Hacker News with Generative AI: Linux Kernel

Linus Torvalds Would Reportedly Merge Rust Kernel Code over Maintainer Objection (phoronix.com)
The drama surrounding Rust code within the Linux kernel continues... Christoph Hellwig is the maintainer of the DMA mapping helpers and several other areas of the kernel has been an outspoken critic of Rust code or secondary programming languages within the Linux kernel kernel. Hellwig has been critical of Rust code for the Linux kernel and its long-term maintainability.

Linux Kernel, Programming Languages, Rust, Controversy

4 points by ksec 1 day ago | 1 comments

Greg K-H: "Writing new code in Rust is a win for all of us" (kernel.org)
As someone who has seen almost EVERY kernel bugfix and security issue for the past 15+ years (well hopefully all of them end up in the stable trees, we do miss some at times when maintainers/developers forget to mark them as bugfixes), and who sees EVERY kernel CVE issued, I think I can speak on this topic.

Rust, Linux Kernel, Security, Programming Languages

138 points by mustache_kimono 1 day ago | 37 comments

Maintainer Opinions on Rust-for-Linux (lwn.net)
Miguel Ojeda gave a keynote at FOSDEM 2025 about the history of the Rust-for-Linux project, and the current attitude of people in the kernel community toward the experiment.

Rust, Linux Kernel, Open Source, Programming Languages, Operating Systems

3 points by flyaway123 5 days ago | 0 comments

Nouveau kernel maintainer steps down (freedesktop.org)
I was pondering with myself for a while if I should just make it official that I'm not really involved in the kernel community anymore, neither as a reviewer, nor as a maintainer.

Open Source, Linux Kernel, Community

43 points by tuananh 5 days ago | 23 comments

Linux kernel cgroups writeback high CPU troubleshooting (dasl.cc)
We’ve been upgrading the operating system from CentOS to Ubuntu on hosts across our fleet. Our CentOS hosts run an outdated Linux kernel version (3.10), whereas our Ubuntu hosts run a more modern kernel version (6.8). In August 2024, we began rolling out the Ubuntu upgrade across our Apache web servers. When we migrated larger portions of our fleet to Ubuntu, we began seeing elevated listen overflow errors.

Linux Kernel, Troubleshooting, Performance, Operating Systems, Server Management

178 points by mesto1 6 days ago | 27 comments

Exposing concurrency bugs with a custom scheduler (lwn.net)
Jake Hillion gave a presentation at FOSDEM about using sched_ext, the BPF scheduling framework that was introduced in kernel version 6.12, to help find elusive concurrency problems.

Concurrency, Linux Kernel, Debugging, BPF, Open Source

32 points by signa11 7 days ago | 5 comments

Rust kernel policy (rust-for-linux.com)
There has been a fair amount of confusion about what the kernel policies around Rust are, who maintains what and so on.

Rust, Linux Kernel, Programming, Open Source

98 points by LelouBil 10 days ago | 117 comments

New Apple Silicon Co-Maintainer Steps Up for the Linux Kernel (phoronix.com)
This week was the dramatic decision by Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin to step down as upstream kernel maintainer for the Apple Silicon (ARM) code following friction with other kernel developers over Rust affairs within the kernel.

Linux Kernel, Apple Silicon, ARM, Open Source, Software Development

46 points by LorenDB 11 days ago | 13 comments

Asahi Linux Lead Developer Hector Martin Steps Down (phoronix.com)
Following arguments on the Linux kernel mailing list the past few days over some Linux kernel maintainers being against the notion of Rust code in the mainline Linux kernel and trying to avoid it and very passionate views over the Linux kernel development process, Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin has removed himself from being an upstream maintainer of the ARM Apple code.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Rust, Programming Languages, Software Development

15 points by doener 13 days ago | 1 comments

Hector Martin – [Patch] Maintainers: Remove Myself (lkml.org)
I no longer have any faith left in the kernel development process or community management approach.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Community Management, Software Development

12 points by Reventlov 14 days ago | 52 comments

Mixing Rust and C in Linux likened to cancer by kernel maintainer (theregister.com)
Developers trying to add Rust code to the Linux kernel continue to face opposition from kernel maintainers who believe using multiple languages is an unwelcome and risky complication.

Rust, Linux Kernel, Programming Languages, Software Development, Open Source

13 points by jjgreen 15 days ago | 5 comments

List Any Linux Tracepoint with Their Arguments, Datatypes and Related Structs (tanelpoder.com)
This should be something useful for Linux kernel explorers and eBPF nerds!

Linux Kernel, eBPF, Programming, Debugging, System Programming

40 points by tanelpoder 20 days ago | 5 comments

KVM Enhancements Within the Linux 6.14 Kernel (phoronix.com)
Along with other Intel TDX changes and AMD SEV updates separately sent out for thei n-development Linux 6.14 kernel, there is the usual hearty batch of Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization updates too.

Linux Kernel, Virtualization, KVM, Intel, AMD

7 points by LinuxBender 20 days ago | 6 comments

Linux 6.13 Released with AutoFDO and Propeller, AMD Changes and Apple Support (phoronix.com)
As anticipated the Linux 6.13 kernel was promoted to stable today with an on-time release and in turn also marking the start of the Linux 6.14 merge window.

Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, Software Releases, AMD, Apple

7 points by isaacfrond 31 days ago | 0 comments

Linux Context Switching Internals: Process State and Memory (codingconfessions.com)
How does the Linux kernel represent processes and their state: A breakdown of task_struct and mm_struct

Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, Memory Management, Process Management

180 points by rbanffy 52 days ago | 3 comments

Raspberry Pi HEVC Decoder Driver Posted for Linux Kernel Review (phoronix.com)
The latest work that Raspberry Pi is working to upstream to the mainline Linux kernel is a HEVC/H.265 video decode driver that works on Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 single board computers.

Linux Kernel, Raspberry Pi, Video Decoding, Hardware, Open Source

9 points by ksec 61 days ago | 0 comments

Process Creation in Io_uring (lwn.net)
Back in 2022, Josh Triplett presented a plan to implement a "spawn new process" functionality in the io_uring subsystem.

Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, System Programming, io_uring

69 points by semiquaver 62 days ago | 26 comments

Introduce support for the Meson build system – git.git 904339e (kernel.org)
Introduce support for the Meson build system, a "modern" meta build system that supports many different platforms, including Linux, macOS, Windows and BSDs. Meson supports different backends, including Ninja, Xcode and Microsoft Visual Studio. Several common IDEs provide an integration with it.

Linux Kernel, Build Systems, Meson, Cross-Platform Development

3 points by todsacerdoti 65 days ago | 0 comments

Linux Fixing a "Hilarious/Revolting Performance Regression" Around Intel KVM (phoronix.com)
It's not too often that "fixes" to the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) are noteworthy but today is an interesting exception with among the KVM fixes sent in today ahead of the Linux 6.13-rc3 tagging is for beginning to deal with a "hilarious/revolting" performance regression affecting recent generations of Intel processors.

Linux Kernel, Performance, Intel, Virtualization, Hardware

4 points by LinuxBender 67 days ago | 1 comments

NonStop discussion around adding Rust to Git (lwn.net)
The Linux kernel community's discussions about including Rust have gotten a lot of attention, but the kernel is not the only project wrestling with the question of whether to allow Rust. The Git project discussed the prospect in January, and then again at the Git Contributor's Summit in September.

Programming Languages, Open Source, Git, Linux Kernel

62 points by MBCook 70 days ago | 67 comments

A kernel code of conduct enforcement action (lwn.net)
The Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) has decided to "restrict Kent Overstreet's participation in the kernel development process during the Linux 6.13 kernel development cycle" based on a recommendation from the Code of Conduct committee.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Community

4 points by voxadam 70 days ago | 0 comments

Perf Support for 2,048 CPU Cores Becoming Not Enough Patches Bump Kernel Limit (phoronix.com)
Currently the Linux kernel's "perf" performance monitoring subsystem has a limit on 2,048 CPU cores for its CPU map that is set by the MAX_NR_CPUS value. But that's becoming not enough in today's high core count era that patches are looking to raise it to a 4,096 CPU core limit by default.

Linux Kernel, Performance, Hardware, Software Development, Patches

5 points by LinuxBender 72 days ago | 0 comments

Linux EFI Zboot Abandoning "Compression Library Museum", Focusing on Gzip, ZSTD (phoronix.com)
The Linux kernel EFI Zboot code for carrying the Linux kernel image for EFI systems in compressed form is doing away with its "compression library museum" of offering Gzip, LZ4, LZMA, LZO, XZ, and Zstd compression options to instead just focus on Gzip and Zstd compression support.

Linux Kernel, EFI, Compression, Performance Optimization

70 points by rbanffy 74 days ago | 19 comments

Debugging a Superblock Percpu_rw_semaphore Deadlock (rustylife.github.io)
The kernel watchdog has detected that the tasks with PID 2449 and 1914 stopped making forward progress.

Debugging, Linux Kernel, Deadlock

41 points by rustylife 81 days ago | 0 comments

Greg Kroah-Hartman Sees 'Tipping Point' for Rust Drivers in Linux Kernel (phoronix.com)
In addition to the USB updates and big staging flush merged yesterday for the Linux 6.13 kernel merge window, the "char/misc" pull was also honored for that catch-all of various kernel changes.

Linux Kernel, Rust, Programming Languages

21 points by m463 81 days ago | 4 comments

Configure Kernel Modules Like a Pro (naut.ca)
Kernel modules are powerful pieces of code that extend the capability of your kernel, for example, WireGuard was originally developed as a kernel module. Modules can be loaded at the time of kernel image load, initramfs load, or later on during the boot sequence. Unfortunately, the syntax of config files, options, and modules can be quite confusing, which is why I created a complete guide to loading kernel modules, in order of the boot sequence:

Linux Kernel, Kernel Modules, Operating Systems, System Administration

7 points by rubatuga 81 days ago | 0 comments

Linux Kernel Performance Bottlenecks Spotted by Mold Developer (phoronix.com)
Open-source developer Rui Ueyama who is the lead developer of the Mold high performance linker and previously on the LLVM lld linker has written a detailed mailing list post that highlights some observed performance bottlenecks within the Linux kernel.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Performance, Software Development

35 points by rbanffy 84 days ago | 21 comments

Microsoft Makes Improvement to Linux Kernel Module Caching in 6.13 (phoronix.com)
Sent out on Tuesday was the modules pull request for Linux 6.13 that have some low-level improvements but it noted that the biggest kernel modules highlight wasn't in that pull request itself but had been added by way of the memory management pull.

Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Performance

5 points by terminalbraid 85 days ago | 0 comments

Real-time Linux leads kernel v6.12's list of new features (zdnet.com)
It took its own sweet time -- over 20 years! -- but real-time Linux finally made it into the mainline Linux kernel. It's baked inside Linux kernel version 6.12. This is a major new release.

Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, Real-time Systems

3 points by CrankyBear 87 days ago | 0 comments

Linux CoC Announces Decision Following Recent Bcachefs Drama (phoronix.com)
Following the recent messaging from Bcachefs lead developer Kent Oversteet that Bcachefs changes for Linux 6.13 were rejected on the basis of his Code of Conduct, the Linux CoC committee has now formally announced their decision.

Linux Kernel, Open Source, Software Development

16 points by laktak 89 days ago | 11 comments