eCryptfs Sees Fixes For Potential Malicious Intent, Some Dating Back To Its 2006 Debut
The eCryptfs stacked cryptographic filesystem implementation for the Linux kernel to transparently encrypt files saw a number of bug fixes for the Linux 7.3 kernel. A number of these bug fixes deal with potential maliciously-crafted data and vulnerable going back to the 2006 introduction of eCryptfs as this option known for its use on Ubuntu home directory encryption and Chrome OS… ⌘ Read more
Apple HFS / HFS+ File-System Support Continues Seeing Fixes With Linux 7.3
In early 2025 it was being discussed to potentially drop the HFS and HFS+ file-system support with the code having been orphaned over a decade and becoming a maintenance burden. But that dismal outlook quickly turned around with some developers stepping up to maintain the old Apple file-system support. Over a year later, fortunately, it’s turned out to be a success story with more HFS/HFS+ file-system fixes continuing to work their way into the … ⌘ Read more
Longtime Linux CIFS/SMB3 Maintainer Steps Down
There is a changing of the guard with Linux 7.3 as the maintainer of the Common Internet File System (CIFS) / SMB3 code within the Linux kernel. Longtime maintainer, principal Linux CIFS author, and current Microsoft employee Steve French has stepped down due to health reasons… ⌘ Read more
Specially Crafted NTFS File-System Image Allows Root Access On Linux With NTFS3 Driver
A reported security vulnerability for the NTFS3 driver has gone unaddressed since being reported earlier this summer. The vulnerability allows a pre-crafted NTFS image on a USB flash drive or similar to allow the user to gain root access to the running Linux system… ⌘ Read more
AMD RDNA 4m Firmware Published For Linux Ahead Of Launch
In addition to AMD’s Friday afternoon big code drop of all the UALink enablement patches for the Linux kernel and the AMDGPU driver, there was another big drop from AMD to end out the week… Upstreamed to the linux-firmware.git repository is all the firmware binaries needed by the open-source driver stack for initializing their forthcoming RDNA 4m “GFX 11.7” graphics… ⌘ Read more
Sched_ext’s Sub-Scheduler Support Now “Feature Complete” With Linux 7.3
The extensible scheduler framework “sched_ext” that allows for custom schedulers as BPF programs has been working on sub-scheduler support in recent kernel cycles. With Linux 7.3, sub-scheduler support is now deemed feature complete… ⌘ Read more
Red Hat’s Tuned 2.28 To Improve Out-Of-The-Box WiFi Power Savings On Fedora
Tuned 2.28 released this Saturday as the newest version of Red Hat’s tuning profile delivery mechanism for Linux. Tuned is used notably out-of-the-box on Fedora Linux for monitoring and adaptively tuning systems… ⌘ Read more
Wine 11.16 brings more ARM64 support improvements
The Wine 11.16 development release is officially out now bringing further enhancements to running Windows games / apps on Linux.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 x86/mm Lands Patches To Greatly Improve Latency-Sensitive Workloads
The highlight of this week’s x86/mm pull request of changes for the Linux 7.3 kernel are fixes that reduce the time that the TLB flushing code has interrupts disabled. This helps significantly with latency-sensitive workloads but Intel engineer Dave Hansen noted in the pull request that “it’s certainly something to keep an eye on” in looking out for any regressions… ⌘ Read more
China Joins Europe In Scrapping Windows For Linux
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to a Bloomberg report, attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security, the country has ordered some government agencies to drop Windows 10 China Government Edition for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Why not Windows 11? Because China, like many other non-US governments, no longer trusts American companies with the … ⌘ Read more
OpenZFS 2.4.4 Released With Linux 7.2 Support, Dozens Of Fixes
OpenZFS 2.4.4 is out today as the newest stable point release for this ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems… ⌘ Read more
Wine 11.16 Released With VA-API Hardware Decoding, Better ARM64 Support
Wine 11.16 is out today as the newest bi-weekly development release for this software enabling Windows games and applications to run on Linux and other platforms… ⌘ Read more
Proton 11.0-2 Enables More Titles With Steam Play / Linux Gaming
Just in time for those that enjoy their Linux / Steam Play gaming on weekends, Valve and CodeWeavers today released Proton 11.0-2 as the newest stable release of this Wine 11.0 downstream that powers Steam Play for running Windows games gracefully on Linux… ⌘ Read more
Proton 11.0-2 is out with lots of gaming fixes for Linux / SteamOS, Steam Deck, Steam Machine
Valve just rolled out the red carpet for the latest mainline stable update to their compatibility layer with Proton 11.0-2 now available.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/proton-11-0-2-is-out-with-lots-of-gaming-fi … ⌘ Read more
AMD Posts Massive Patch Series For Enabling UALink In The Linux Kernel
Whether coincidental or intentional, AMD engineers tend to drop interesting, feature patches for the open-source/Linux space on Friday afternoons. Hitting the kernel mailing list minutes ago were two patch series sent out by AMDGPU maintainer Alex Deucher for introducing UALink infrastructure… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Lands Improvements For Voodoo 3 / 4 / 5 & Vintage Atari Computers In 2026
At a time when Linux continues dropping older hardware drivers due to the influx of AI/LLM-generated bug reports and patches for hardware extremely unlikely to be used with modern versions of the mainline Linux kernel, Voodoo graphics cards and vintage Atari computers are seeing some reprieve with the upcoming Linux 7.3 kernel release… ⌘ Read more
Intel Computer Vision Sensing Driver Now Ready For Nova Lake
The main set of media subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.3 merge window. Notable this round is the Intel Computer Vision Sensing “CVS” driver merged the previous cycle now supporting next-gen Nova Lake platforms… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up Stack Randomization, Ensures It Happen As Early As Possible
Merged this week for the Linux 7.3 kernel was a big clean-up to the stack randomization code for better security on Linux systems and helping unify some of the architecture-specific code… ⌘ Read more
Intel Compute Runtime 26.31.39395.13 Continues Prepping For Crescent Island, OpenCL LEO
Intel today released the Compute Runtime 26.31.39395.13 open-source GPU compute stack update for Windows and Linux systems. Big ongoing trends for the Intel Compute Runtime continue to be preparing for upcoming Crescent Island and Nova Lake Xe3P graphics hardware as well as building out their new OpenCL LEO driver… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Ready With CXL Type-2 Driver Support For AMD Solarflare NICs
With the mainline Linux 7.2 kernel there is now the basic support in place for CXL Type-2 accelerator drivers within the CXL core subsystem code. The first in-tree Type-2 driver with the Linux kernel is for the new AMD Solarflare NIC hardware… ⌘ Read more
Linus Torvalds Endures A Debug Session From Hell, “Enormously Helped” By AI
It’s pretty rare to see Linus Torvalds author patches himself pertaining to the open-source Linux graphics drivers, but waking up this morning I was surprised to see he authored and committed an Intel Xe kernel graphics driver change himself. It ended up being after he encountered a “debug session from hell” but was ultimately helped by AI in fixing a bug that had been irking him… ⌘ Read more
Bazzite Linux 44 for handhelds finally launches with some massive upgrades
Bazzite Linux 44 has been out for desktops for a while, but the “Deck” image for handhelds and console-like TV PCs is finally here with a huge overhaul.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Intel Mesa Linux Drivers Now Treating Nova Lake S / U / H / HX As Stable
Intel’s open-source Mesa drivers for Iris Gallium3D (OpenGL) and ANV (Vulkan) on Linux are no longer treating next-gen Nova Lake processors with integrated graphics as experimental and off-by-default. With today’s Mesa 26.3-devel code, the Intel driver code across Nova Lake’s S, U, H, and HX product families are considered stable and enabled by default… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Network Changes Merged But Developers “Completely Overwhelmed” Due To AI/LLMs
All of the networking subsystem feature updates were merged today for the Linux 7.3 kernel’s merge window. There are a lot of wired and wireless networking improvements this cycle but also a ton of bug fixes – including many not so important fixes spun up by AI/LLM agents. The networking subsystem maintainers admit now they are “completely overwhelmed” due to this code churn from the output of AI large language models… ⌘ Read more
KMSCON 10.0.2 Brings asciicast Playback Support, Bug Fixes
KMSCON 10.0.2 debuted today as the latest update to this leading user-space terminal emulator for Linux systems. KMSCON is built around Linux’s KMS/DRM interfaces and the most viable alternative to date for in-kernel VTs… ⌘ Read more
FSCRYPT Sees Cleanup With Linux 7.3 To Open Door For More Features Like Btrfs Encryption
FSCRYPT is the Linux file-system encryption framework for supporting per-directory, transparent encryption. FSCRYPT so far is used by the likes of EXT4, F2FS, and CephFS. For Linux 7.3 there is an important clean-up to the FSCRYPT code to simplify it while also opening the door for new features moving forward into future kernel versions… ⌘ Read more
Linux Driver Posted For The PreSonus Quantum 2626: A ~$700 Thunderbolt Audio Interface
The PreSonus Quantum 2626 is a high-end, Thunderbolt 3 based audio interface. PreSonus just maintains Windows and macOS drivers for this high-end audio interface while now an open-source Linux driver has been posted after being independently developed via reverse engineering… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up The Code For Disabling Of Legacy 32-bit Time Support
The Linux kernel has supported the CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME Kconfig build time option for optionally disabling of legacy 32-bit time system call support. This is intended to disable the code that uses a 32-bit integer for time that is thus not Year 2038 safe, but at the cost of breaking compatibility for legacy 32-bit applications. Even if building without Linux 32-bit time support, it turns out some 32-bit time code persisted but that … ⌘ Read more
EXT4 Preps More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3
In addition to the IOmap improvements helping EXT4 performance in Linux 7.3, the main EXT4 feature pull request has now been submitted for this next kernel version. That pull is set to land yet more performance optimizations for EXT4… ⌘ Read more
PINE64 Halts Linux Device Production Amid DRAM and EMMC Shortages
BrianFagioli writes: PINE64 has some very bad news for Linux hardware fans. PINE64 says it has no plans to produce additional Linux devices in the near future because of the ongoing DRAM and eMMC shortage. Future production will depend on component pricing after mid 2027, while existing PineNote and PineTab2 inventory could run out in rough … ⌘ Read more
Two Very Exciting Memory Management Optimizations Going Into Linux 7.3
Andrew Morton on Tuesday sent out all of the memory management “MM” updates for the Linux 7.3 merge window. The MM pull was particularly heavy as he noted 1,250 “added-to-MM” emails were sent out this cycle compared to 920 the prior cycle. With a lot of patch churn, he also turned to Google’s Gemini AI for writing his patch summaries. In going through the very verbose AI-generated summary, there are two patch series that get me excited on the performance … ⌘ Read more
Cinematic puzzle-platforming comedy LIFTED is a delightful short adventure
LIFTED is a family-friendly and quite funny cinematic platforming adventure that recently released with Native Linux support.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Btrfs Ready With More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3: Some ~3x To ~5x Wins
David Sterba of SUSE sent in the Btrfs file-system feature updates today that target the Linux 7.3 merge window. Among other changes are more performance improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more
TFC2: The Fertile Crescent 2 - Collapse of The Bronze Age is one to check out for RTS fans
TFC2: The Fertile Crescent 2 - Collapse of The Bronze Age just entered Early Access with Linux support, and if you love RTS games you need to check it out.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Deprecates Many Older 32-bit ARM Platforms, Orphans Hundreds Of Drivers
All of the SoC updates have been merged for the Linux 7.3 kernel that include adding some new SoCs as well as deprecating several older 32-bit ARM platforms. In turn with those platforms deprecated, “hundreds” of drivers are now orphaned in the process… ⌘ Read more
Linux VRAM management set for more improvements with kernel 7.3
Valve contractor Natalie Vock blogged about more work to improve VRAM management on Linux, and we’re set to see even more improvements with kernel 7.3.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
Proton Experimental brings fixes for Company of Heroes 3, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Arma 3 and more
Valve just launched the latest Proton Experimental update to improve gaming on Linux / SteamOS, Steam Deck and Steam Machine - here’s all that’s changed.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/pr … ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Scheduler Improvements: Help For Gaming, Hybrid CPUs, Lower Scheduler Latency
The exciting set of scheduler updates have been merged for the Linux 7.3 merge window… ⌘ Read more
New AMD Low-Power Core & Unified Intel/AMD CPU Core Type Handling In Linux 7.3
Covered first on Phoronix back in June was an AMD Linux patch for introducing a new “low power” CPU core type to complement their typical “performance” cores and their “efficiency” cores like with Zen 4C/5C. That low power core is presumed for some Zen 6 clients and that integration is now merged for Linux 7.3 as well as unifying the Intel/AMD CPU core type handling… ⌘ Read more
COSMIC Epoch 1.6 Released With Per-App Volume Control, Remote Desktop Preparations
COSMIC Epoch 1.6 was released this evening as the latest milestone for this open-source, Rust-based desktop environment led by System76 as part of the work on their Pop!_OS Linux distribution… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Adds New “bpf_sock_read_xattr” Feature For systemd, BPF Programs
Merged earlier this year for Linux 7.1 was extended attributes on sockets support as a feature sought after by the likes of GNOME and systemd for helping with Varlink IPC usage and other purposes. A limitation though of the functionality has been no efficient means for a BPF program to read those user extended attribute labels back. But with Linux 7.3 that’s being addressed with the new bpf_sock_read_xattr() kernel function… ⌘ Read more
IOmap Improvement For Linux 7.3 Takes EXT4 & XFS Performance Further
As part of the VFS pull requests now merged to the Linux 7.3 development kernel was an improvement to the IOmap framework used by various file-systems for mapping logical file byte offsets in memory to their physical locations on storage. With the now-merged code, this modern block mapping framework is allowing better performance at least for the EXT4 file-system… ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 12 Updated For Intel Wildcat Lake, Shipping Starts In October
Last year Framework Computer launched the Framework Laptop 12 as an upgrade-friendly and Linux-compatible 2-in-1 laptop. The Framework Laptop 12 was originally powered by Intel Core 13th Gen “Raptor Lake” low-end processor while now Framework is adding Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” as an upgrade or for new Laptop 12 orders… ⌘ Read more
Framework Laptop 12 gets Fedora KDE Linux on pre-builts, along with new Intel Core Series 3 processors
Nice to see an expansion of Linux on devices, with the Framework Laptop 12 getting support for pre-builts to ship with Fedora KDE 44 and Intel Core Series 3.
Read the full article on [GamingOnLinux](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/ … ⌘ Read more
NVIDIA GeForce NOW finally adds official Firefox support
NVIDIA GeForce NOW finally adds official Firefox support. On Windows, that is. Sadly, any mention of Linux was left out of the announcements today.
Read the full article on GamingOnLinux. ⌘ Read more
The CachyOS Performance vs. Other Linux Operating Systems On A $46k USD Workstation
Recently I looked at the performance of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS vs. Windows 11 on the Intel Xeon 678X running within the HP Z4 G6i workstation. Linux performed admirably as one would expect. With this Intel Xeon Granite Rapids WS workstation from HP though commanding a retail price more than $46,000 USD, you likely want nothing but the utmost performance out of it. So for those looking to maximize the OS performance, here are some numbers from … ⌘ Read more
Rust For Linux 7.3 Begins Seeing Fixes To Prepare For Rust’s GCC Backend
In addition to the POWER/PowerPC code adding Rust kernel support, the main set of Rust programming language updates for the Linux 7.3 kernel have now been submitted. Most notable are early fixes toward eventually allowing the experimental Rust GCC back-end to be used as an alternative to the official rustc compiler with LLVM code generation… ⌘ Read more
Linux 7.3 Corrects Faulty Behavior Of FAT File-System Driver For Filenames Too Fat
It’s not too often that the Linux FAT driver for FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 format support receives updates worth mentioning. For Linux 7.3 there is one patch though and it’s due to the driver until now lacking an upper-bounds check on the length of the filename, which could lead to some unexpected situations with extremely long filenames… ⌘ Read more
Lenovo Lands New Watchdog Driver In Linux 7.3 For Their SE30G2 + SE60 Edge AI Computers
When it comes to the watchdog driver changes for Linux 7.3, standing out is the new Lenovo driver for their upcoming ThinkEdge AI edge computing systems… ⌘ Read more
XFS Lands FALLOC_FL_WRITE_ZEROES For Efficiency Improvement In Linux 7.3
The XFS file-system improvements have been merged for Linux 7.3. For end-users the only notable change for this file-system on the new kernel is adding support for FALLOC_FL_WRITE_ZEROES… ⌘ Read more