SPARC ADI, SELinux SCTP & New BMC Server-Side Driver For Linux 4.17

The Linux 4.17 kernel cycle is in full swing with many large pull requests pending.

Aside from the other pull requests I have covered the past three days now, below is a look at some of the other feature work happening for 4.17 that didn't each warrant their own article but does have some feature material that will excite at least some users:

- For those using Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux), there are more changes than usual this cycle. Most notable with SELinux for Linux 4.17 are access controls for SCTP and encapsulation work around more of the internal SELinux state. With the thousand lines of code net gain for the SELinux area, this security feature now has support for the Stream Control Transmission Protocol. More details here.

- With the IPMI pull request this time around there is a new driver to point out. The ASpeed KCS IPMI BMC driver is being added for Linux 4.17. This driver exposes the Keyboard Controller Style (KCS) interface for ASpeed AST2400/AST2500 SoCs that are commonly used as BMC controllers over a character device. This interface allows for performing in-band IPMI communication between the host and the baseboard management controller. Basically, Linux acting as the IPMI controller. Details on that here.

- With the SPARC updates come a new Application Data Integrity (ADI) feature. This feature of newer SPARC 64-bit processors provides key-based access to virtual memory and when the key to the encoded virtual address is wrong, the application gets a trap.

- Within the timer code is continued work on preparing for the Year 2038 problem.

- Media updates include several new drivers. The media subsystem in Linux 4.17 receives a platform driver for Sony CXD2880 DVB devices, new sensor drivers, an IMON protocol decoder, the DVB CXD2099 driver being promoted from staging, and various other changes.

Stay tuned as much more is still to come of the Linux 4.17 merge window running until 15 April.