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Linux Beta Kernel 2.5.16 Out
dipfan writes "The latest beta version of the Linux kernel 2.5.16 is out, with some comments by Linus here, who was kept 'personally somewhat busy' by 'the interesting Intel SMP-P4 TLB corruption bug, which ends up being due to some very funky asynchronous speculative TLB fill logic'. Woo hoo. Mirrors, etc." We haven't been keeping up with the 2.5.x series, but a slow Sunday is a good excuse to catch up.
Anyone wanna start betting when the dev kernel will surpass the stable kernel? 3 versions to go....
It's really not that fantastic. 2.5 will probably go pretty high. The 2.3 kernel went to 2.3.51 before it jumped to 2.3.99 (look here).
It will be interesting how much work goes into 2.5 before 2.6.0 is released. Then we'll be able to start comparing what's new to 2.4.x. It is interesting that we're at 2.4.19 when the 2.2. kernel is at 2.2.20, IMHO.
My Karma was at 49, then they switched to words. All that work for nothing!
MOD THIS DOWN!!! MOD THIS DOWN!!!
He's not singing the praises of linux. He's not ooh and ahhing at the latest buggy release. Mod this guy down; he's obviously a subversive bsd user who lives in the real world.
No, it's a Linux bug not a P4 bug. The kernel was freeing page table memory before invalidating the TLB entries, so another processor was able to modify the entries which the originating processor then picked up. It affects all architectures, but was discovered only on P4, I would guess because the processor does more aggressive speculative page walks than other architectures.
kept 'personally somewhat busy' by 'the interesting Intel SMP-P4 TLB corruption bug, which ends up being due to some very funky asynchronous speculative TLB fill logic'.
That is what they all say.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Well, for one thing, there are a lot of IDE updates and fixes going in for 2.4.19, which is why there are so many 19-pre* releases...
And as another poster has said, a backport of the *working* NTFS-NG driver!
The Free desktop that Just Works
Actually, you are flamebaiting a bit. One main difference between linux and windows is that the development and testing for linux is done in the open. So you can install a development or a testing kernel if you would like. Linux just gives you more options. If a kernel is working fine for what you are doing, then don't upgrade unless there is a security issue.
Please tell me how it is any worse than using Windows?
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
The 2.5 kernel is a major rework. IIRC, they're making everything possible modules, and you'll need to make an initial ramdisk with your ide/scsi/network/fs drivers in order to boot. Any idea how stable 2.5 is now? It sounds pretty cool. I've dabbled in kernel programming and am willing to put up with 1 week uptimes as long as I'm running ext3 or XFS. I tried L4-linux, but 8-hour uptimes just hurt. Yes, I'm also playing with Debian HURD. There's lots of really cool stuff going on nowadays in the OS world.
Any idea if there are any plans to merge the international patch (crypto stuff) into 2.4 or 2.5? Encrypted loop devices and encrypted swap really should be part of the main kernel. After all, the 2.4 kernel is currently being maintained by a minor in South America, so the 2.4 kernel is pretty safe from the US govt/US courts at the moment. Hmm... DeCSS in kernel-space anyone?
Copyright Violation:"theft, piracy"::Anti-Trust Violation:"thermonuclear price terrorism"<-Overly dramatic language.
<rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
o Hotplug CPU prep
Sweet.
On a slightly different note, is there a place that has (perhaps weekly) status updates on the Sparc64 kernel and related goodies?
The UltraLinux site hasn't been updated for a while. I'm thinking of putting Linux on my Ultra 30 for testing, and I'd like to run one of the newer kernels (2.5.x).
I'm looking at Gentoo as well, and I'm hoping that their Sparc64 ISO will be released soon.
Not quite out yet, but watch this space.
~jeff
Not to mentioned gcc 3.1 being released a couple of days ago, and being buried in the Developers section...
At best, I would call the development series "alpha". Beta implies that the kernel is ready for general testing prior to release, and there are few known showstopper bugs.
When 2.5 goes -rc, or Linus starts making prereleaserr noises, then go ahead and call it "beta". Until then, it's the type of thing you inflict on a computer you don't mind messing around with.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
As far as I can tell, they haven't been applied in the development series because that series is focusing on other things like the various I/O parts. Making any changes to the VM system while the I/O layer is in flux is sure to cause problems, even if the changes are correct, because they'll change the load on it and hide some bugs and uncover different ones. Better to get I/O done first, and then change the VM. Besides, nobody really cares about the overall performance of a development kernel, except for seeing that their changes improve performance.
This kernel looks very stable so far. The only trouble I got is with the keyboard. Sometimes, it blo
{{.sig}}
Does Linux support blast processing yet??
"Blast Processing" is the name of the sprite engine that Sega used in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 for Sega Genesis. Here are some Genesis emulators for UNIX and Linux systems. DGen is pretty good.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I have a for host in *.mycompany.com script that will automagically update all our production machines at once. Who needs up2date, Red Carpet, and all that crap? Ha-ha.
Personally though, I can't wait until 2.6... I know someone who's working on some of the new graphics stuff in his spare time (the new graphics layer is code named "Ruby"), and there will be some sweet stuff. The DRI, framebuffer, Video4Linux, etc. systems will all be made into one unified kernel interface, which will be user friendly and capable enough to (almost) program graphics applications in bash! Imagine (device names are changed to protect the innocent
Not to mention we'll finally be able to ditch X on the desktop for the framebuffer without losing OpenGL support, and let X do what it was meant to do: thin clients and network terminals.
A solution to the problem with music today
Also check out the Open Source Development Lab's Scalable Test Platform. You can use STP to run your kernel patches and test code that you upload to OSDL's big iron hardware, or you can download the STP source code so you can use it as a test harness on your own machine.
(I should add the STP to my article but haven't gotten around to doing so yet).
-- Could you use my software consulting serv