The Linux 6.6 merge window is over as the period by which new features and improvements are added to the kernel. Linux 6.6-rc1 is out the door as the kernel developers and testing community begin stabilizing this next major Linux kernel release. With Linux 6.6 there are many exciting feature additions but also one notable addition that once again didn’t make the cut…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.6-rc1 Released With EEVDF, AMD DBC & Intel Shadow Stack But No Bcachefs

In addition to all the open-source kernel graphics/display driver updates for Linux 6.6, merged this afternoon ahead of the Linux 6.6-rc1 tagging is merging of the DRM continuous integration (CI) code to hopefully lead to better testing of DRM subsystem/driver changes…

Source: Phoronix – DRM CI Merged Into Linux 6.6 – Linus Torvalds: “Let’s See Where It Goes”

In addition to the EEVDF scheduler replacing the CFS code in Linux 6.6, another fundamental and interesting change with Linux 6.6 is on the workqueue (WQ) side with a rework that can benefit systems with multiple L3 caches like modern AMD chiplet-based systems…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.6 WQ Change May Help Out AMD CPUs & Other Systems With Multiple L3 Caches

With Linux 6.6 the KSMBD server is no longer “experimental” while this new kernel on the SMB3 client side also brings a notable addition: the new “dir_cache_timeout” option to control the cache time for directory contents…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.6 SMB Client To Allow Adjusting Cache Time For Directory Contents

Mike Blumenkrantz working for Valve’s Linux graphics driver team has added implicit sync support to the Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan driver, which in turn now opens this generic driver up for correctly providing GLAMOR rendering with X11 and XWayland environments…

Source: Phoronix – Mesa 23.3 Fixes Zink Rendering For X.Org/XWayland GLAMOR

While last week saw the main set of power management updates for the Linux 6.6 kernel, this week a follow-on pull request was submitted — and merged — with a few last minute additions…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.6 Allowing Per-Policy CPUFreq Performance Boost Control

More RISC-V architecture updates were merged this weekend for the ongoing Linux 6.6 merge window…

Source: Phoronix – RISC-V With Linux 6.6 Offers Better Kernel Security With KASLR

Merged overnight were the perf subsystem tooling updates for the Linux 6.6 merge window that is set to close later on Sunday…

Source: Phoronix – AmpereOne Core PMU Perf Events Added For Linux 6.6

The LoongArch CPU port is seeing a number of new kernel features enabled with Linux 6.6 as well as seeing some new hardware features wired up such as for Loongson Binary Translation (LBT) and allowing LSX/LASX instruction use in kernel-space…

Source: Phoronix – LoongArch With Linux 6.6 Adds KGDB/KDB, KFence, KASAN, LBT Binary Translation

Back in 2021 Samsung engineers posted KSMBD as an in-kernel SMB3 server alternative to the likes of the user-space Samba server. KSMBD merged into Linux 5.15 as an experimental SMB server while after two years of fixes and other improvements has now dropped its “experimental” marking…

Source: Phoronix – KSMBD Declared Stable – No Longer “Experimental” – In Linux 6.6

A new version of DXVK-NVAPI is now available, the NVIDIA public NVAPI interface implemented atop DXVK for use by Direct3D games running on Valve’s Steam Play (Proton). DXVK-NVAPI allows for NVIDIA DLSS for Vulkan / D3D11 / D3D12, NVIDIA Reflex support, PhysX, and other NVIDIA features to be enabled for popular Windows games running on Linux…

Source: Phoronix – DXVK-NVAPI 0.6.4 Implements HDR Support Via DXVK

The GNOME 45 release candidate is now available for testing ahead of the desktop’s stable release later this month…

Source: Phoronix – GNOME 45.rc Brings GDM Wayland Multi-Seat, More libadwaita Adoption

KDE developer Nate Graham is out with his newest weekly development summary as the developers work toward releasing Plasma 6.0 in February…

Source: Phoronix – KDE Lands More Power Management Tuning, Behaves Better On Btrfs File-Systems

FreeBSD 14 Beta 1 is available this weekend for helping to test out this major BSD operating system update that should debut as stable before the end of October…

Source: Phoronix – FreeBSD 14 Beta Released – Initial WiFi 6 Support, Updated LLVM Toolchain, Fwget Utility

Earlier this year I wrote about Microsoft working on their first Vulkan extension and today it finally debuted within the Vulkan 1.3.264 spec update…

Source: Phoronix – Vulkan 1.3.264 Released With Microsoft Layered Driver Extension

With the recently released Linux 6.5 kernel bringing AMD P-State EPP by default for modern Ryzen systems rather than the generic ACPI CPUFreq driver, running Linux 6.5 (or newer) in various workloads can lead to improved performance and/or power efficiency. Curious about the impact on the mobile side, I recently carried out some benchmarks of the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld with AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC from Linux 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, and 6.6 Git kernels.

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.5+ Bringing Some Performance/Efficiency Improvements For The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme / ASUS ROG Ally

In addition to the ASUS laptop improvements for Linux 6.6 with the ASUS-WMI driver, additional feature work is on the way for future kernel versions with one of those interesting additions being support for the ASUS Screenpad. Some higher-end ASUS laptops feature a secondary screen “screenpad” on the laptops and the pending ASUS-WMI driver patch will properly support it…

Source: Phoronix – Linux Driver Preparing Support For ASUS Screenpad On High-End Laptops

Since early this year AMD has been working on Linux enablement patches for Dynamic Boost Control (DBC). This is a new feature of some AMD SoCs that allow an “authenticated entity” to have greater control over certain SoC characteristics to improve the power/performance. AMD DBC was merged for Linux 6.6 just days ago while already new patches have been posted that extend the supported platforms for this Dynamic Boost Control functionality…

Source: Phoronix – Expanded Platform Support For AMD Dynamic Boost Control Being Worked On For Linux

While we’ve been looking forward to Bcachefs landing and carrying out a fresh round of performance testing of Bcachefs against other file-system options, it’s looking clear now that Bcachefs won’t be landing for the Linux 6.6 merge window…

Source: Phoronix – Bcachefs Looks Like It Won’t Make It For Linux 6.6

Merged on Thursday were a batch of KVM virtualization changes for the Linux 6.6 kernel…

Source: Phoronix – Linux 6.6 KVM Brings Intel & AMD Fixes, SEV-ES DebugSwap, New RISC-V Extensions