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Linux 4.5 Adds Raspberry Pi 2 Support, AMD GPU Re-Clocking, Intel Kaby Lake (phoronix.com)
The Linux 4.5 merge window has been open for the last two weeks; that means that the 4.5-rc1 kernel is expected to emerge, with the official kernel following in about eight weeks. An anonymous reader writes with this top-level list of changes to look for, from Phoronix: Linux 4.5 is set to bring many new features across the kernel's 20 million line code-base. Among the new/improved features are Raspberry Pi 2 support, open-source Raspberry Pi 3D support, NVIDIA Tegra X1 / Jetson TX1 support, an open-source Vivante graphics driver, AMDGPU PowerPlay/re-clocking support, Intel Kaby Lake enablement, a Logitech racing wheel driver, improvements for handling suspended USB devices, new F2FS file-system features, and better Xbox One controller handling.
I really like where the Linux kernel is headed. We're seeing some great improvements and innovations being made. But the kernel alone isn't useful. It needs an init system and userspace programs, too.
The fact that all of the major Linux distros now use systemd is a huge problem. Many Linux users just cannot use systemd. They can't risk the problems it brings. When we read through the mailing list archives and bug tracker reports of the major distros we find far too many problems involving systemd. Many times these problems are downright stupid, or reflect the architectural flaws of systemd. Systemd's use of binary logging is one of the most obvious problems with it.
So now many Linux users are left in a lurch. They can continue to use old, pre-systemd versions of their distros of choice, but these are typically no longer supported and don't receive critical security updates. This is not a tenable option, of course. They can try to use the new, systemd versions of their distros of choice, but these run the serious risk of not booting properly. This also is not a tenable option. Finally, they can try to use Slackware, Gentoo, or some other obscure Linux distro. Yet again, this is not a tenable option, as they don't want to use a non-major distro. Unfortunately for the Linux kernel, the only option these users have is to move to FreeBSD, or sometimes OpenBSD.
The Linux kernel itself is great, but its supporting ecosystem has become truly awful lately. There are people who'd love to use the kernel, but this problematic supporting ecosystem, namely systemd, means that the kernel just isn't usable.
FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, can we stop bringing traffic to Phoronix? Would it be too much just linking to the kernel's changelog?
So happy to see the Raspberry Pi 3D support. Thanks for the goodies!
Why is the "Logitech racing wheel driver" part of the kernel, even if it is optional, rather than a user space driver?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Without full desktop OpenGL support on the Raspberry PI, you can't run the good Linux games like BZflag, Supertux and Tux Racer. I'm hoping this moves the dream forward. It'll be interesting to see if this just opens some new 3d options or if we can actually start to build and run games that use full OpenGL in the near future.
My RPi2 already runs an older Linux kernel. Can someone explain what's new in 4.5 that makes it "support RPi2"?
The summary says Raspberry Pi 2 support is included in this release, but I've been running Linux on my Raspberry Pi 2 for over six months. This can't be a new feature. The RPi2 support might have improved somehow, but it's not a new feature.
This has already happened. The most talented and experienced Linux users have already moved to FreeBSD. Maybe you don't realize it, but this is the worst thing that could have happened to Linux. Now Linux and its community will no longer benefit from the decades of experience these users each tend to have. They're the unsung heroes who kept the Linux community going. Now their contributions benefit the FreeBSD community instead.
The exact same thing is happening to Linux that has happened to the Firefox web browser. In the case of Firefox, it was the awful and unwanted UI changes (especially Australis) which drove away Firefox's most important users. Without their support, Firefox's overall share of the market has dropped to only around 7% today. Systemd is the equivalent when it comes to Linux. It's an unwanted and awful change for many users, and it has forced them to abandon Linux completely.
Systemd has harmed Linux and its community way more than Microsoft, SCO, Apple, or any other company could have. Linux's collapse has come from within. It has come from people like you, who tell the best Linux users to basically "fuck off and die". Well, those users have listened, and now they're happy, productive, proud and helpful FreeBSD users, and they make absolutely no contributions to the Linux community any longer.
While I do not keep up with every changelog, it seams that gaming and video related improvements are all the rage now for the kernel. I have to say I like this and it has been needed for some time. The kernel is here to stay in both handheld devices, embedded set top devices and now consolish and home brew steamboxen. Seeing the OS improve as it pushes into these spaces is a great development.
Silence is a state of mime.
And isn't that how it's supposed to work? The survival of the fittest?
And Linux used to be at the top and we were all fine with it.
They destroyed Gnome, Firefox, and now Linux itself.
Of course, people have already moved on, but we can still let some outrage be shown. You should learn to accept this, it will be quicker than us accepting systemd.
Does RPI 3D support means that we can see full futured android running on it?
Why "The most talented and experienced Linux users have already moved to FreeBSD" and didn't create one working non systemd Linux distro?
Because they are that most talentet and experienced?
Talent's one thing but numbers count too. RedHat has the numbers, and they're under Lennart's spell for some unfathomable reason.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This has already happened.
No only part of that has happened. They may have banded together in one distro, but what the parent described as "move on" implied not bitching and moaning about it on every bloody off topic post that mentions the word Linux.
ther3 are onLy
so, I see Lennart still hasn't finnished his assignment yet.
cruel world.
neo@matrix:~$ sudo apt-get install vagina
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package vagina
neo@matrix:~$
Would you care to name some of these talented users whose move to FreeBSD is causing Linux to collapse from within?
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
Would you care to name some of these talented users whose move to FreeBSD is causing Linux to collapse from within?
If people grossly insulted by a relatively small change say they will make a much bigger change they're usually bluffing or a very vocal minority. Like Windows 8 sucks, I'm moving to Mac/Linux. The new ribbon sucks, I'm moving to Open/LibreOffice. So systemd sucks, allegedly. And because of that you're not switching to/making a non-systemd Linux distro but a non-Linux distro? And it doesn't solve the compatibility issues, if Linux-oriented software starts depending on systemd you either have to implement systemd, port all the software or do without. Which is a rather phyrric victory.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
So happy to see the Raspberry Pi 3D support. Thanks for the goodies!
Goes double.
Is anything similar planned for BeagleBones - especially BeagleBone Black, which is the current cutting edge?
I have to deal with them, and the last time I looked their kernels were coming out of a separate project - which distributes an archive of script to be applied to the corresponding version of the packages, to be overlaid on and applied to the corresponding kernel sources, to hack them into shape for the Bones. It would be far easier to keep up with kernel fixes if the Bones (or at least the Black) were supported directly by the official kernel distributions.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Isn't he a Red Hat employee?
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Lots of arguing, but I do not see where anybody has answered the question.
Can I use Linux 4.5 without systemd? Will it work without systemd on Gentoo? Will it work, without systemd, on RasPi?
If you use the DVB subsystem (using a tv tuner for example), then the 4.5-rc1 kernel is borked here. Either a patch broke it, or part of a build was added, but not the whole thing, etc. In any event, DVB wasn't "changed but still working", it was "changed and left in a broken state". These things happen with early RC kernels though, so if you already build one, just boot into an older kernel.
The most talented and experienced Linux users have already moved to FreeBSD.
You say that but it doesn't appear to be true. Notice, of course, that Linus still uses Linux. Notice that Linux is still being actively developed. I think you're just saying what you want to be true.
I, for example, still use Linux and I typically use Lubuntu which has systemd. I should also add that I should not be counted as "talented and experienced." I do have a lot of Unix experience, then Windows, then Linux, but Linux only stayed on a partition and hardly got any use. I've since switched to using Linux exclusively and spent a couple of years making the switch.
I'd like to hate systemd but, so far, it's done me no harm and I've learned a few new commands (like blame and analyze) and have even found it useful. I've yet to find a lot that I can't read. I've yet to find a problem I couldn't make worse by fucking something important up - except systemd. For all the things I break, that's yet to be the cause of a single problem. Trust me, I break a lot of things.
I did mention that I'm not in the talented group for a reason, after all.
I'd love to hate it. I love me a good hate fest and I like to rant and rage. I love to find something that pisses me off and tell the world about it. I break my computer in new and interesting ways. I don't just break one - I break a lot of them. I've got real server hardware, I've got colocated hardware, I've got countless desktops and laptops. I mean, a truly obscene amount of hardware. At my home in Maine, there is not one room without at least one computer in it. Every single room has at least one computer. Down here in Florida, a house I've used a total of six times, I'm refreshing the hardware that will remain here - there are three desktops, four laptops, and one server. Oh, there are three desktops, complete with all their hardware, that are ready to go to a good home. They were a few years old (I bought them in 2013) so they're being replaced but the new ones have not been set up yet. They are physically here, however. The laptops will leave when we leave to go back to Maine and the server will remain, it doesn't need refreshing and I'm too lazy to reconfigure a new one. Anyone need a few fairly recent desktops and is local to Panama City Beach?
At any rate, for all the poking and breaking that I do, I don't have a problem with systemd. I can't speak for you, for Tom, for Dick, or for Harry - but I can say that, as much as I'd like to be outraged, the damned thing hasn't caused me one iota of trouble. It has even been, dare I say it, helpful more than once.
Anyhow, I don't think the best and brightest have moved to FreeBSD. I imagine some have but they probably weren't the best and brightest. I don't see Linus switching and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that he's probably among the best and most experienced. Besides, they'd go to GhostBSD anyhow. It's the same damned thing, pretty much, but much nicer by default. Even I can figure out how to use it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
No Sir, not at all and it's a serious question.
You got it wrong (intentionally).
SystemD is the thing that makes users move to FreeBSD and the thing causing Linux to collapse from within.
He ain't?
Some of us just stuck with Gentoo, which is still OpenRC.