Zack’s Kernel News

Kernel News

Article from Issue 147/2013
Author(s):

Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.

Don’t Trust Firmware

Over the course of debugging something, Marcin Slusarz remarked that the problem looked like it might be an ACPI bug, to which Linus Torvalds replied:

Here’s the #1 thing to keep in mind about firmware:

- firmware is *always* buggy.

It’s that simple. Don’t expect anything else. Firmware is written by people who have lost the will to live (why? Because they do firmware development for a living), and the only thing keeping them going is the drugs. And they’re not the ‘fun’ kind of drugs. The end result is predictable. In their drug-induced haze, they make a mess.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Kernel Hacks Intro

    If you get right down to it, the Linux kernel is the real Linux. This month we focus on tools for tuning and tailoring the kernel.

  • Kernel News

    Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the NOVA filesystem, making system calls userspace only, and extending module support to plain executables. 

  • Kernel News

    Zack Brown reports on communicating with Linux during bootup, pruning SuperH, and bug hunting for Stea.

  • ZACK'S KERNEL NEWS

    The Linux kernel mailing list comprises the core of Linux development activities. Traffic volumes are immense, often reaching ten thousand messages in a given week, and keeping up to date with the entire scope of development is a virtually impossible task for one person. One of the few brave souls to take on this task is Zack Brown. Our regular monthly column keeps you abreast of the latest discussions and decisions, selected and summarized by Zack. Zack has been publishing a weekly online digest, the Kernel Traffic news letter for over five years now. Even reading Kernel Traffic alone can be a time consuming task. Linux Magazine now provides you with the quintessence of Linux Kernel activities, straight from the horse’s mouth.

  • Kernel News

     

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News