it you've never looked into how many patches are in distribution kernels like Ubuntu and SUSE. Even prefers to use vanilla stuff Arch has a patch or two.

So, no, I don't think that anyone one will give a damn about it in the future since they don't give a damn about it going on now.