Linux 6.18 Features From Apple M2 To Sheaves, DM-PCACHE & More Intel + AMD Hardware
With the Linux 6.18 stable kernel release expected to take place tomorrow on 30 November, here is a reminder about some of the new hardware support and other interesting features coming in this next stable version of the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

Arch Linux Based Endeavour OS Updated After ISO Refresh Hiatus
Endeavour OS is one of the popular desktop Linux distributions built around Arch Linux providing a nice out-of-the-box experience. Since their last ISO refresh back in March there hadn’t been much news from the project nor any new ISO releases for this rolling-release distro. But thankfully today they are back in the saddle with a new ISO release, Endeavour OS 2025.11.24 “Ganymede”… ⌘ Read more

Framework Computer Now Sponsoring LVFS / Fwupd Development
With the Linux Vendor Firmware Service serving more than 135 million downloads for Linux users updating their system and device firmware, LVFS has been working to get more hardware vendors to contribute either engineering resources or directly contributing annual dues as sponsors. Framework Computer is now the first one to have executed an agreement under these new sponsorship efforts… ⌘ Read more

Intel Hiring Two More Experienced Linux Kernel Engineers
While there have been a number of Intel Linux engineers laid off over roughly the past year, other Linux kernel engineers opting to pursue employment opportunities elsewhere amid the ongoing challenges and restructuring at the company, and shifts in their open-source strategy, there’s some good news as we work toward the 2025 holidays. Intel is currently hiring for two more experienced Linux kernel software engineers… ⌘ Read more

Wine 10.20 Released With VKD3D 1.18 Upgrade For Direct3D 12
Wine 10.20 is out as the newest bi-weekly development release of this open-source software enabling Windows applications and games to run on Linux. This is also with Wine 11.0 stable quickly approaching… ⌘ Read more

New Patches Work To Optimize Code Generation For Linux Context Switching
As some additional enticing Linux kernel patches posted this week for review, an updated patch series is working to optimize code generation during context switching… ⌘ Read more

Open-Source Nouveau+NVK vs. NVIDIA 580 Linux Gaming/Graphics & Compute Driver Performance
This Black Friday is an in-depth look at the current performance of the open-source NVIDIA Linux driver stack with the Nouveau kernel driver (the Nova driver not yet being ready for end-users) paired with the latest Mesa NVK driver for open-source Vulkan API support. With that NVK Vulkan driver is also looking at the OpenGL performance using the Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver used now for OpenGL on modern NVIDIA GPUs rat … ⌘ Read more

New Linux Patches Enhance Single-Threaded Performance On Many-Core CPUs
In addition to the proposed Hierarchical Queued NUMA-aware spinlocks for better performance, another interesting performance-enhancing patch series posted in the past 24 hours for the Linux kernel is for improving the performance of single-threaded tasks running on high core count CPU desktops / workstations / servers… ⌘ Read more

Black Friday Reminder For Those Hating Ads But Loving Linux Hardware/Software
As the one and last friendly reminder, if you enjoy the daily and original content found on Phoronix.com but not liking ads and wanting to view multi-page articles on a single page, native dark mode, and more: the 2025 Black Friday / Cyber Week deal is ending Monday to help support the site while enjoying a discounted rate… ⌘ Read more

AMD ISP4 Linux Webcam Driver Updated For HP ZBook Ultra G1a & Future Ryzen Laptops
We eagerly await to see if the AMD ISP4 driver will be ready for mainlining in the imminent Linux v6.19 merge window but it’s getting down to the wire and thus looking less likely it will make it unless action is taken in the coming days. Today though a sixth version of this AMD ISP4 image signal processor driver was posted for this last piece of the puzzle in enabling the web camera on the HP ZBook Ultra G1a Strix Halo laptop as well as … ⌘ Read more

NTFSPLUS Now Supports $MFT File Extension, FITRIM, More Mount Options
The NTFSPLUS Linux kernel driver as a modern NTFS file-system driver implementation continues quickly taking shape as it aims to become the most performant and feature-rich NTFS read/write driver for Linux systems… ⌘ Read more

HQspinlock Proposal For Linux Shows Very Nice Performance Benefits For Large Servers
A Huawei engineer has sent out patches proposing HQspinlock as a Hierarchical Queued NUMA-aware spinlock for the Linux kernel. HQspinlock aims to addresss inefficiencies within the Linux kernel’s spinlock on modern NUMA-systems due to frequent and costly cross-NUMA cache-line transfers… ⌘ Read more

next-20251128: linux-next
Version:next-20251128 (linux-next)Released:2025-11-28 ⌘ Read more

Black Friday Reminder For Those Hating Ads But Loving Linux Hardware/Software
As the one and last friendly reminder, if you enjoy the daily and original content found on Phoronix.com but not liking ads and wanting to view multi-page articles on a single page, native dark mode, and more: the 2025 Black Friday / Cyber Week deal is ending Monday to help support the site while enjoying a discounted rate… ⌘ Read more

One Of Intel’s Xe Open-Source Linux Graphics Driver Maintainers Is Departing
It’s been two months since there were any notable Intel Linux engineering departures to note following various layoffs and voluntary departures this year that have unfortunately impacted their Linux/open-source talent. Sadly this US Thanksgiving is a new departure to note: one of Intel’s maintainers for the Xe open-source Linux kernel graphics driver is leaving the company. This is for the modern Xe driver used by default since Lunar … ⌘ Read more

Intel Battlemage Graphics Enjoyed Nice GPU Compute Performance Gains In 2025
In addition to Intel Arrow Lake desktop performance evolving nicely on Linux over the course of 2025, the Intel Arc B-Series graphics that launched last December with the Arc B580 have evolved quite nicely too with their open-source driver stack. With it coming up on one year since the Arc B580 launch, here is a look at how the GPU compute performance has evolved since that point. Similar Intel Arc B580 Linux graphics comparisons ar … ⌘ Read more

Valve-Backed Color Pipeline API For Linux Is Finally Ready For Upstream
For those Linux desktop users in the US needing another reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving, a huge and long-awaited accomplishment is ready for merging to the kernel: the Color Pipeline API that is important for HDR is ready for merging! As of last night the code is queued in DRM-Misc-Next for this years-in-the-making effort… ⌘ Read more

next-20251127: linux-next
Version:next-20251127 (linux-next)Released:2025-11-27 ⌘ Read more

Vulkan’s VK_EXT_present_timing Merged After Five Years In The Making
Originally opened in September 2020 by NVIDIA Linux engineer James Jones, tonight the Vulkan VK_EXT_present_timing extension was finally merged! Five years in the making and incorporating contributions from Google, NVIDIA, AMD, Collabora, Samsung, Unity, and Red Hat is this prominent new addition to the Vulkan API… ⌘ Read more

Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 Released - “Exclusively Open-Source” With RADV
With the great upstream support for AMD Radeon graphics in the Linux kernel and Mesa, most desktop users / gamers / enthusiasts are best off just using the latest code shipped by their distributions or via the enthusiast-supported third-party archives/repositories. But for those on older enterprise Linux distributions, Radeon Software for Linux 25.20.3 was recently released for shipping that packaged AMD Linux graphics driver st … ⌘ Read more

AMD ROCm 7.1.1 Released With RHEL 10.1 Support, More Models Working On RDNA4
Following the release of ROCm 7.1 from just under one month ago, ROCm 7.1.1 is now available with expanded Linux operating system support, continued Instinct MI350 series work, more large language models working on RDNA4 GPUs, and other enhancements… ⌘ Read more

Fedora SIG Proposed To Improve Production Stability
A Fedora special interest group is being proposed to help improve production stability of Fedora Linux and better handling incident management when problems do arise… ⌘ Read more

Urgent ACPI Revert For Linux 6.18 To Deal With Some Hardware Crashing
The Linux 6.18 kernel is anticipated for release this coming Sunday while this week a last-minute crisis was averted following reports of a kernel crash from recent ACPI code changes… ⌘ Read more

Rocky Linux 10.1 Released As Community Alternative To RHEL 10.1
Following the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 earlier this month, Rocky Linux 10.1 is now available for this popular community-driven alternative to RHEL 10.1… ⌘ Read more

next-20251126: linux-next
Version:next-20251126 (linux-next)Released:2025-11-26 ⌘ Read more

AMDGPU Driver Lacks HDMI 2.1 While AMD-Xilinx Driver Has Some HDMI 2.1 Support
Those following Phoronix and the open-source AMD Linux kernel graphics driver know that the HDMI Forum has prevented AMD from implementing HDMI 2.1 support in their open-source “AMDGPU” driver as due the driver implementation would run afoul to the organization’s licensing requirements. It’s been pointed out online this week that the AMD-Xilinx DRM driver though does have some HDMI 2.1 support albeit different hardware… ⌘ Read more

Giga Computing R284-A92-AAL1: A Reliable 2U Rack Server For Intel Xeon 6900 Series
Over the past two months I have been publishing a number of fresh benchmarks of the Intel Xeon 6980P “Granite Rapids” flagship processor performance under Linux. All of those new Xeon 6900 series benchmarks on Phoronix have been from the Giga Computing R284-A92-AAL1 2U rack server that has proven to be a very robust and reliable server platform. ⌘ Read more

NTFSPLUS Driver Updated As It Works Toward The Mainline Kernel
Announced last month was the NTFSPLUS driver as a new NTFS file-system driver for the Linux kernel with better write performance and more features compared to the existing NTFS options. A second iteration of that driver was recently queued into “ntfs-next” raising prospects that this NTFSPLUS driver could soon attempt to land in the mainline Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

Improved Upstream Kernel Support For TUXEDO Laptops Being Worked On
While TUXEDO Computers recently ended their efforts for a Snapdragon X Elite Linux laptop, their Linux Intel/AMD laptop efforts continue going well and recently they have been posting patches working to enhance the upstream kernel support for those x86_64 devices… ⌘ Read more

Nix Package Tool Approved For Availability In Fedora 44
Following approval of the /nix top-level directory with Fedora Linux, the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo) has additionally signed off on allowing the Nix package tool to appear in the Fedora 44 repository… ⌘ Read more

HiSilicon Proposes “Cache Lockdown” Driver For More Control Over L3 Cache
A Huawei engineer sent out a proposed driver for the Linux kernel to enable “cache lockdwon” behavior for HiSilicon ARM64 processors for greater control over the processor’s L3 cache usage… ⌘ Read more

libinput 1.30 Released With Support For Writing Plug-Ins In Lua
Red Hat’s leading Linux input expert Peter Hutterer released libinput 1.30 today as the newest update to this input handling library used on both X.Org and Wayland desktops… ⌘ Read more

next-20251125: linux-next
Version:next-20251125 (linux-next)Released:2025-11-25 ⌘ Read more

Linux Kernel Developers Eye Uses For Extra General Purpose Registers With APX
With Advanced Performance Extensions (APX) on upcoming Intel processors doubling the number of general purpose registers (GPRs) among other advantages, Intel engineers are beginning to think of possible kernel uses for the extra registers… ⌘ Read more

Rust For Linux Kernel Co-Maintainer Formally Steps Down
Alex Gaynor recently announced he is formally stepping down as one of the maintainers of the Rust for Linux kernel code with the removal patch now queued for merging in Linux 6.19… ⌘ Read more

AlmaLinux 10.1 Released - Complete With Btrfs Support
Building off the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 from two weeks ago, AlmaLinux 10.1 is now available in GA form for this community-oriented RHEL10 downstream. Making AlmaLinux 10.1 all the more interesting is the project’s decision to promote Btrfs file-system support… ⌘ Read more

AMD SDCIAE Working Its Way Into The Linux 6.19 Kernel
A year and a half after the Linux kernel patches were first posted, SDCIAE that is found with AMD Zen 5 server processors is set to finally be supported by the mainline kernel come Linux 6.19… ⌘ Read more

Dell Pro Max with GB10 Arrives For Linux Performance Benchmarking
The most exciting hardware to arrive this month in the Phoronix lab is Dell having sent over two of their new Dell Pro Max with GB10 systems. The Dell Pro Max with GB10 is their build-out around NVIDIA’s GB10 superchip with ten Cortex-X925 CPU cores and ten Cortex-A725 cores plus the GB10 Blackwell GPU. With 128GB of LPDDR5X memory and 2TB or 4TB SSD by default all within the small chassis, this is an interesting workstation for AI developers. ⌘ Read more

A Very Big Performance Optimization For Loop Block Devices Heading To Linux 6.19
A set of patches implementing async I/O IOCB_NOWAIT support for the loop block device is heading to the Linux 6.19 kernel with some performance improvements that will make loop block device users “wow”… ⌘ Read more

Phoronix Premium Cyber Week “Black Friday” Deal To Help Enable Linux Hardware Reviews
The end of 2025 is quickly approaching and while there are the various end of year holidays, you can still expect to find new and original content on Phoronix each and every single day of the year just as it’s been for more than a decade of the now 21-year-old Phoronix.com. The last day without any new content on Phoronix was all the way back in May of 2012. That’s due to my passion for Linux hardware and open-source, paired in … ⌘ Read more

next-20251124: linux-next
Version:next-20251124 (linux-next)Released:2025-11-24 ⌘ Read more

Intel Working On Linux Support For New Power Savings Feature With Xe3P_LPD
The upcoming Linux 6.19 kernel cycle is set to introduce initial support for Xe3P graphics to be found initially with Nova Lake processors. While that initial support is landing for Linux 6.19, other extra Xe3P features are still to be added to the open-source kernel driver over coming release cycles. One of those extra features being currently tackled is a new element with Xe3P_LPD: the ability to use the system cache for FBC… ⌘ Read more

6.6.117: longterm
Version:6.6.117 (longterm)Released:2025-11-24Source:linux-6.6.117.tar.xzPGP Signature:linux-6.6.117.tar.signPatch:full ( incremental)ChangeLog:ChangeLog-6.6.117 ⌘ Read more

Phoronix Premium Cyber Week “Black Friday” Deal To Help Enable Linux Hardware Reviews
The end of 2025 is quickly approaching and while there are the various end of year holidays, you can still expect to find new and original content on Phoronix each and every single day of the year just as it’s been for more than a decade of the now 21-year-old Phoronix.com. The last day without any new content on Phoronix was all the way back in May of 2012. That’s due to my passion for Linux hardware and open-source, paired in … ⌘ Read more

Linux 6.18-rc7 Released With Late Hardware Improvements
Linux 6.18-rc7 just arrived in the Git tree as the newest weekly test build leading up to Linux 6.18 stable hopefully debuting next Sunday, 30 November… ⌘ Read more

6.18-rc7: mainline
Version:6.18-rc7 (mainline)Released:2025-11-23Source:linux-6.18-rc7.tar.gzPatch:full ( incremental) ⌘ Read more

NVIDIA Preps 1.6Tb/s Networking For Linux 6.19
NVIDIA has a number of Linux kernel patches on the way to the Linux 6.19 kernel in preparing for 1.6 Tb/s networking on NVIDIA-Mellanox hardware… ⌘ Read more

Linux Patches Improve Intel Nested VM Memory Performance Up To ~2353x In Synthetic Test
AWS engineers have been working on Linux kernel improvements to KVM’s VMX code for enhancing the unamanged guest memory when dealing with nested virtual machines. The improved code addresses some correctness issues as well as delivering wild performance improvements within a synthetic benchmark… ⌘ Read more

RISC-V Testing Lapse Resulted In Wrong MIPS RISC-V Vendor ID Landing In Linux 6.18
An interesting anecdote from this week’s batch of RISC-V fixes for the Linux 6.18 kernel exposed that the MIPS RISC-V/JEDEC vendor ID was wrong for code merged at the start of the kernel cycle. The testing hadn’t caught it either as the QEMU emulation also ended up inadvertently using the wrong vendor ID too… ⌘ Read more

780,000 Windows Users Downloaded Linux Distro Zorin OS in the Last 5 Weeks
In October Zorin OS claimed it had 100,000 downloads in a little over two days in the days following Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 10.

And one month later, Zorin OS developers now claim that 780,000 people downloaded it from a Windows computer in the space of a month, according to the tech news site XDA Developers.

… ⌘ Read more