-What's new in the Linux kernel - DebConf 2013
+What's new in the Linux kernel - DebConf 2014
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
What's new in the Linux kernel
+
and what's missing in Debian
Ben Hutchings
@@ -63,8 +64,7 @@
Regular Linux contributor in both roles since 2008
- Maintaining a net driver in my day job, plus core networking
- and PCI code as necessary
+ Working on various drivers and kernel code in my day job
Debian kernel team member, now doing most of the unstable
@@ -83,10 +83,15 @@
Linux is released about 5 times a year (plus stable updates
every week or two)
+
+
+ ...though some features aren't ready to use when they firat
+ appear in a release
+
+
- For 'wheezy' we chose to freeze with Linux 3.2, which was
- getting pretty old by the time of release
+ Since my talk last year, Linus has made 6 releases (3.11-3.16)
Good news: we have lots of new kernel features in testing/unstable
@@ -98,145 +103,45 @@
-
Team device driver [3.3]
-
-
- Alternative to the bonding driver - simpler, modular, high-level
- control deferred to userland
-
-
- Basic configuration can be done with ip, but it really
- needs new tools - teamd, teamnl, etc.
-
- DRM/KMS drivers added for old, new and virtual hardware -
- AST, DisplayLink, Hyper-V, Matrox G200, QEMU Cirrus
+ Team device driver: userland package (libteam) was uploaded in
+ October
- Should be more robust than purely user-mode drivers, and
- compatible with Secure Boot
+ Transcendent memory: frontswap, zswap and Xen tmem will be
+ enabled in next kernel upload
- Current X drivers don't work with these, so the kernel drivers
- are disabled for now
+ New KMS drivers: should all work with current Xorg drivers
- Make it work: join the X Strike Force and package the new X
- drivers
+ Module signing: still not enabled, but probably will be if we
+ do Secure Boot
-
Module signing [3.7]
+
Recap of last year's features (2)
- Kernel modules can be signed at build time, and the kernel
- configured to refuse loading unsigned modules
-
-
- Necessary but not sufficient to implement Secure Boot -
- we would also need signed kernel images and some other
- restrictions when booted in this mode
-
-
- Make Secure Boot work: come to the meeting on Tuesday
+ More support for discard: still not enabled at install time
+ (#690977)
-
-
-
-
-
More support for discard
-
-
- Flash devices (and thin-provisioned SANs) can be more efficient
- if the filesystem 'discards' unused disk space
-
-
- Requires support in hardware, driver, filesystem and any layered
- device drivers - e.g. LVM, RAID (added in 3.7)
-
-
- Must be explicitly enabled, but d-i doesn't do this by default
-
- One of the last missing pieces for OpenVZ-like containers
-
-
- Each user namespace has its own root user with
- privileges over the users and processes in that namespace - but
- not the whole system
-
-
- Currently somewhat experimental, and requires filesystem
- changes which haven't been done for XFS
-
-
- Make it work: send patches to upstream XFS developers (this
- one's hard)
-
-
-
-
-
-
bcache [3.10]
-
- Turns a fast block device into a cache for a larger, slower
- device (see also: dm-cache, EnhanceIO)
+ More support for containers: XFS was fixed, and user namespaces
+ have been enabled
- Needs its own set of userland tools
+ bcache: userland package (bcache-tools) still not quite ready
+ (#708132)
- Make it work:
- see http://bugs.debian.org/708132
- (maybe just needs a sponsor)
+ ARMv7 multiplatform: d-i works on some platforms but
+ I'm still not sure which. Some progress on GPU drivers, but not
+ in Debian yet.