Linux Networking Efforts Advances with New DPDK and OpenSwitch Releases

The OpenSwitch project joined the Linux Foundation two years ago in June 2016. The Open Switch effort originally got its start in October 2015 as a Hewlett Packard (HP) led effort. The new OPX 2.3 release provides feature enhancements for SNMP support and also adds support for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) as well as Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+) . "The ability to install and operationalize individual protocol stacks as applications or micro-features facilitates the design of cost-conscious, composable networks (based on a mixture of best-of-breed hardware and software) that reduce failure domains and improve performance” Alley Hasan, OpenSwitch Project Governing Board chair, wrote in a statement. "The OpenSwitch community is committed to continue developing viable, turn-key solutions for data center operators, as well as for service provider edge and core architectures."

SUSE releases enhancements to CaaS platform

Germany-based SUSE Linux has released SUSE CaaS Platform 3, the third iteration of its container as a service platform. A statement from the company said the platform included changes in Kubernetes to provide an enterprise-class container management solution that would allow application development and DevOps teams to deploy, manage and scale container-based applications and services. In March, Peter Lees, SUSE's chief technologist for the Asia-Pacific region, told iTWire that containers would be the major focus for the company as it looked to consolidate its position in the region.

OpenSUSE Leap 15 Plasma - Way too buggy, me sad

OpenSUSE Leap 15 is a troubled distro. It's pretty and it has some brilliant moments, but almost all of the issues and bugs I reported in Leap 42.3 are still here. As if nothing was learned. Or maybe no one cares. In its default guise, the distro simply isn't ready for ordinary use. You need to work hard to get the basic rights: package management, network, media codecs, fonts. Even time & date posed a big issue, and customization was tricky. Top that with crashes, installation woes, GRUB suddenly losing its dual-boot stuff. The only redeeming factors are good looks, excellent performance (eventually) and smartphone support. But the rest feels beta. Hardly the SUSE that I once knew and loved so much. Back then, I used SUSE 9/10 like a champ, even had a box configured as a router, used a PPTP dialer to get the Web, ran VMware Server Beta on top of it, had Nvidia drivers all dandy. This was in 2005-7, and I was much less skilled than I am now. And yet, I had a rock-solid, pro desktop that never disappointed me. Today, what can I say? I can only hope SUSE gets its game together. There are some really amazing things here, but they are far and few in between. Unfortunately, Leap 15 is a no-go. Something like 1/10. Me very sad.

Kernel: Systemd, AMDGPU Driver and LKML archives

• Escape from System D, episode V

  I think what really bothers me is just the scope of the thing. Systemd isn’t an init system; it’s a software ecosystem, a whole slew of separate programs which are designed to work together and to manage various different aspects of the system, not simply just manage services. The problem is, despite the claims of modularity, it’s somewhat difficult to separate out the pieces. Right from the start, building Systemd, you have a number of dependencies and a huge set of components that you may or may not be able to disable; if you do disable certain components, it’s not clear what the ramifications might be, whether you need to replace them, and what you might be able to replace them with. I’d be less bothered if I could download a source bundle just for “Systemd, the init daemon” and compile that separately, and pick and choose the other parts on an individual basis in a similar way, but that’s just not possible – and this is telling; sure, it’s “modular” but clearly the modules are all designed to be used together. In theory you may be able to take the core and a few select pieces but none of the distributions are doing that and therefore it’s not clear that it really is possible.

• Systemd 239 Rolls Out With Portable Services, Merges Boot Loader Specification

  The big systemd 239 feature update is now officially released. Systemd lead developer Lennart Poettering has announced the systemd 239 release.

• Initial AMDGPU Driver Changes Submitted For Linux 4.19

  Less than one week after the close of the Linux 4.18 kernel merge window, AMD developers working on the AMDGPU Direct Rendering Manager driver have already submitted their first batch of changes to DRM-Next to begin queuing for the Linux 4.19 kernel cycle. There are a few new features with this latest batch of code.

• LKML archives on lore.kernel.org

  A new archive of linux-kernel mailing list (LKML) posts going back to 1998 is now available at lore.kernel.org. It is based on public-inbox (which we looked at back in February. Among other things, public-inbox allows retrieving the entire archive via Git: "Git clone URLs are provided at the bottom of each page. Note, that due to its volume, the LKML archive is sharded into multiple repositories, each roughly 1GB in size. In addition to cloning from lore.kernel.org, you may also access these repositories on git.kernel.org." The full announcement, which includes information about a new Patchwork instance as well as ways to link into the new archive, can be found on kernel.org.