Linux 7.2 Preparing Intel Key Protection Technology “KPT” For Next-Gen QAT
Going back to the launch of 1st Gen Xeon Scalable processors in 2017 was Intel Key Protection Technology (KPT) promoted and there have been Key Protection Technology references in QuickAssist (QAT) documentation since 2016. Surprisingly we are only now seeing Key Protection Technology references for the upstream Linux QAT driver as Intel engineers prepare for their next-gen “Gen6” QuickAssist hardware support… ⌘ Read more

AMD Support Being Added To UFS Host Controller PCI Driver In Linux 7.2
Linux’s ufshcd-pci as the Universal Flash Storage host controller PCI driver has supported a variety of Intel devices to this point while for Linux 7.2 the first AMD device is set to be added… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Helping Intel Arc Battlemage Graphics Achieve Better Performance
Recent testing of the Intel Arc B580 Battlemage desktop graphics card has shown that the upcoming Linux 7.1 kernel release is delivering superior graphics performance over the current stable Linux 7.0 kernel. ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 To Add ACPI CPPC v4 Support Authored By NVIDIA
Ahead of NVIDIA Vera ramping up, the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel is adding the ACPI CPPC v4 support authored by a NVIDIA engineer… ⌘ Read more

BeagleV Ahead & Lichee Pi 4a RISC-V Boards To See Working WiFi With Linux 7.2
In addition to the SpacemiT K1 and K3 RISC-V SoC Device Tree updates sent out last week, the RISC-V T-HEAD Device Tree “DT” changes were also sent out last week ahead of the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel merge window… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc7 Released: Stable Hopefully Next Sunday
Last week Linux 7.1-rc6 was larger than Linus Torvalds wished for and for Linux 7.1-rc7 it has come in still heavier than typically seen this late in the cycle, but is shrinking and making Linus comfortable in hopefully releasing Linux 7.1 stable next Sunday… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc7 Adding More AMD Zen 6 CPU Models
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc7 test kernel release due out later today, a pull request has been submitted of some “x86 fixes” for this kernel release. Most notable with this pull request is acknowledging some additional AMD Zen 6 CPU models… ⌘ Read more

Linux DRM Ioctl Developed By AMD Being Disabled Following Ongoing Security Issue
It’s unfortunately another busy week in the Linux 7.1 kernel space with not everything slowing down so well, late in the cycle and leading to the upcoming 7.1 stable release. This week’s DRM pull request of kernel graphics/accelerator drivers is again heavy on fixes and also ends up disabling an ioctl interface given ongoing security concerns from that code merged last year… ⌘ Read more

(This settled at about 25k hits on the HTML page now. But only about 11k hits in total on favicon.ico and only around 7.5k hits on the image thumbnails. So I guess that, in reality, it might have gotten around 7k hits. The rest … is probably bots.)

More SpacemiT K3 & K1 Support Landing In Upstream Linux 7.2
In addition to Apple M3 Device Trees for Linux 7.2, the SpacemiT RISC-V SoCs are seeing some notable Device Tree improvements with this next version of the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA’s Nova Driver Continues Being Built Up In Linux 7.2 Along With Other DRM Rust Code
Danilo Krummrich sent out the main set of DRM Rust subsystem changes on Thursday that are targeting the Linux 7.2 kernel. NVIDIA’s open-source Nova driver continues seeing a bulk of the DRM Rust work as this modern successor to Nouveau continues taking shape… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 + Mesa 26.1 Performance With The Radeon RX 9070 GRE, RX 9070 XT
With this week’s launch day review of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, Ubuntu 26.04 with its Linux 7.0 and Mesa 26.0 default driver stack was used for testing. That choice was made since the Ubuntu 26.04 release is still fresh, the RDNA4-based RX 9070 GRE was working without issue there, and from other RDNA4 testing knowing there isn’t much uplift from the in-development Linux 7.1 kernel or the current stable Mesa 26.1 OpenGL RadeonSI / V … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Will Be Able To Boot On Apple M3 Macs - But Far From Useful For End-Users
The upcoming Linux 7.2 mainline kernel is expected to be able to boot on Apple M3 devices including the M3-powered iMac and MacBook products. But before getting too excited it’s still a long ways to go before it will actually be useful for any Apple M3 daily usage under Linux with the overall support at this stage still being very limited for these 2~3 year old Apple Macs… ⌘ Read more

AMD Submits Its Long-Awaited HDMI 2.1 FRL Support For Linux 7.2 AMDGPU
It’s happening! The long-awaited HDMI 2.1 Fixed Rate Link “FRL” support for handling higher resolutions and higher refresh rates on modern AMD Radeon graphics cards with the upstream AMDGPU open-source driver has been submitted to DRM-Next ahead of this month’s Linux 7.2 merge window!.. ⌘ Read more

Intel Xeon Diamond Rapids EDAC Driver Changes Readied For Linux 7.2
Ahead of Intel Diamond Rapids server processors launching in 2027, the Linux kernel continues getting into shape for these next-gen Xeon processors. The latest enablement work taking place for Diamond Rapids is readying the Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) driver support for propagating memory errors/correction information under Linux… ⌘ Read more

Dell Rivals Apple’s MacBook Neo With $699 Touchscreen XPS 13 Laptop
Dell has introduced a redesigned $699 XPS 13 aimed squarely at Apple’s budget MacBook Neo, offering a premium aluminum design, touch display, backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 7, 512GB of base storage, and various other configuration options. Dell’s machine costs more than Apple’s entry model but tries to justify the difference with lighter weight, … ⌘ Read more

Intel Preparing WiFi 8 “UHR” Support For Their IWLWIFI Linux Driver
Intel open-source software engineers have been busy beginning to prepare their upstream IWLWIFI wireless driver in the Linux kernel for supporting their next-gen WiFi adapters supporting the WiFi 8 “Ultra High Reliability” standard… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Proceeding To Deprecate AF_ALG Due To “Massive Attack Surface”, Drops Offloading
The Linux kernel’s AF_ALG interface for user-space applications to directly access the Linux kernel’s built-in cryptographic engine is proceeding with a quick deprecation cycle due to a “massive attack surface” with increased vulnerabilities coming to light due to AI/LLM-based tooling… ⌘ Read more

AI-Driven Security Disclosures, NVIDIA Vera & Linux 7.1 Features That Made An Exciting May
May 2026 is now in the books after writing 275 original Linux/open-source minded news articles and another 20 featured-length benchmark articles / Linux hardware reviews. There was a lot of exciting topics in May to keep the month interesting and as we approach the Phoronix 22nd birthday this week… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc6 Released Following Another “Larger-Than-I’d-Wish-For Size” Week
The Linux 7.1-rc6 kernel is now available for closing out the month of May and approaching the Linux 7.1 stable release that should be out by mid-June… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc6 To Support The ASUS ROG RAIKIRI II & Nova 2 Lite Controllers
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc6 test kernel due out later today, this week’s batch of input subsystem fixes have been sent out that includes enabling a few newer input devices… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc6 To Hide The Documentation On “clearcpuid” Feature
The clearcpuid= kernel parameter can be used to disable specific CPUID features for the kernel by specifying the targeted bit numbers of the feature(s) to disable or their flags from the /proc/cpuinfo output. The clearcpuid parameter, for example, has been useful for carrying out AVX-512 comparison benchmarks for apps that check for the presence of the AVX-512 extensions via /proc/cpuinfo. But moving forward the documentation on clearcpuid is b … ⌘ Read more

Various USB Quirks Merged Ahead Of Linux 7.1-rc6
Ahead of the Linux 7.1-rc6 kernel due out on Sunday, this week’s round of USB fixes have been merged with various new device quirks added as well as some patches as a result of scanning tools… ⌘ Read more

AMD Submits More Graphics Driver Changes For Linux 7.2
On Friday was the latest AMDGPU/AMDKFD pull request landing more kernel graphics/compute driver improvements in DRM-Next ahead of the Linux 7.2 merge window happening in mid-June… ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.2.4 Released With Performance & Stability Fixes
AMD’s ROCm open-source compute stack is up to version 7.2.4 stable as it continues seeing new fixes while on the tech preview feature side is the recent ROCm 7.13 release… ⌘ Read more

Linux Networking Still Seeing “Significantly Bigger” Pull Requests Due To AI
Last week’s collection of networking subsystem fixes for Linux 7.1 noted craziness continuing with no end in sight with a large pull request of fixes with many of them spurred on by AI/LLM coding agents. This week it’s “significantly bigger” than prior kernel cycles for this late stage of kernel development due to this assistance of large language models… ⌘ Read more

Btrfs Change Coming For Linux 7.2 Yields Very Healthy Performance Gain
A change coming on the way for the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel cycle is yielding a significant improvement to the direct I/O write performance. While a big gain, technically it’s a regression fix after a change mistakenly dropped the behavior several years ago… ⌘ Read more

Intel To Support DRM Background Color Property With Linux 7.2
Introduced in Linux 7.1 is a dedicated CRTC background color property for DRM graphics/display drivers. The “BACKGROUND_COLOR” property can be used with capable drivers and display controllers as the default background color when not covered by any plane or from transparent regions of higher planes. With the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel cycle, the Intel DRM driver will begin supporting this background color property… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 To Bring Graphics Driver Fix For Old Integrated Graphics On Intel Sandy Bridge
For those still making use of Intel Sandy Bridge processors from 15 years ago, the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel is bringing a fix for an engine reset issue when using the old integrated graphics with Sandy Bridge… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2’s Open-Source Nouveau Driver To Finally Support The NVIDIA GA100
Sent out today was the last drm-misc-next pull request ahead of the Linux 7.2 merge window getting underway in June. As part of this last batch of small Direct Rendering Manager graphics/accelerator driver changes is finally enabling the NVIDIA GA100 within the Nouveau driver… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.7 Beta 2 Released With More Bug Fixes
Building off the KDE Plasma 6.7 Beta release earlier in May, a second beta was declared today in preparing for the Plasma 6.7 stable debut in mid-June… ⌘ Read more

Meta To Start Testing AI Subscription Services
Meta will begin testing paid subscriptions for its Meta AI app and website, with a $7.99/month Meta One Plus plan and a more capable $19.99/month Meta One Premium plan offering. The test will start next month in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia as Meta looks for AI revenue beyond advertising while continuing to offer a free tier. CNBC reports: Naomi Gleit, the head of product at M … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu 26.10 Planning To Ship With The Linux 7.2 Kernel
Canonical’s kernel team confirmed today their intention of shipping the Ubuntu 26.10 release with what will be the Linux 7.2 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Cache Aware Scheduling Shows Nice Wins For AMD Zen 5 On PostgreSQL, Valkey, Network Performance
The long-in-development work on Cache Aware Scheduling looks like it will come to a head soon with it looking like Cache Aware Scheduling will land for Linux 7.2. Ahead of the upcoming merge window I ran some fresh benchmarks looking at different areas where this feature is shining. ⌘ Read more

Cache Aware Scheduling Shows Nice Wins For AMD Zen 5 On PostgreSQL, Valkey, Network Performance
The long-in-development work on Cache Aware Scheduling looks like it will come to a head soon with it looking like Cache Aware Scheduling will land for Linux 7.2. Ahead of the upcoming merge window I ran some fresh benchmarks looking at different areas where this feature is shining. ⌘ Read more

Btrfs Preps Huge Folios Support Ahead Of Linux 7.2
The past few Linux kernel cycles there has been experimental support for large folios with Btrfs while for Linux 7.2 it looks like this modern file-system will be taking things further with huge folios… ⌘ Read more

Intel Introducing USB4STREAM Protocol For Linux - Opening Up Some Nifty Uses For USB4
An exciting Intel innovation expected to be added for the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel is introducing the new USB4STREAM protocol for USB4/Thunderbolt as a “super simple” way to “basically just transfer raw packets from one host to another”. This can be useful for quickly backing up a system from one host to another, sharing of web cameras or other peripherals across systems, or other environments where not having networking or wanti … ⌘ Read more

Linux To Drop ARCnet Support For Old ISA & PCMCIA Hardware
With Linux 7.1 ISDN, ham radio, and other old network code was removed in lightening the kernel source tree by around 138 thousand lines of code. Some additional Linux networking code cleaning is expected for Linux 7.2 with the ISA and PCMCIA hardware around ARCnet set to be removed… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1-rc5 Released With Fixes Ramping Up From AI Coding Agents
In the road to releasing Linux 7.1 in June, out today is Linux 7.1-rc5 that continues coming on heavy with fixes… ⌘ Read more

GitHub Copilot & Claude Code Helped With Graphics, WiFi Linux Driver Issues This Week
For those curious about the growing use of AI and coding agents within the Linux kernel, this week there was another large batch of new patches fixed that were generated or co-authored by agents like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot… ⌘ Read more

Linux To Remove ISA Speech Synthesizer Driver That Likely Hasn’t Been Used In Decades
Following the process of phasing out Intel 486 CPU support and other old hardware drivers that were dropped in the Linux 7.1 kernel cycle for reducing the kernel maintenance burden, the upcoming Linux 7.2 cycle is continuing the trend of phasing out some of the old hardware support that is very obsolete, likely having no users on the latest upstream kernels, and no one formally maintaining the obsolete drivers… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.8 To Support System Monitor With Intel Xe, Plasma 6.7 Sees More Crash Fixes
KDE developers continue to be quite busy in preparing for next month’s Plasma 6.7 stable desktop release due out in mid-June while also beginning more feature work toward Plasma 6.8… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.1 Merges AMD Dynamic EPP Fixes, Intel Bartlett Lake Scaling Fix
Merged today for Linux 7.1 was this week’s power management fixes with a few notable fixes for both AMD and Intel platforms… ⌘ Read more

Linux Sound Subsystem Also Seeing Many Fixes Driven By AI/LLMs
It’s not only the Linux networking subsystem where many fixes have been appearing – including several notable security fixes for local privilege escalation issues – leading to “craziness” from AI / LLMs. The Linux sound subsystem has also been seeing an uptick in activity with many “assisted-by” patches coming about in recent weeks… ⌘ Read more

Today’s Linux Networking Fixes: “Craziness Continues With No End In Sight”
Driven by AI/LLM bots like Shashiko uncovering new issues within the Linux kernel source tree, including various security vulnerabilities like Dirty Frag, the mailing list has been wild with bug reports and fixes. Today’s networking fixes pull request for Linux 7.1 continues to highlight the ongoing craziness and fears that the worst may be yet to come… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 To Enable SR-IOV Support For Intel Nova Lake’s Xe3P Graphics
Open-source Intel software engineers today sent out their latest round of Xe kernel graphics driver updates to DRM-Next for queuing ahead of next month’s Linux 7.2 merge window… ⌘ Read more

Ryzen AI AMDXDNA Driver Adding Expandable Heap Support With Linux 7.2
AMD engineers continue enhancing the AMDXDNA accelerator driver for supporting the Ryzen AI NPUs on Linux… ⌘ Read more

SpaceX Reveals Its Finances For the First Time
SpaceX has revealed its financials for the first time as it prepares for a potentially massive IPO. The New York Times reports: SpaceX’s revenue soared to $18.7 billion in 2025, up 33 percent from a year earlier, the company disclosed in a filing required of firms that are seeking to go public. In the first three months of this year, revenue rose to $4.7 billion from $4.1 billion i … ⌘ Read more

More AMDGPU Driver Fixes Prepped For Linux 7.2
AMD is ready with more AMDKFD compute driver and AMDGPU kernel graphics driver changes for the upcoming Linux 7.2 merge window… ⌘ Read more

The Very Exciting Cache Aware Scheduling Looks Like It Will Land For Linux 7.2
As a very exciting development ahead of the Linux 7.2 kernel merge window opening in about one month’s time, it looks like the long-awaited Cache Aware Scheduling support will finally be merged! CONFIG_SCHED_CACHE has made it into a TIP branch with all the Cache Aware Scheduling code for helping with Linux performance on modern CPUs sporting multiple last level caches… ⌘ Read more