You can have a little Linux kernel update, as a treat. The Linux kernel 6.2 is officially out now so here's some notes on some of what's new. In the release announcement Linus Torvalds requested people to "please do give 6.2 a testing" and that it may not be a "sexy LTS release like 6.1 ended up being, but all those regular pedestrian kernels want some test love too".
Some of what's new and improved includes:
- Intel Arc Graphics improvements.
- Optional Splitlock changes to help gaming.
- Initial NVIDIA Ampere (RTX 30) support in nouveau.
- Various work and drivers for Wi-Fi 7 support.
- Improvements to Sony controller support like DualShock 4 and DualSense.
- OneXPlayer mini (AMD) and AOK ZOE A1 sensor support.
- Btrfs file system performance improvements.
- Various exFAT file system improvements.
- More work on Apple Apple M1 Pro / Ultra / Max support.
- Power management improvements for Alder Lake N and Raptor Lake P.
- Performance improvement for Intel Skylake.
- A driver for the ChromeOS human presence sensor.
The full changelog is available over here and as usual Phoronix does a nice overview.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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10 comments
Very nice to see some Btrfs improvements and Apple M1 support now officially part of the kernel. I bet Linus has a hand personally with that last one.
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Perkeleen_Vittupää Feb 20, 2023
As a sidenote if someone is confused: after 5.19 came 6.0 (because Linus is not into huge numbers) and now we're here. 6.1 is a long term support (LTS) one. 6.2 here is great, but please be aware that there is quite possibly no need to move to this latest one right away for a regular common user, even gamer.
2 Likes, Who?
StalePopcorn Feb 20, 2023
Quoting: Perkeleen_VittupääAs a sidenote if someone is confused: after 5.19 came 6.0 (because Linus is not into huge numbers) and now we're here. 6.1 is a long term support (LTS) one. 6.2 here is great, but please be aware that there is quite possibly no need to move to this latest one right away for a regular common user, even gamer.Duly noted, will be updating ASAP
5 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus Feb 20, 2023
QuoteYou can have a little Linux kernel update, as a treat.Aw, you shouldn't have, Liam. You'll spoil our suppers! 🤣
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Anyone have any idea what those
QuoteOptional Splitlock changes to help gamingdo?
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyAnyone have any idea what thosehttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Splitlock-Hurts-Gaming
QuoteOptional Splitlock changes to help gamingdo?
Some more info on splitlocks here: https://lwn.net/Articles/790464/
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linuxjacques Feb 21, 2023
And in the middle ground between those two options is https://kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges .
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Ya know, last time I had God of War installed, I noticed while testing it (proton upgrades, mesa etc.) that performance was horrible, and it wasn't just shader compiles (which were initially hitchy, as it's a big shader heavy directx11 game). I seldom blame the kernel, I thought "f'ing Proton". I was about done with that game anyway (3 play throughs) and soon reclaimed its disk space and thought no more of it.
I knew of that splitlock sabotage, but didn't think it was affecting me.
Something here that's a bit confusing:
From Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst, the sysctl knob is either 0 or 1:
This is the equivalent of warn (which will be rate limited, but not tunable by you)
From Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt, the kernel command line parameter is:
split_lock_detect=off,warn,fatal,ratelimit:N
So the kernel command line parameter actually sounds like the better deal, with more control. I am adding this to my kernel command line instead of sysctl.d/
I'm going to try God of War again soon, it's been a while now.
I knew of that splitlock sabotage, but didn't think it was affecting me.
Something here that's a bit confusing:
From Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst, the sysctl knob is either 0 or 1:
split_lock_mitigate=0This is the equivalent of warn (which will be rate limited, but not tunable by you)
From Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt, the kernel command line parameter is:
split_lock_detect=off,warn,fatal,ratelimit:N
So the kernel command line parameter actually sounds like the better deal, with more control. I am adding this to my kernel command line instead of sysctl.d/
split_lock_detect=offI'm going to try God of War again soon, it's been a while now.
2 Likes, Who?
It was very lucky that Steven Jobs failed to recruit Linus to his service. It would have been a disaster for the Linux Kernel development cause if Linus had done that then the kernel would have gone down to sewers so to speak. Maybe not but we can be thankful that Linus turned down this offer. Without him this kind of rapid Linux development wouldn't have been possible!
Thank you Linus! You rock!
Thank you Linus! You rock!
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