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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Microsoft Brings procmon to Linux
The creators of Windows have brought the sysinternals procmon tool to the open source operating system.
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New KDE Slimbook Available
The makers of the KDE Slimbook have released a Ryzen-4000 powered laptop.
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PinePhone Now Offers a Convergence Package
The makers of the Linux PinePhone are now offering a model that makes desktop/mobile convergence a reality.
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Flutter is Coming to Linux
Google and Canonical have joined forces to bring Flutter to the Linux desktop.
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Purism Launches a Mini PC
The makers of the Librem line of Linux-based laptops have released a mini PC.
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openSUSE Leap 15.2 Adds AI Machine Learning
With the new release of openSUSE Leap comes some exciting new features, including machine learning.
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Google’s Nearby Sharing Could Work with Linux
Google’s answer to Apple’s AirDrop feature is rumored to work with the Linux desktop.
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System76 Launches Ryzen-Powered Laptop
The new System76 Serval WS includes a powerful AMD Ryzen CPU.
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Linux Mint Drops Snap
Linux Mint has officially dropped their support for Canonical’s snap packages.
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Lenovo Upping Their Linux Support
Lenovo is now offering full certification and Linux preinstalled hardware.