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Linux Kernel 2.6.21 Released
diegocgteleline.es writes "Linus Torvalds has released Linux 2.6.21 after months of development. This release improves the virtualization with VMI, a paravirtualization interface that will be used by Vmware. KVM does get initial paravirtualization support along with live migration and host suspend/resume support. 2.6.21 also gets a tickless idle loop mechanism called 'Dynticks', built in top of 'clockevents', another feature that unifies the timer handling and brings true high-resolution timers. Other features are: bigger kernel parameter-line, support for the PA SEMI PWRficient CPU and for the Cell-based 'celleb' Toshiba architecture, NFS IPv6 support, IPv4 IPv6 IPSEC tunneling, UFS2 write, kprobes for PPC32, kexec and oprofile for ARM, public key encryption for ecryptfs, Fcrypt and Camilla cipher algorithms, NAT port randomization, audit lockdown mode, some new drivers and many other small improvements."
And I just upgraded to 2.6.20-15! (Kubuntu Feisty Fawn)
"We may face a scorched and lifeless earth, but they're accountable to their shareholders first."
I follow prerelease kernels and I've been waiting for this. I've found that running my VMWare hosts and guests with tickless, low-HZ, voluntary-preempted kernels is seriously reducing the overhead you get when you run more virtual CPUs than real ones in your box.
I can't wait for it to mature on PPC, MIPS, and x86_64! Right now it's 32-bit x86 only.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
... but does it run Linux?
Once again, it took many months of work to optimize an idle loop.
No, most distros are going to include a kernel with the kitchen sink compiled as modules, taking up a few megabytes on the hard drive, but never loaded.
Ewige Blumenkraft.
Here.
I've noticed that each time I compile a new kernel, something has been moved to [deprecated] status that was still live in the last release. All the deprecated stuff is not compiled in by default, keeping the resulting bzImage size manageable.
Most distros compile everything as modules, which generally keeps the overall size of the kernel down. Sure, bzImage grows over time (not just because of new features, but typically new patches == more lines of code), but not significantly from release to release.
Most "non-uber-geek" users don't care what's in their kernel, and if they did, they'd learn to compile it themselves. Compiling kernels has gotten easier over the years. Chances are, if you care enough about how your kernel is compiled, you'll have the skills needed to do it yourself.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
but I wonder if we're ever going to see 2.8 at this rate. The current kernel revision is MILES away in technology from 2.6.0. What will it take to move to 2.8, or (dare I say it?) 3.0? What qualifies as a major enough change?
+++ATH0
You're confusing Linux with this Windows 95/98. However, this problem or this another problem are even more funnier
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
It doesn't and never did. However, the uptime clock wraps around after 497 days. Took me two hours of finding out why the box rebooted (and then why there was no indication of the reboot in the logs) one day to research that. That same box has since looped the clock a second time. So I can say for sure it stays up for more than 50 days. :-)
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
497 day wrap around? You should switch to Windows. I'm sure no such problem has ever been reported on that OS.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
The public key support for eCryptfs can handle more than just public keys. It includes a communication mechanism with a user daemon that can be queried from the kernel on file open events. There is a pluggable key module interface accessible through that daemon. OpenSSL is currently implemented, but there is nothing stopping anyone from writing a module to use GnuPG or any other key management/encryption backend, all in userspace. The module just needs to accept a key signature, and it can perform encryption and decryption based on whatever that signature refers to.
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In other news, eCryptfs has recently been given the go-ahead for inclusion into Fedora:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi
In the meantime, you can grab all the userspace stuff from the eCryptfs SourceForge site:
http://ecryptfs.sourceforge.net/
An unjust law is no law at all. - St. Augustine
Considering that slashdot was (note the past tense) first and foremost a Linux/all things geeky site, I'd say this article is very slashdot-worthy. Not to mention that we get a fawning mac fan boy article every time Steve Jobs so much as farts. At least the Apple section can be turned off. Wish I could do the same with Microsoft and Windows articles.
Nathan's blog
2.6 and recent kernels in general are aimed at *modern computers*. Modern computers that have a *lot* more features and devices than ever before. There is absolutely no comparison to kernels back in the floppy days. If you're still using floppies you might as well be using an old kernel for whatever weathered machine you're talking about. And a microkernel's not going to reduce the overall amount of code, just push it around.
Not to mention that people who are using Linux for embedded work can still rip out a ton of stuff. You can completely omit module support and all sorts of things that contribute to so-called "bloat." The kernel is still and always has been very flexible about compiling in features, and all the code's there to mess with...
Small, fast, full of features; pick two. I think.