User-space developers working with highly threaded applications would often
like to be able to use spinlocks to protect shared data structures from
concurrent access. There is a fundamental problem with user-space
spinlocks, though: there is no way to prevent a thread from being
preempted. Various ways of working around this problem have been explored,
but this
patch from Steven Rostedt questions the premise on which much of that
work is based: what if it were possible to prevent preemption, for a
short period at least?

Source: LWN.net – [$] Deferred scheduling for user-space critical sections

For a view into the OpenBSD approach to security, see this message from
Theo de Raadt, where he describes a plan to remove the syscall() system call
(which allows the invocation of any available system call by providing its
number) from the kernel. The purpose, of course, is to make it harder for
an attacker to invoke an arbitrary system call, even if they are able to
run some code on the target system.

I hope I am forcing attack coders into using increasingly more
complicated methods. Same time, it means fewer methods are
available. Other methods make exploitation more fragile. This is
pushing success rates into “low-percent statistical” success. If
we teach more software stacks to “fail hard, don’t try to
recover”, that is an improvement in security.

Source: LWN.net – Removing syscall() from OpenBSD

Linux Mint’s vision showcases a continued reliance on Xorg. Wayland’s on the horizon, but full readiness is projected for 2026. More on that here!

The post Linux Mint Will Continue Betting on Xorg in Future Releases appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – Linux Mint Will Continue Betting on Xorg in Future Releases

In a monthly update post, the Linux Mint team announces some exciting developments, such as an unstable repository, updates to Hypnotix, the TV viewer application, and ambitious plans for Wayland support.

The post Linux Mint Enables Testing Repo and Plans for Wayland appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – Linux Mint Enables Testing Repo and Plans for Wayland

Due to two last-minute issues, Fedora 39’s release has been pushed back one more week, with a new target date of November 7. Here’s more on that!

The post Fedora 39 Release Delayed by a Week for the Second Time appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – Fedora 39 Release Delayed by a Week for the Second Time

Today, Mozilla announces the availability of its AI Guide, a community-driven resource, where developers can come together, ready to pioneer and drive generative AI innovations. In the spirit of a truly open web, Mozilla launches a tool that will evolve, just like the world of AI, which is messy, and poses complex questions that have […]

Source: LXer – Introducing Mozilla’s AI Guide, the developers onboarding ramp to AI

The most well known system information tool is arguably Neofetch, a wonderfully versatile tool written in Bash. An alternative tool is Fastfetch which is written in C. This free and open source tool claims it’s must faster as a result.

Source: LXer – Fastfetch – fetch system information

Upstream policy change for LTS kernels Ubuntu doesn’t use. Canonical has addressed customer concerns over the reduction in long term support (LTS) of its code – but there is no real change here, and you’ll still need Ubuntu Pro to keep the rest of the OS patched.…

Source: LXer – Ubuntu LTS kernels will get one decade of fixes … still

Guide on installing FFMpeg on Debian 12 Bookworm utilizing Debian’s default repository along with a secondary method using Deb-Multimedia APT repository, with example APT pinning instructions to then upgrade or install the latest FFMpeg 6.0 build.

Source: LXer – How to Install FFMpeg on Debian 12 Bookworm

Discover how to deploy the container management tool Portainer with Podman on Linux with this quick guide.

The post How to Deploy Portainer With Podman on Linux appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – How to Deploy Portainer With Podman on Linux

Mozilla’s review-check firm acquisition to bear fruit really soon. Firefox 119 is out with improved inter-device sync and PDF editing, but the next version looks likely to have a whole new ability.…

Source: LXer – Firefox 119 adds more PDF handiness, but 120 can spot the fakes

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Drupal CMS with Apache and Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04.

The post How to Install Drupal CMS With Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04 appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – How to Install Drupal CMS With Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu 22.04

The sed command is a stream editor that helps you search, find, replace, insert, and delete strings inside a text file without opening it.

The post Beginners’ Guide to Sed Command in Linux appeared first on Linux Today.

Source: Linux Today – Beginners’ Guide to Sed Command in Linux

The Linux Mint project announced today in their monthly newsletter that they’ve started working on implementing a Wayland session for a future release of the Linux Mint distribution, to be initially available in Linux Mint 21.3.

Source: LXer – Linux Mint 21.3 to Ship with Cinnamon 6.0 and Experimental Wayland Support