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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.
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!
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.
This kernel looks very stable so far. The only trouble I got is with the keyboard. Sometimes, it blo
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