What's new in Linux 3.8

"Unicycling Gorilla" is the code name for Linux 3.8

Graphics

In Linux 3.8, the Nouveau kernel driver will include everything that the OpenGL driver – which is part of current versions of Mesa 3D and is also called Nouveau – needs to use the 3D acceleration of all GeForce graphics chips available so far, without further configuration. This is the first time that the Nouveau developers, who use reverse engineering to get the information they need to program their drivers, have managed this feat; before this, they were still lacking standard 3D support for some newer Fermi GPUs and the Kepler graphics chips, which have been on the market since March 2012 (1, 2, 3). For many computers, however, NVIDIA's proprietary graphics driver will still be a better choice, since Nouveau can't activate the faster operation modes for many of the newer GeForce chips, resulting in 3D performance that leaves something to be desired. There are also other issues, particularly when it comes to video acceleration and fan management support.
The i915 graphics driver now supports by default the graphics cores of the Haswell processors that Intel will introduce under the name Core i4000 in a few months. The developers have also included a workaround for a bug in the Intel 830 and 845 chipsets so the graphics drivers are supposed to be stable on these chipsets.

F2FS

Linux now supports F2FS (Flash-Friendly File System), a filesystem that was introduced by Samsung developers in October. It is designed for flash storage media that uses a more basic Flash Translation Layer (FTL) than SSDs for desktop PCs and servers – for example USB flash drives, memory cards and the storage media that is used in cameras, tablets and smartphones.

F2FS is a Log-structured File System (LFS) and progressively fills up storage media from the beginning; only once it has reached the end will it return to the beginning and use any areas that may have been deallocated in the meantime. Like Btrfs, F2FS uses Copy-on-Write (COW) to sequentially fill storage devices; this provides a certain robustness. Unlike Btrfs and Ext4, F2FS does not attempt to prevent data fragmentation; very short access times mean that fragmentation is not an issue with flash storage media. The userspace tools for formatting F2FS drives are available at kernel.org. 

Btrfs and Ext4

Btrfs, which continues to be classified as experimental, now includes a "replace" feature that can transfer data from one drive to another faster than before – for example, before replacing a disk (1, 2). Other Btrfs changes include some that are designed to reduce latencies and CPU loads when calling fsync or writing data via O_DIRECT; further patches allow Btrfs to better distribute loads across multiple CPUs, which is said to improve performance (1, 2).
The new Inline Data Support feature allows Ext4 to store files that only consist of a few bytes together with the inode to save storage space and accelerate access (1, 2). Ext4 now also supports the SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE lseek options that were introduced in Linux 3.1 and allow programs such as backup or copy tools to detect, and omit, empty areas in sparse files. Tmpfs now implements these lseek options as well.

Networking

The Berkeley packet filter (BPF), used by sniffer tools such as tcpdump, can now be used to filter VLAN tags. The rtl8723ae driver for the Realtek RTL8723AE PCIe WLAN chip is new (1, 2 and others). The brcmsmac WLAN driver now supports the BCM43224 Broadcom chip, while the rt2800usb RaLink driver supports the Sweex LW323 USB WLAN adapter. The cdc-mbim driver, which supports broadband modems that implement Mobile Broadband Interface Model (MBIM) 1.0, specified by the USB Implementers Forum, is also new (1, 2). MBIM is a USB protocol for connecting modems for laptops, tablets and desktop computers that provide an internet connection using GSM and CDMA-based 3G and 4G (including LTE).

Drivers

The kernel's audio drivers now support the Philips PSC724 Ultimate Edge sound card. The kernel can also handle VIA's VT1705CF HD audio codec now. Another addition is the mpt3sas "LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0 Device Driver" that supports 12GB SAS chips by LSI; it shares some features with the mpt2sas driver that has been put into maintenance mode. The hptiop driver can now address HighPoint RR4520 and RR4522 controllers. The kernel developers have marked the uas driver, which handles the USB Attached SCSI protocol, as broken because it causes problems and is not yet ready for the major distributions.

Infrastructure

Following a lengthy, sometimes heated dispute between various kernel developers, a number of enhancements developed under the "balancenuma" umbrella have been merged into Linux 3.8 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and others). In the ideal case, these improvements will enable the kernel to automatically maintain coherence between the processor and memory for a single process. This kind of setup is important for optimising performance on multiprocessor systems which utilise the now widely used NUMA (non-uniform memory access), as processes on NUMA systems can access memory allocated to the processor on which they are running faster than they can access memory allocated to other processors.

Architecture

To simplify maintenance and ongoing development, the kernel developers have removed support for Intel 386 CPUs and other CPUs that make use of the architecture which was extremely widespread more than 20 years ago. 486 and newer x86-32 processors will continue to be supported. It was on a 386 that Torvalds first started developing Linux, but he will not be shedding any tears for the code, commenting: "I'm not sentimental. Good riddance."

Virtualisation

A balloon driver for Hyper-V has been merged into the kernel. The Microsoft hypervisor can, at runtime, temporarily transfer memory from Linux guests running this driver to the host and subsequently return it.
Linux 3.8 more or less completes the major restructuring around user namespaces, driven forward over the last few months by Eric W. Biederman. These changes will enable non-privileged users to create an isolated space within which they will have root privileges. Within this space, however users will not be able to do anything which would require privileged actions to be taken outside of the namespace.

Resource controls

The kmem extension has been added to the memory cgroup controller (1, 2 and others, documentation). It can be used to limit the amount of memory required by the kernel for managing processes. Using appropriately configured limits, this should enable the kernel to keep the lid on fork bombs even within containers.

OpenSUSE 12.3 beta is ready to run

Back in 2012, openSUSE, SUSE's community Linux distribution, wasn't looking so good. The project  was missing deadlines and had to be completely reorganized. Eventually, openSUSE 12.2 appearedin September, and since then openSUSE seems to have been on the right track. At the least, openSUSE is on time for the first, and only, beta of its next release, openSUSE 12.3.
OpenSUSE may not get the ink Fedora, Mint, or Ubuntu Linux do, but its parent Linux distribution, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is still one of the major server Linux distributions. Linux professionals know you ignore openSUSE and SUSE at your own risk.
OpenSUSE is also the one major distribution that has stayed true to the KDE desktop environment, instead of GNOME or one of the many GNOME desktop spin-offs such as Cinnamon and MATE. This beta uses the KDE 4.10 RC2 of KDE workspaces and applications.
The final release of KDE 4.10 is set for the first week of February. Thus, when openSUSE 12.3 goes final, it will ship with KDE 4.10.
It's not all KDE though. OpenSUSE is incorporating tools from other desktops as well. For example, the XFCE file manager Thunar is included. This features tab support, improved bookmark handling and a check for free space before copying starts. OpenSUSE also includes LXDE's respected PCMan file-manager.
Under the hood, openSUSE will be using the 3.7.1 Linux kernel. The most significant improvements here are in networking. 3.7 incorporates TCP Fast Open, which can speed opening up Web pages from 10 to 40%. It also includes Server Messenge Block (SMB2) protocol for Windows PC file support.
This kernel also does a great job of supporting ARM processors. This leaves the door open for easily porting openSUSE to ARM-powered systems such as the ARM-based Samsung Chromebook. Indeed there are earlier openSUSE builds for the Chromebook are already available.
As for applications, besides the KDE family, openSUSE 12.3 will ship with LibreOffice 3.6 for word processors and Firefox 18 for Web browsing.

Download OpenSUSE 12.3
http://software.opensuse.org/developer/en

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/opensuse-12-3-beta-is-ready-to-run-7000010017/

Top 5 reasons the Ubuntu Linux phone might make it

5) Ubuntu Unity interface

Even at its very early stages Unity on the phone is the sweetest smartphone interface I'd ever seen. I've always known Ubuntu's default interface, Unity, was really meant for touch interfaces, now that I've seen it on a phone it really shows to its best advantage.
According to Bacon, you'll have the chance to install it and see it for yourself on Galaxy Nexus phones beginning in March. There have been other reports that the first Ubuntu for phones installation images will appear in February, but March is much more likely.

4) Easy Smartphone OS Upgradability

Shuttleworth pointed out to me, unlike Android, where the version you get is what you usually are stuck with for forever and a day, Ubuntu on phones, just like on the desktop, will be constantly upgraded. For frustrated Android smartphone geeks who always want the newest version they'll feel like they died and went to heaven.
Bacon added though that Ubuntu for phone won't be using same release model as Ubuntu desktop. There won't be one universal image that can be used on all phones. Each phone model will need its own image to make the best possible use of its hardware.

3) Easy Carrier Customization

At the same time, however, carriers will be able to easily customize the phone interface and add their own apps. So, how can it be both easy for end-users to upgrade to the latest version and at the same time let carriers add in their applications and particular look and feel? Easy. By keeping the carrier optimizations in user space, where it's easy to change things, and out of the core operating system itself. This could be the best of both world for end-users and carriers.

2) Linux Desktop Software Compatibility

I had been worried about getting software developers to give Ubuntu a try. I mean there's already so much money to be made in Android and iOS and there's only so many embedded programmers to go around. Bacon made me realize though that all existing Ubuntu applications—LibreOffice, Gimp, Rhythmbox, etc.--will all run on Ubuntu phones. Now getting them to display properly on the phone's interface will take some work, but that's the easy part. The core functionality of tens of thousands of Linux apps will already be available. Of course, if you use your Ubuntu smartphone to power up a PC display you won't even need that.
To make it easier for existing Linux programmers to bring their desktop apps to the phone, Bacon said Ubuntu is working on providing programmers with QML (Qt Meta Language) widgets for quick interface development. QML, along with HTML5 and OpenGL, is native to Ubuntu on phones. These, and the software development kit (SDK), said Bacon, should be out in March.
What all this means is that every Linux programmer out there can also be a smartphone programmer. Almost a thousand developers, said Bacon, are already working on Ubuntu phone apps. Bottom line: Ubuntu is going to have thousands of apps. ready to go before it ships.

1) Green Fields and High End Markets

Shuttleworth also observed that Ubuntu gives carriers two models. In the first, they can cheaply add Ubuntu to low-end phones. This may not matter much in the power-hungry first-world countries, but Shuttleworth believes this makes Ubuntu ideal for second and third-world countries.
In the second high-end model, users will be able to use top-of-the-line Ubuntu smartphones both as a phone and as a desktop. Does the idea of using a smartphone to power your desktop sound silly to you? It shouldn't.
Tablets are already doing it and, as Shawn Dubravac, CEA's Chief Economist and Senior. Director of Research observed at CES said, "65% of the time we spend on mobile phones is not communications. Even adding in e-mail, texting, and so on, smartphones are no longer about communication." Shuttleworth and company are just taking the smartphone to its next natural evolutionary step.

Source:http://www.zdnet.com/top-5-reasons-the-ubuntu-linux-phone-might-make-it-7000009721/

Linux-powered rifle brings “auto-aim” to the real world

CES is about technology of all kinds; while we're busy covering cameras, TVs, and CPUs, there's a huge number of products that fall outside our normal coverage. Austin-based startup TrackingPoint isn't typical Ars fare, but its use of technology to enable getting just the perfect shot was intriguing enough to get me to stop by and take a look at the company's products.
TrackingPoint makes "Precision Guided Firearms, or "PGFs," which are a series of three heavily customized hunting rifles, ranging from a .300 Winchester Magnum with a 22-inch barrel up to a .338 Lapua Magnum with 27-inch barrel, all fitted with advanced computerized scopes that look like something directly out of The Terminator. Indeed, the comparison to that movie is somewhat apt, because looking through the scope of a Precision Guided Firearm presents you with a collection of data points and numbers, all designed to get a bullet directly from point A to point B.

The PGF isn't just a fancy scope on top of a rifle. All together, the PGF is made up of a firearm, a modified trigger mechanism with variable weighting, the computerized digital tracking scope, and hand-loaded match grade rounds (which you need to purchase from TrackingPoint). This is a little like selling both the razor and the razor blades, but the rounds must be manufactured to tight tolerances since precise guidance of a round to a target by the rifle's computer requires that the round perform within known boundaries.

The image displayed on the scope isn't a direct visual, but rather a video image taken through the scope's objective lens. The Linux-powered scope produces a display that looks something like the heads-up display you'd see sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet, showing the weapon's compass orientation, cant, and incline. To shoot at something, you first "mark" it using a button near the trigger. Marking a target illuminates it with the tracking scope's built-in laser, and the target gains a pip in the scope's display. When a target is marked, the tracking scope takes into account the range of the target, the ambient temperature and humidity, the age of the barrel, and a whole boatload of other parameters. It quickly reorients the display so the crosshairs in the center accurately show where the round will go.
Image recognition routines keep the pip stuck to the marked target in the scope's field of view, and at that point, you squeeze the trigger. This doesn't fire the weapon; rather, the reticle goes from blue to red, and while keeping the trigger held down, you position the reticle over the marked target's pip. As soon as they coincide, the rifle fires.

TrackingPoint is quick to emphasize the rifle doesn't fire "by itself," but rather the trigger's pull force is dynamically raised to be very high until the reticle and pip coincide, at which point the pull force is reset to its default. In this way, the shooter is still in control of the rifle's firing, and at any point prior to firing you can release the trigger. In the mockups the company had on display for the press to experiment with, the action appeared to be the same—I pulled the trigger and lined up the dots and the blue plastic toy gun went click.

Having the round fire when the shot is lined up rather than in immediate response to a trigger pull eliminates a tremendous amount of uncertainty from the shot. Even the most experienced shooters can upset a weapon's aim when pulling the trigger, and overcoming the reflex to twitch or preemptively move against a weapon's recoil is very, very difficult. By allowing the computer to choose the precise moment to take the shot, accuracy is greatly enhanced.
Putting lead accurately on targets is only part of what TrackingPoint's PGF system does. The computerized tracking scope contains some amount of nonvolatile storage, and like an airplane's "black box," it's constantly recording the visual feed from the optics. It also contains a small Wi-Fi server, and TrackingPoint offers an iOS app that connects to the scope via an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and streams the scope's display to the app, allowing someone with an iPad or iPhone to act as a spotter. TrackingPoint notes that for novice hunters, having the ability to duplicate the scope's picture onto an external display makes it a lot easier for an experienced spotter to give advice on how and when to shoot.

Credits & Read Full Story:http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/17000-linux-powered-rifle-brings-auto-aim-to-the-real-world/

Akaneiro: Demon Hunters enters into open beta, Linux version on the horizon

Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, the Red Riding Hood-based title from American McGee's Spicy Horse Games studio, enters into open beta today while the developer adds new tiers to its Kickstarter campaign to unlock a version for Linux.
Users can sign up to the open beta on the game's official website. It will run until Jan. 16 and consist of numerous stress tests. In addition, those who participate in the beta will have a chance to experience the game's advanced character training, weapon improvement and the in-development Shivering Pines area.
Akaneiro's Kickstarter has reached $53,589 of its $200,000 funding goal with 23 days left in its campaign. A Linux version is now added to the game's stretch goals, alongside a new penguin pet in the game's reward tiers.
Source:http://www.polygon.com/2013/1/10/3859140/akaneiro-demon-hunters-enters-into-open-beta-linux-version-on-the

Valve Console Locked For Linux, Report Suggests “SteamBox” Out 2013

After many rumours, it appears Steam’s living room console is real. At the end of 2012, German site Golem.de attended a conference, and at that conference was Ben Krasnow, Valve’s electronics engineer. Krasnow, apparently, talked hardware.
Specifically, a Valve console, which has been a joint effort with Jeri Ellsworth (for the last two years), runs off Linux, and is due in 2013.
“It doesn’t come off as a huge surprise,” says one translation from the original German source site, “considering that Valve-boss Gabe Newell views Windows 8 as a catastrophe: Steam Box will not be based on Windows, but on Linux instead.”
“This was confirmed by Ben Krasnow, one of Valve’s hardware developers, when inquired on this topic,” continues the story. “With that, the Linux client for Valve’s download and community platform Steam, which is currently in its Beta phase, gets an all new background because of this – especially as Linux will also support the big-picture mode.”
Linux might mean that the vast majority of Steam’s library won’t automatically work, but all Valve need to do is make the console launch with Half Life 3.

Source:http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/01/05/valve-console-locked-for-linux-report-suggests-steambox-out-2013/

Linux users resent being locked out of Windows 8

 Microsoft’s brand new version of its flagship product, the Windows operating system, has pitted it once again against Linux users who have had a longstanding battle with the giant. The Linux community has been particularly offended by the operating system’s Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), or popularly known as Secure Boot.

The GNU Linux community’s fundamental objection to the feature is that it amounts to collusion between Microsoft and hardware manufacturers to lock users, depriving them of the freedom to install other operating systems in a Windows environment. They were later mollified by Microsoft’s clarifications that there will be a ‘Secure Boot-disable’ option on PC’s shipping with Windows 8. Although this option would have allowed installation of multiple operating systems, it is still arduous on Secure Boot machines.

Secure Boot is deemed as an attempt by Microsoft to tighten its losing grip in the desktop space and grab onto a substantial user base in the tablet space. With the release of Windows 8 and Microsoft’s tablet computer Surface, there is some clarity about the implications of Secure Boot.

As the Redmond giant provides an option for multi boot on Intel or AMD processor-based computers (seen with Windows 8), and no such option for ARM-based computers, the restriction might play out differently in the tablet market (manifested in Microsoft Surface).

It would create unhealthy competition in the long run, if Microsoft-certified ARM devices make it big in the tablet computer segment, and eliminate other operating systems from the race with a hardware lock in the form of Secure Boot.

If you have a personal computer, or a laptop that you purchased a couple of years ago, the first wake-up screen would most likely be a dull visual with a pixelated logo and text in a monotonous font with keyboard access to only a few obscure device options. This wake-up system software, that has existed from the first IBM PC, is mostly the only piece of computer ware that has never seen any major upgrades.

The Basic Input/Output System (or commonly known as the BIOS) is the firmware that initiates the device wake-up, before the operating system can be loaded.

With UEFI, this interface between the device firmware and the operating system will make the interface advanced, firstly, and more importantly, prevent malicious software that attack the BIOS (rootkits) from hampering the functioning of the operating system. The initiative of Intel and now the consortium UEFI is trying to make the boot process of computers more secure.

Secure or restricted?

Boot restrictions aren’t new in the industry. All Apple products come with restricted boot. Tablets and phones running Android too do not allow multi boot. With the Microsoft version of UEFI Secure Boot, it has joined the league of restricted boot operating systems. If Microsoft is not alone, why is it being targeted?

A blog post on Free Software Foundation website reads, “When done correctly, Secure Boot is designed to protect against malware by preventing computers from loading unauthorised binary programs when booting.” In the case of the Microsoft implementation, it hasn’t been done correctly. Making the apprehensions of Free Software crowd come true, Microsoft has now made it mandatory for ARM-based devices to have “Secure Boot” on, without an option to disable it. This means ARM-based devices certified for Windows do not have the option of booting into another operating system (unless the operating system in question is also certified by Microsoft).

Impact on market

While Free Software community and technologists who want multi boot are agitated with this ARM lock by Microsoft, from a market point of view, it does not seem like a threat, at least as yet.

Microsoft is not imposing the Secure Boot restriction in the desktop space, which is almost entirely ruled by Intel or AMD machines running Microsoft Windows. If Microsoft had imposed Secure Boot on desktop platforms, they might have faced a second antitrust action, because they are still the monopoly in personal computer operating systems.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/linux-users-resent-being-locked-out-of-windows-8/article4277078.ece