6.6.118: longterm
Version:6.6.118 (longterm)Released:2025-12-01Source:linux-6.6.118.tar.xzPGP Signature:linux-6.6.118.tar.signPatch:full ( incremental)ChangeLog:ChangeLog-6.6.118 ⌘ Read more
Steam Machine, Continued Open-Source Rust Usage & Linux Kernel Happenings In November
It was an eventful past month with Valve announcing the new Steam Machine, a lot of new Linux kernel activity, the continued increase of Rust programming language adoption by open-source projects, a lot of fun hardware benchmarks, and more. There were 283 original news articles on Phoronix the past month about Linux/open-source software and hardware plus another 18 featured Linux hardware reviews / multi-page benchmark articles. … ⌘ Read more
Linux Kernel 6.18 Officially Released
From the blog 9to5Linux:
Linux kernel 6.18 is now available for download, as announced today by Linus Torvalds himself, featuring enhanced hardware support through new and updated drivers, improvements to file systems and networking, and more.
Highlights of Linux 6.18 include the removal of the Bcachefs file system, support for the Rust Binder driver, a new dm-pcache device-mapper target to enable … ⌘ Read more
next-20251201: linux-next
Version:next-20251201 (linux-next)Released:2025-12-01 ⌘ Read more
Intel Finally Posts Open-Source Gaudi 3 Driver Code For The Linux Kernel
The good news is that Intel tonight posted a pull request for open-source Gaudi 3 accelerator support for the mainline Linux kernel! The bad news is that it’s coming quite late in the product cycle, much later than the former excellent Habana Labs open-source track record, and their hopes of squeezing this code into the Linux 6.19 kernel may be dashed… ⌘ Read more
Linux 6.18 Released With Many New Features, Likely This Year’s LTS Kernel
Linux 6.18 stable is now available! Linux 6.18 ushers in many new features and changes while also is expected to become this year’s Long Term Support “LTS” kernel version… ⌘ Read more
NixOS 25.11 Released With 7,002 New Packages Added
It’s been an exciting weekend for Linux distribution released with new versions of Endeavour OS, CachyOS, Solus and now a new NixOS release… ⌘ Read more
Features Expected For Linux 6.19: ASUS Armoury, Many Intel Bits, AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 Enhanced
With the Linux 6.18 kernel likely being released later today, here is a look at some of the features on the table for the next kernel cycle, Linux 6.19. The list is based on changes queued in various “-next” branches ahead of the Linux 6.19 merge window. There’s always the possibility of last minute change of plans or objections raised by Linus Torvalds, but this should provide an early look at some of the features more … ⌘ Read more
Advent of Code 2025 starts tomorrow. 🥳🎄
This year, I’m going to use Python 1 on SuSE Linux 6.4, writing the code on my trusty old Pentium 133 with its 64 MB of RAM. No idea if that old version of Python will be fast enough for later puzzles. We’ll see.
Linux 6.19 Will Allow You To Write I2C Drivers In Rust
With the upcoming Linux 6.19 kernel cycle there are yet more Rust kernel bindings being introduced and other additions to make it possible to write more Linux kernel drivers within the Rust programming language. Among the new Rust additions expected for Linux 6.19 are making it possible to write Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) bus drivers in Rust… ⌘ Read more
Broadcom “BNG_RE” Next-Generation RoCE Driver Slated For Linux 6.19
Queued up via the Linux kernel’s RDMA development Git tree is “BNG_RE” as the next-generation RoCE driver from Broadcom… ⌘ Read more
Black Sesame SoC Support To Be Merged For Linux 6.19
A new SoC vendor and in turn new SoC/platform support is set to premiere in the Linux 6.19 kernel with the initial Black Sesame Technologies C1200 support… ⌘ Read more
Are There More Linux Users Than We Think?
“By my count, Linux has over 11% of the desktop market,” writes ZDNet’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols:
In StatCounter’s latest US numbers, which cover through October, Linux shows up as only 3.49%. But if you look closer, “unknown” accounts for 4.21%. Allow me to make an educated guess here: I suspect those unknown desktops are actually running Linux. What else could it be? FreeBSD? Unix? OS/2? Unl … ⌘ Read more
Solus Linux 4.8 Released With Python 2 Finally Removed, Abandons Solus Software Center
In addition to the releases today of updated Endeavour OS and CachyOS, Solus 4.8 is out as the latest version of another desktop Linux distribution popular with enthusiasts… ⌘ Read more
CachyOS Improves Intel Video Acceleration Experience
In addition to the release today of a big refresh to Endeavour OS, CachyOS is out with their latest ISO refresh for this additional Arch Linux powered desktop OS. CachyOS for its November 2025 refresh brings installer improvements, now installs additional packages for media acceleration when capable Intel graphics are detected, handling for Bcachefs with its DKMS module, and other improvements… ⌘ Read more
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