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
KDE Linux Prunes Its Insecure & Unused Software
With the end of the month comes a new KDE Linux status report from prominent KDE developer Nate Graham… ⌘ Read more
AI Agents Get Their Own Directory Built Atop DNS
“In the future, AI agents will be able to find one another using the Domain Name System (DNS), instead of crawling about and probing ports or checking configured resources,” writes The Register.
InfoWorld writes that “numerous proprietary agent registries are on the market, but the Linux Foundation suggests we simply extend the distributed, open Domain Name System (DNS) infras … ⌘ 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 Might Finally Disable The Microsoft RNDIS Protocol Drivers In 2026
Going back to early 2023 there were efforts to disable all the Linux drivers for Microoft’s RNDIS protocol. Remote NDIS has proven to be a real security concern while superior, modern alternatives exist… ⌘ Read more
Servo 0.2 Released With Revamped Android Browser UI
For ending out the month of May is a new monthly release of Servo, the open-source, Rust-based browser engine being developed by Linux Foundation Europe stakeholders and the open-source community. There are many nice enhancements on the desktop side with Servo 0.2 while also improving the Android browser UI experience with Servo too… ⌘ 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
Linux Developers Consider Retiring The x32 ABI
The Linux kernel mailing list has a new patch proposing the retirement of the x32 ABI, reports Phoronix:
The Linux x32 ABI for x86_64 processors allow making use of the full 64-bit register file and wide data path but retaining 32-bit pointers to provide for a smaller memory footprint when not needing 64-bit pointers. Linux x32 came to the party late and didn’t enjoy much adopt … ⌘ Read more
NixOS 26.05 Released With 20,442 New Packages, Stage 1 Now Based On systemd By Default
NixOS 26.05 is out today as the latest version of this Linux distribution built around the Nix package manager… ⌘ 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 Expands The Range Of Zen 6 CPUs Detected By The Linux Kernel
The latest open-source/Linux patch activity around AMD’s next-gen Zen 6 processors is expanding the range of the CPU models detected by the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
Wine 11.10 Released With VKD3D 2.0, Improved VBScript Compatibility
Wine 11.10 marks the latest bi-weekly development release of Wine for running Windows games and applications on Linux, macOS, and other platforms… ⌘ Read more
Fwupd 2.1.4 Brings Many Fixes For Bugs Spotted By Anthrophic’s Mythos, Firmware Update Support For Intel Arc Pro B65/B70
Fresh off the funding round from HP, Fwupd 2.1.4 was christened today as the newest stable update to this open-source firmware updating solution for Linux systems… ⌘ Read more
Fwupd 2.1.4 Brings Many Bug Fixes, Firmware Update Support For Intel Arc Pro B65/B70
Fresh off the funding round from HP, Fwupd 2.1.4 was christened today as the newest stable update to this open-source firmware updating solution for Linux systems… ⌘ Read more
It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop
Article URL: https://unix.foo/posts/it-will-never-be-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48323920
Points: 3
# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more
CachyOS Delivers Lead Over Arch Linux, Pop!_OS & Ubuntu On System76 Thelio Major
The new System76 Thelio Major powered by the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series and optionally with the Radeon AI PRO R9700 graphics card for an all-open-source AMD Linux stack is a mighty powerful workstation. If desiring even more compute potential out of this high-end desktop/workstation, CachyOS works pretty darn well on this new system with lofty leads over upstream Arch Linux as well as Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and the stock Pop!_OS 24. … ⌘ 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
Radeon Software For Linux 26.12 Brings Ubuntu 26.04 Support
While most Linux enthusiasts and desktop users/gamers are comfortable just riding the latest upstream Linux kernel and Mesa drivers shipped by their distribution, for those enterprises preferring the officially blessed and QA’ed driver packages from AMD, last week marked the release of the Radeon Software for Linux 26.12 driver… ⌘ 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
Górny: why Gentoo?
Gentoo developer Michał Górny has written a lengthy\
article explaining the philosophy and purpose of the Gentoo Linux
distribution, in response to a\
thread on Mastodon:
Gentoo is a source-first distribution, which means the primary
method of installing software is to build it from source. Of course,
that doesn’t mean manually building stuff, following some kind of
how-to: finding all t … ⌘ Read more
IBM, Red Hat Commit $5 Billion To Secure Open Source Supply Chains
IBM and Red Hat are committing $5 billion to a new initiative called “Project Lightwell,” which aims to secure open-source software supply chains with AI-assisted vulnerability discovery, triage, patch validation, and upstream maintenance. Longtime Slashdot reader wiggles shares a press release from IBM: IBM and Red Hat today announced Project … ⌘ Read more
Intel Arc Pro B70 BMG-G31 Linux Gaming Performance
In recent weeks we have been exploring different areas of the Intel Arc Pro B70 graphics performance on Linux from various OpenCL and Vulkan to Level Zero compute benchmarks, scaling up to four Arc Pro B70 graphics cards, comparing to NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell, and other relevant tests. While not intended for gaming, many Phoronix readers keep raising requests for seeing the Arc Pro B70 performance for Linux gaming given the lack of any consumer BMG-G31 GPU. So fo … ⌘ Read more
[$] Policies for merging new filesystems
In a filesystem-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Amir Goldstein wanted to
discuss his proposed\
documentation on adding new filesystems to the kernel. There are a
number of unmaintained and untestable filesystems already in the kernel,
which are a burden to VFS-layer developers who are trying to make sweeping
changes, suc … ⌘ Read more
QEMU Shifting On AI Policy To Allow Some AI/LLM-Generated Contributions
The QEMU processor emulator that plays an important role in the open-source Linux virtualization stack had a policy that forbid any contributions including or derived from AI-generated content. But there are now second thoughts with a proposed patch that will permit AI/LLM contributions in non-critical areas… ⌘ Read more
[$] Separating memory descriptors from struct page
The kernel’s memory-management subsystem is currently partway through a
multi-year project to replace the page structure (which represents
a page of physical memory) with memory\
descriptors. At the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Vishal Moola ran a
fast-paced session in the memory-management track to describe the current
state of that work and wha … ⌘ Read more
AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
Article URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/amd-vivado-bait-and-switch-on-linux-users/
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48307231
Points: 5
# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more
Rust Will Save Linux From AI, Says Greg Kroah-Hartman
Linux stable kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman says Rust can help Linux deal with a flood of AI-discovered security bugs (namely Dirty Frag, Copy Fail, and Fragnesia) by preventing common C mistakes around memory, locking, error handling, and untrusted data at build time rather than during human review. It’s “not a silver bullet” and does not mean rewriting the whol … ⌘ Read more
Interview session with Jonathan Corbet
The Linux Foundation will be hosting a\
live interview with LWN co-founder Jonathan Corbet. The event will
take place on Tuesday, June 2 at 8:00AM Pacific daylight time (UTC-7).
Registration is open for those who would like to attend. ⌘ 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
Andrew Morton’s 2004 OLS keynote
I recently presented a brief tribute to Andrew Morton at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory\
Management, and BPF Summit; it included a suggestion that reading (or
re-reading) his 2004 Ottawa Linux Symposium keynote would be instructive.
This talk, given immediately after the Kernel\
Summit session that decided to fundamentally change the kernel’s
development model, tells a lot about how the kernel project got to where … ⌘ 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
Security updates for Wednesday
Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (bind, buildah, compat-libtiff3, compat-openssl11, containernetworking-plugins, crun, delve, dnsmasq, dovecot, edk2, firefox, freeipmi, gdk-pixbuf2, giflib, git-lfs, glib2, go-fdo-client, go-fdo-server, golang, grafana, grafana-pcp, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-base, gstreamer1-plugins-good, and gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, iputils, jq, kernel, krb5, libcap, LibRaw, libsndfile, libsoup, libsoup3, libssh, libtiff, libvirt, linux-sgx, … ⌘ Read more
Linux Developers Looking At Retiring The x32 ABI
The Linux x32 ABI for x86_64 processors allow making use of the full 64-bit register file and wide data path but retaining 32-bit pointers to provide for a smaller memory footprint when not needing 64-bit pointers. Linux x32 came to the party late and didn’t enjoy much adoption over the years and is now looking at possible removal from the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
Linux Driver To Expose Voltage Inputs For Raspberry Pi SBCs
The Raspberry Pi hardware monitoring driver “RASPBERRYPI-HWMON” is being extended to allow exposing voltage measurements on these ARM single board computers… ⌘ Read more
California Moves To Exempt Linux From Upcoming Age-Verification Law
California lawmakers are moving to exempt most open-source operating systems from the state’s upcoming age-verification law after backlash from Linux and privacy advocates who warned that the original rules could force decentralized projects to collect users’ ages. The amendment would likely shield major Linux distributions, though SteamOS … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA 610.43.02 Linux Driver Released With Vulkan Improvements, DRM Color Pipeline API
NVIDIA is kicking off the new week with their first Linux driver beta in the R610 driver series that is succeeding the current R595 release branch… ⌘ Read more
[$] Better automatic management of transparent huge pages
Huge pages can improve performance by increasing translation lookaside
buffer (TLB) utilization and reducing memory-management overhead.
Transparent huge pages (THPs) are supposed to make huge-page usage,
well, transparent, Nico Pache said at the beginning of his session in the
memory-management track of the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit. That transparency has
never worked as well as many wo … ⌘ Read more
Security updates for Tuesday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (postorius and spip), Fedora (bind, bind-dyndb-ldap, linux-firmware, tor, and unbound), Mageia (ffmpeg, nginx, perl-Imager, and tigervnc, x11-server, x11-server-xwayland), Oracle (firefox and kernel), Red Hat (buildah, git-lfs, go-toolset:rhel8, golang, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, gvisor-tap-vsock, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, opentelemetry-collector, osbuild-composer, podman, rhc, rhc-wo … ⌘ Read more
Intel Working On pmtctl Tool For Linux In Dealing With Platform Telemetry Data
A set if 17 patches were posted today to the Linux kernel mailing list for introducing a new tool in the kernel source tree, pmtctl. This new pmtctl tool is for interfacing with Intel Platform Monitoring Technology… ⌘ 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
ML-KEM + X-Wing Patches Posted For Linux To Help With Post-Quantum Security
Linux cryptography expert Eric Biggers of Google posted a set of patches on Monday for providing proof-of-concept support for ML-KEM and X-Wing for post-quantum cryptography… ⌘ Read more
[$] Reviewing kernel patches with LLMs
In a plenary session at
the
2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, the state of patch
review using large language models (LLMs) was discussed. It is a topic that has been swirling around in the
kernel community for much of the year. The plenary, which was led by Roman
Gushchin, Chris Mason, Josef Bacik, and Sasha Levin, resulted in a quite bit
of discussion, so much that a second fil … ⌘ Read more
California moves to exempt Linux from its age-verification law after backlash
Article URL: [https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-moves-to-exempt-linux-from-its-upcoming-age-verification-law-after-backlash-over-forcing-operating-systems-to-collect-users-ages-amendment-proposed-by-the-same-lawmaker-who-wr … ⌘ Read more
[$] Tier-aware memory-controller limits
Joshua Hahn began his session in the memory-management track of the 2026 Linux Storage,\
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit by saying that the memory
controller for control groups is intended to provide resource allocation,
accounting, and protection from interference by other tasks. But
it was not really designed for tiered-memory systems; he is looking for a
way to improve that situation. ⌘ Read more