Linux Kernel 4.7.6 Is Out with MIPS and OCFS2 Improvements, Updated Drivers

Today, September 30, 2016, renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the release of the sixth maintenance update to the latest stable Linux 4.7 kernel series. Linux kernel 4.7.6 comes only five days after the release of the previous maintenance version, Linux kernel 4.7.5, and, according to the appended shortlog and the diff from the last update, it changes a total of 76 files, with 539 insertions and 455 deletions. In summary, it updates multiple drivers, adds improvements to various filesystems and hardware architectures, and improves the networking stack.

Linux Kernel 4.4.23 LTS Has ARM and MIPS Improvements, Updated Filesystems, More

Immediately after announcing the release of Linux kernel 4.7.6, Greg Kroah-Hartman proudly informed the community about the general availability of the Linux 4.4.23 LTS kernel. The Linux 4.4 kernel is a long-term supported branch, the latest and most advanced one, used in many stable and reliable GNU/Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and Alpine Linux 3.4. Therefore, it is imperative for it to receive regular updates that bring fixes to the most important issues, as well as other general improvements.

From NFS to LizardFS

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that we started our data servers out using NFS on ext4 mirrored over DRBD, hit some load problems, switched to btrfs, hit load problems again, tried a hacky workaround, ran into problems, dropped DRBD for glusterfs, had a major disaster, switched back to NFS on ext4 mirrored over DRBD, hit more load problems, and finally dropped DRBD for ZFS.

IBM's Ginni Rometty Tells Bankers Not To Rest On Their Digital Laurels

BUS1, The Successor To KDBUS, Formally Unveiled -- Aiming For Mainline Linux Kernel

BUS1 has been in development as an in-kernel IPC mechanism building off the failed KDBUS project. An "RFC" will soon be sent out to Linux kernel developers about BUS1 and the subject will be discussed at next month's Kernel Summit. David Herrmann, one of the BUS1 developers, presented at this week's systemd.conf conference about the new capability-based IPC for Linux. He talked about how BUS1 is superior to KDBUS, how BUS1 is similar to Android's Binder, Chrome's Mojo, Solaris' Doors, and other common IPC implementations.

A New Wireless Daemon Is In Development To Potentially Replace wpa_supplicant

In addition to the BUS1 presentation, also exciting from the systemd.conf 2016 conference is a thorough walkthrough of a new wireless daemon for Linux being developed by Intel's Open-Source Technology Center. Intel has been developing a new wireless daemon for Linux to potentially replace wpa_supplicant. This new daemon isn't yet public but the code repositories for it will be opened up in the next few weeks. This new daemon has improvements around persistency, WiFi management, reduced abstractions for different operating systems and legacy interfaces, and changes to operation. This daemon is designed to be very lightweight and work well for embedded Linux use-cases especially, including IoT applications.

Blender 2.7.8 Released With Plenty of Improvements.

Blender 2.78 Released: Works On VR Support, Adds Grease Pencil

Blender 2.78 is now officially released to end out September for this open-source, cross-platform 3D/animation program. New to Blender 2.78 is spherical stereo rendering support for VR, a grease pencil for full 2D drawing and animations, viewport rendering improvements, freehand curves drawing over surfaces, bendy bones support, alembic support, new physics capabilities, and various new add-ons.

Cacti vs Nagios vs Pandora FMS, in depth

A Neat YouTube Subscriber Count Tracker for the Linux Terminal

A Primer on OVN

OVN is a virtual networking platform developed by the fine folks over at openvswitch.org. The project has been in the works for nearly two years now and is starting to mature to the point of being production ready. In this posting I’ll walk through the basics of configuring a simple layer-2 overlay network between 3 hosts. But first, a brief overview of how the system functions.

Calibre 2.69 eBook Manager and Reader Supports Kobo Driver 4.1, Overdrive Books

Today, September 30, 2016, Calibre developer Kovid Goyal announced the release and immediate availability for download of yet another maintenance update to the popular, free, and open source ebook library management software. Calibre 2.69 is now the latest and most advanced version of the application, and it comes two weeks after the release of Calibre 2.68, bringing support for firmware version 4.1 to the driver for Kobo e-book readers, along with support for Overdrive books on the device.

[How To] See Which Terminal Commands You Use The Most

How to install MediaWiki on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS

Perform Hot Backups of MySQL Databases with Percona XtraBackup on Ubuntu 16.04

I think ‘Particle Fleet: Emergence’ just became my new Linux gaming addiction

I’m a big strategy game fan, I like building stuff and especially destroying stuff. I did a quick check on new Steam releases today and came across ‘Particle Fleet: Emergence’ [Official Site, Steam] and I don’t want to put it down.

It's Been Three Years Since Valve Announced SteamOS, Steam Machines

This week marks three years since Valve publicly announced Steam Machines, SteamOS, and the Steam Controller. The Steam Controller seems to be gaining the most traction of these three efforts. This week the Steam Controller is on sale if you are looking at picking it up for just $35 rather than $50. The Steam Controller appears to still be going strong and there have been some indications Valve may be launching a new Steam Controller in the not too distant future.

Red Hat, Logicalis in digital transformation partnership in Latin America

PromonLogicalis, a provider of information technology and communication solutions and services in Latin America, and Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, announced a collaboration that aim to help organizations navigate the digital transformation of their infrastructures to pave the way for cloud and the software-defined technologies, and to advance open source technology awareness in the region. Open source is delivering significant advancements in many areas of technology through community-powered innovation, including cloud computing, mobile, big data, and more. And, as companies embrace modern technology as a competitive advantage via digital transformation efforts, many are turning to open source because of the flexibility and agility it can enable.

Red Hat Inc. (RHT) Downgraded by Zacks Investment Research to “Hold”

An Easy Way To Try Intel & RADV Vulkan Drivers On Fedora 24

Fedora 25 should have good support for the open-source Vulkan Linux drivers (particularly if it lands the next Mesa release) while Fedora 24 users can now more easily play with the latest Mesa Git RADV and Intel ANV Vulkan drivers via a new repository. A Phoronix reader has setup a Fedora Copr repository that is building Intel's Vulkan driver from Mesa Git plus the RADV Radeon Vulkan driver re-based from its source (David Airlie's semi-interesting GitHub branch). Fedora COPR, for the uninformed, is the distribution's equivalent to Ubuntu PPA repositories.

Meeting users, lots of users

Every year, I introduce Fedora to new students at Brno Technical University. There are approx. 500 of them and a sizable amount of them then installs Fedora. We also organize a sort of installfest one week after the presentation where anyone who has had any difficulties with Fedora can come and ask for help. It’s a great opportunity to observe what things new users struggle with the most. Especially when you have such a high number of new users. What are my observations this year?

96Boards SBCs host Intel Joule and Curie IoT modules

Gumstix announced two SBCs this week, based on Intel Joule and Curie IoT modules and built to 96Boards CE and IE form-factor specifications, respectively. At Linaro Connect Las Vegas 2016, where earlier this week Linaro’s 96Boards.org announced a new 96Boards IoT Edition (IE) spec, Gumstix announced support for 96Boards.org’s open SBC standards with two new single-board computers. Both SBCs will be available for purchase in October.

ORWL — First Open Source And Physically Secure PC, Runs Linux And Windows

ORWL is the first open source, physically secure computer. Using a secure microcontroller (MCU) and an ‘active clamshell mesh’, the device makes sure that nobody breaks the security of the system. Its maker, Design Shift, has also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply.

Purism Is Still Hoping To Build A GNU/Linux Free Software Librem Smartphone

Purism, the startup behind the Librem laptops with a focus on free software and user privacy/freedom, still has their minds set on coming up with a GNU/Linux smartphone. Purism continues selling their high-priced laptops and their Librem 11 is forthcoming as an Intel-based tablet/convertible device with stocking station. Next on their horizon they want to produce "the ideal no-carrier, Free Software phone running a bona fide GNU+Linux stack."