Zack's Kernel News
Community Notebook: Kernel News
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.
Premium Real-Time Mode Support
Vernon Mauery submitted his IBM Real-Time “SMI Free” mode driver for inclusion in the official kernel. The driver would provide a SysFS interface to switch the entire system into and out of IBM Premium Real-Time Mode (PRTM) on x86 hardware that supports it. This functionality would allow user code to disable System Management Interrupts (SMIs), thus allowing the code to decouple itself from the operating system’s normal security and resource allocation controls and interact directly with the hardware in otherwise impossible ways. This feature can do lots of fun things. It can provide an environment for real-time applications to run without fear of being interrupted; it can allow debuggers to do neat stuff; and it can allow really spectacular security breaches on the system.
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News
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KDE Plasma 5.22 Released with Better Stability and Usability Across the Board
The KDE Plasma desktop development has kicked into high gear and the latest release reflects newfound popularity and drive behind the open-source environment.
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Nvidia and Valve Collaborate to Bring DLSS to Linux
Both powerhouses in the gaming industry are trying to make the experience on Linux much improved, by way of DLSS.
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Kali Linux 2021.2 Official Release Now Available
The latest iteration of security fan-favorite Kali Linux has been released with new tools, themes, and plenty of improvements.
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Entroware Unleashes a Beast of a Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a portable workhorse, look no further than the Entroware Proteus laptop.
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System76 Unveils its “Launch” Keyboard
The open-source darling, System76, is about to launch the Launch keyboard and you can pre-order yours now.
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Armbian 21.05 Now Available
The Armbian developers have released the latest update to the Debian-based Linux distribution geared for ARM and embedded devices.
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StarLabs has Released Another Linux Laptop
A new 14" Linux laptop has been released by the company that created the 11" Star Lite and can be purchased with your choice of Linux distribution.
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Ubuntu 21.04 Adds Support for Active Directory and Other Major Changes
In a bid to help make Linux more viable for the business desktop, Canonical adds support for Active Directory and a few other notable changes.
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GNOME 40 Available on openSUSE
The rolling release edition of openSUSE, Tumbleweed, now offers the latest version of the GNOME desktop.
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Apple M1 Hardware Support to be Merged into Linux Kernel 5.13
Linux users will be able to install their favorite distribution on Apple’s M1-based hardware.