Hacker News with Generative AI: Linux Kernel

Searching for the cause of hung tasks in the Linux kernel (cloudflare.com)
Depending on your configuration, the Linux kernel can produce a hung task warning message in its log.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Performance, Operating Systems
6 points by tanelpoder 2 days ago | 0 comments
Linux 6.15 lands fix for 3x Nginx regression (phoronix.com)
The Linux 6.15 kernel has just merged a fix for the big performance regression I spotlighted yesterday on Phoronix with a huge hit to the Nginx HTTPS web server performance that could see a 3x regression from the in-development Linux 6.15 kernel code. It turns out other workloads/applications also were negatively impacted by this regression. While a stumper at first even with the bisected commit, the issue was luckily resolved very quickly.
Linux Kernel, Performance, Nginx, Web Server, Open Source
24 points by dabinat 2 days ago | 0 comments
Why Does My eBPF Program Work on One Kernel but Fail on Another? (ebpfchirp.substack.com)
In a perfect world, everyone’s systems would be fully updated, patched regularly, and running the latest kernel.
eBPF, Linux Kernel, Debugging, Software Development, Operating Systems
104 points by musha68k 3 days ago | 22 comments
Kmemdump Proposed for the Linux Kernel to Help with Memory Dumping and Debugging (phoronix.com)
Eugen Hristev of Linaro sent out a "request for comments" patch series today proposing kmemdump for the Linux kernel as a new means to assist in debugging driver/system problems by making it easier to dump memory for specific areas/regions.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Memory Dumping, Software Development
5 points by LinuxBender 4 days ago | 0 comments
Learning Linux Kernel Modules Using COM Binary Support (hackaday.com)
Have you ever felt the urge to make your own private binary format for use in Linux? Perhaps you have looked at creating the smallest possible binary when compiling a project, and felt disgusted with how bloated the ELF format is? If you are like [Brian Raiter], then this has led you down many rabbit holes, with the conclusion being that flat binary formats are the way to go if you want sleek, streamlined binaries.
Linux Kernel, Programming, Binary Formats, Operating Systems
11 points by teleforce 5 days ago | 0 comments
Peering into the Linux Kernel with Trace (alexdowad.github.io)
Recently, I was working on a patch for a popular open-source project, and discovered that the test suite was failing intermittently.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Open Source, Software
78 points by mre 14 days ago | 3 comments
IO_uring Network Zero-Copy Receive Lands in Linux 6.15 (phoronix.com)
IO_uring continues maturing while being one of the greatest innovations within the Linux kernel in the past number of years. With Linux 6.15, IO_uring is getting even more interesting with introducing network zero-copy receive support. With this new code a 200G link could be saturated off a single CPU core in a recent demonstration.
Linux Kernel, Networking, Performance, Zero-Copy
6 points by LinuxBender 26 days ago | 3 comments
Akamai Now Providing the Hosting Infrastructure for Kernel.org (phoronix.com)
It's not only FreeDesktop.org that has been transitioning to new infrastructure this month but separately, Kernel.org is now receiving hosting and CDN needs provided by Akamai.
Cloud Hosting, Linux Kernel, Open Source
12 points by speckx 29 days ago | 0 comments
Btrfs Adding Fast/Realtime ZSTD Compression and Other Performance Optimizations (phoronix.com)
David Sterba of SUSE sent in all of the Btrfs file-system updates today for the now-open Linux 6.15 kernel merge window.
Linux Kernel, File Systems, Performance Optimization, Btrfs
17 points by todsacerdoti 32 days ago | 2 comments
Cregit-Linux: how code gets into the kernel (linuxsources.org)
The following source code files from the linux kernel have been transformed using cregit and arranged in the same file system ordering that the kernel uses. Each file corresponds to a C source code file (extensions .c and .h).
Linux Kernel, Programming, Source Code, Open Source
7 points by follower 34 days ago | 4 comments
Linux 6.14 Sees Last Minute Fix for a Two Year Old Regression 30% Perf Drop (phoronix.com)
Submitted today ahead of the Linux 6.14 stable release expected Sunday is a lone scheduler fix for the kernel.
Linux Kernel, Performance, Bug Fixes
31 points by LinuxBender 35 days ago | 0 comments
Reviving the modprobe_path Technique: Overcoming search_binary_handler() Patch (theori.io)
This blog post introduces a new method for utilizing the Overwriting modprobe_path technique. Since this patch was merged last year, it is no longer possible to trigger modprobe_path in the Upstream kernel by executing dummy files.
Linux Kernel, Security, System Administration, Reverse Engineering
8 points by todsacerdoti 41 days ago | 3 comments
The case of the vanishing CPU: A Linux kernel debugging story (clickhouse.com)
A mysterious CPU spike in ClickHouse Cloud on GCP led to months of debugging, revealing a deeper issue within the Linux kernel’s memory management.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Cloud Computing, Memory Management
47 points by manish_gill 50 days ago | 5 comments
When eBPF pt_regs reads return garbage on the latest Linux kernels, blame Fred (tanelpoder.com)
TLDR; Starting from Linux kernel version 6.9 on x86_64, there’s a new config option CONFIG_X86_FRED enabled and it adds 16 bytes to the bottom of a task’s kernel stack area, so you’ll need to account for this extra padding in your “raw” kernel stack & pt_regs lookup code.
Linux Kernel, Kernel Development, x86_64, eBPF, Security
105 points by tanelpoder 56 days ago | 11 comments
Marek has graciously offered to maintain the dma-mapping tree (kernel.org)
Marek has graciously offered to maintain the dma-mapping tree.
Linux Kernel, Open Source, Software Development
62 points by blenderob 59 days ago | 50 comments
Christoph Hellwig steps down from one of his kernel roles following Rust drama (phoronix.com)
Following the recent Rust drama within the Linux kernel that came out in part because Christoph Hellwig expressed objections to Rust bindings for the DMA mapping helpers that he is a maintainer of, Hellwig has now stepped down as one of the DMA mapping helper maintainers.
Linux Kernel, Programming Languages, Open Source, Controversy, Rust
61 points by dingi 59 days ago | 13 comments
A change in maintenance for the kernel's DMA-mapping layer (lwn.net)
The conversation around the merging of a set of Rust abstractions for the kernel's DMA-mapping layer has mostly settled after Linus Torvalds made it clear that the code would be accepted. One other consequence of this decision, though, is that Christoph Hellwig has quietly stepped down from the maintenance of the DMA-mapping code. Marek Szyprowski will be the maintainer of that layer going forward. Hellwig has maintained that code for many years; his contributions will be missed.
Linux Kernel, Software Development, Open Source
19 points by howtofly 59 days ago | 2 comments
Christoph Hellwig resigns as DMA maintainer (kernel.org)
Marek has graciously offered to maintain the dma-mapping tree.
Linux Kernel, Open Source, Software Development
40 points by Phelinofist 59 days ago | 3 comments
SystemV filesystem being removed from the Linux kernel (phoronix.com)
The SystemV file-system that implements Xenix FS, SystemV/386 FS, and Coherent FS is set to be removed from the Linux kernel.
Linux Kernel, Operating Systems, File Systems
10 points by todsacerdoti 63 days ago | 0 comments
Linus on Rust and the Kernel DMA Layer (lwn.net)
I was hopeful, and I've tried to just see if this long thread results in anything constructive, but this seems to be going backwards (or at least not forwards).
Linux Kernel, Programming Languages, Rust
91 points by tasn 64 days ago | 59 comments
Linus Torvalds Clarify Linux Maintainer Roles – Or Not – Around Rust Code (phoronix.com)
Linus Torvalds has largely refrained from the ongoing LKML discussions around a Rust policy for the Linux kernel and in-fighting between kernel developers and maintainers with differing views over Rust.
Linux Kernel, Rust, Open Source, Programming Languages, Software Development
13 points by unclet 64 days ago | 2 comments
Linus Torvalds: "If you don’t want to deal with Rust, you get no say on it" (kernel.org)
So let me be very clear: if you as a maintainer feel that you control who or what can use your code, YOU ARE WRONG.
Linux Kernel, Open Source, Programming Languages, Software Development, Community
87 points by etra0 64 days ago | 13 comments
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 66 days 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
679 points by mustache_kimono 66 days ago | 438 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 69 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
44 points by tuananh 70 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 71 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
33 points by signa11 71 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 75 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 76 days ago | 13 comments