Fwupd 1.9.8 Released With Firmware Updating For New DP Converters, Wacom Cintiq Pro

Just two weeks since Fwupd 1.9.7 was released, Fwupd 1.9.8 is now available for this open-source solution that facilities firmware updating on Linux systems for system firmware as well as various devices/peripherals…

Source: Phoronix – Fwupd 1.9.8 Released With Firmware Updating For New DP Converters, Wacom Cintiq Pro

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Committing Fully To Netplan For Network Configuration

The Canonical-developed Netplan has served for Linux network configuration on Ubuntu Server and Cloud versions for years. With the recent Ubuntu 23.10 release, Netplan is now being used by default on the desktop. Canonical is committing to fully leveraging Netplan for network configuration with the upcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release and in turn also marking the Netplan 1.0 release…

Source: Phoronix – Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Committing Fully To Netplan For Network Configuration

Microsoft Gets OpenGL 4.4 Running Atop Direct3D 12 Using Mesa, OpenGL 4.5 Inbound

It was just last week that Microsoft got OpenGL 4.3 implemented over Direct3D 12 for use in cases where Windows lacks a native OpenGL driver or for use under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSLg). After implementing a few more GL extensions atop D3D12, Microsoft has now got OpenGL 4.4 in Mesa running on Direct3D…

Source: Phoronix – Microsoft Gets OpenGL 4.4 Running Atop Direct3D 12 Using Mesa, OpenGL 4.5 Inbound

Intel's Mesa Shader Compiler Backend Scheduling Now ~30% Faster

With newly-merged optimizations to Mesa 24.0-devel, the Intel shader compiler back-end is seeing its scheduling code execute around 30% faster. This big speed-up comes due to overhauling how they store pass information and reusing that for multiple pre-RA scheduling modes…

Source: Phoronix – Intel’s Mesa Shader Compiler Backend Scheduling Now ~30% Faster

Patches Posted For Removing The SLAB Allocator From The Linux Kernel

Since the Linux 6.5 kernel this summer the SLAB allocator has been officially deprecated. This followed the demise of SLOB and trying to get all Linux users over to the SLUB allocator. Patches have now been posted for stripping out the SLAB allocator for good from the mainline kernel…

Source: Phoronix – Patches Posted For Removing The SLAB Allocator From The Linux Kernel

Firefox Is Going To Try And Ship With Wayland Enabled By Default

Guardrails have been in place where the Firefox browser has enabled Wayland by default (when running on recent GTK versions) but as of today that code has been removed… Firefox will try to move forward with stable releases where Wayland will ship by default!..

Source: Phoronix – Firefox Is Going To Try And Ship With Wayland Enabled By Default

Intel's Aurora Supercomputer Debuts On TOP500 In Spot #2

The Aurora supercomputer originally was supposed to be completed by Intel and Cray/HPE for the Argonne National Laboratory back in 2018. Now at the end of 2023, it’s made its first debut on the TOP500 list… But only as a partial deployment and is coming in at spot number two…

Source: Phoronix – Intel’s Aurora Supercomputer Debuts On TOP500 In Spot #2

One Of Ubuntu's Great Features Has Been Broken For One Month

One of the great niche features of Ubuntu Linux has been the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA that’s been maintained by Canonical for providing daily kernel builds of the Linux Git kernel state as well as of all point releases and release candidates. Sadly it’s now been broken for one month for this very convenient feature…

Source: Phoronix – One Of Ubuntu’s Great Features Has Been Broken For One Month

Linux Foundation Creating The High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF)

Kicking off an exciting Supercomputing SC23 week, The Linux Foundation announced this morning that they are forming the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) to help advance an open-source core software stack for high performance computing (HPC). Already a number of national labs, Intel, NVIDIA, and other stakeholders are involved…

Source: Phoronix – Linux Foundation Creating The High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF)

AMD Radeon PRO W7700 Launches As $999 GPU With Fully Open-Source Upstream Linux Drivers

AMD today is announcing what they call “the most powerful PRO GPU under $1,000” with the Radeon PRO W7700 that has a suggested price of $999. Like the rest of the Radeon PRO W7000 series, the W7700 enjoys fully upstream and working open-source Linux graphics driver support for launch day. I received an AMD Radeon PRO W7700 and have been putting it through its paces successfully under Linux.

Source: Phoronix – AMD Radeon PRO W7700 Launches As 9 GPU With Fully Open-Source Upstream Linux Drivers

RADV Adds Knobs To Force Shader Re-Compilation – Helping Games On The Steam Deck

Valve’s Steam Deck is a heavy user of relying on pre-compiled shaders to yield quicker start times and a more efficient handheld gaming experience. But in cases where bugs happen and a shader compiler fix needs to be back-ported, there isn’t a straight-forward means of properly handling that for the Steam Deck. But with new knobs being added to the Mesa RADV driver code, there will be some options for better dealing with this moving forward…

Source: Phoronix – RADV Adds Knobs To Force Shader Re-Compilation – Helping Games On The Steam Deck

OpenBLAS 0.3.25 Adds New AVX-512 Optimizations For Sapphire Rapids & More

Ahead of Supercomputing SC23 week, a new version of OpenBLAS has been published for this leading open-source Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms (BLAS) library. OpenBLAS 0.3.25 brings new improvements for Intel and AMD x86_64 CPUs as well as a number of general improvements, and continued tuning for other architectures like ARM64, POWER, and LoongArch…

Source: Phoronix – OpenBLAS 0.3.25 Adds New AVX-512 Optimizations For Sapphire Rapids & More

Linux 6.7-rc1 Released With NVIDIA GSP & Bcachefs While Itanium IA-64 Retired

After a very exciting two weeks, the merge window for Linux 6.7 is now wrapped up and Linus Torvalds has published Linux 6.7-rc1 as the first release candidate leading up to the stable release around the end of the calendar year…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.7-rc1 Released With NVIDIA GSP & Bcachefs While Itanium IA-64 Retired

The Linux 6.7 Merge Window Is Massive With Many New Features

The Linux 6.7 merge window has been downright exciting with additions like Nouveau GSP support and the Bcachefs file-system being added. It’s also been downright massive as one of the largest merge windows in recent history in terms of code changes. Here’s some statistics of the Linux 6.7 merge window ahead of today’s Linux 6.7-rc1 release…

Source: Phoronix – The Linux 6.7 Merge Window Is Massive With Many New Features