Shreeya Patel
September 19, 2024
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The Linux Kernel 6.11 release brings a number of exciting updates that improve performance, security, and hardware compatibility. This version includes expanded support for ARM and x86 architectures, which means better CPU management and enhanced virtualization security with AMD's SEV-SNP. The io_uring subsystem has also been improved, making data input/output operations faster and more efficient. For file systems, Btrfs and exFAT receive updates that boost performance and reliability, which is great for managing storage on a wide range of devices. These improvements make the kernel more flexible and efficient for various computing environments.
On the hardware side, Linux 6.11 adds support for new devices, such as Realtek network adapters and Qualcomm clock controllers, ensuring that the kernel works well with the latest hardware. The inclusion of block drivers written in Rust is another exciting development, paving the way for safer and faster driver development in the future. The release also improves power management and networking features, making Linux a solid choice for everything from mobile devices to high-performance servers. Overall, this release balances new features with system stability, offering a solid foundation for developers and users alike. For more detailed insights, check out Jonathan Corbet's coverage on LWN and the commit history.
Let's take a look at Collabora's contribution to the 6.11 kernel release below:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno upstreamed regulator and interconnect drivers to enable support for the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling Resource Collector (DVFSRC) on all currently supported MediaTek SoCs. These additions improve power efficiency by controlling voltage scaling for the System Companion Processor (SCP) and managing the bandwidth of the External Memory Interface (EMI) interconnect bus. He also upstreamed new drivers to support the Auxiliary Analog to Digital Converter (AUXADC) block found in MediaTek's MT6357, MT6358, and MT6359 Power Management ICs (PMICs). This adds the capability to detect 3.5mm jack accessories, such as microphone presence and accessory buttons (ranging from single to triple multimedia buttons), in addition to gathering information about the temperature of the PMIC and the integrated Core and GPU voltage regulators. Furthermore, Angelo added support for MediaTek MT8188's power domains, GPU, Global Command Engine (GCE) mailboxes, and basic Display Controller (VDOSYS) block, and upstreamed patches to add support for this SoC in the Panfrost driver. He also fixed an issue that prevented the MediaTek SVS IP from being enabled on MT8192 and MT8195(T) Chromebooks. These devices will now be able to lower GPU voltages based on silicon quality, further improving power efficiency.
Thanks to the interest and testing from PostMarketOS community members, Angelo could also upstream a device tree for the HP Chromebook x260 (13b-ca0002sa), powered by MediaTek's MT8195 Kompanio 1200. On the MediaTek IoT side, he improved support for the Genio 1200-powered Radxa NIO 12L Single Board Computer (SBC) by adding USB Role Switch capability and voltage scaling for both the CPU clusters and the Mali GPU. Last but not least, he identified and quickly upstreamed a fix for a regression in the MediaTek DRM (Display Controller) driver, which was causing userspace crashes when starting a GNOME session on Wayland (Mutter compositor) or the ChromeOS compositor.
Cristian Ciocaltea submitted several DTS and dt-bindings fixes related to the RK809/RK817 PMIC series, which also provide audio codec-related capabilities, among others. Additionally, he improved compile testing for the Samsung HDMI/eDP TX Combo PHY driver, part of RK3588 SoC support. He fixed an issue affecting the boards based on the RK356x SoC family, where an attempt to reload the VOP2 driver would freeze the entire system.
In the realm of multimedia, Julien Massot integrated support for the Maxim GMSL2 MAX96714F deserializer and MAX96717F serializer driver. These drivers enable tunnel mode, where all CSI2 traffic from an imager is duplicated through the deserializer output port.
For the Panthor system, Adrián Larumbe implemented a mechanism to flush the entire firmware virtual memory address space in the event of a timeout during the fast reset process. This update ensures that outdated cache lines are cleared before reloading, which helps prevent scheduler job timeouts and improves overall system stability.
Nícolas Prado has upstreamed a new test to identify devices that have reported errors to the kernel log. This new test facilitates the detection of a broad range of regressions and lists devices with outstanding issues. In addition, Nícolas has refined error logging by eliminating instances where error logs were incorrectly generated in non-error situations.
Following recent build failures in kselftests identified by KernelCI, Muhammad Usama Anjum has tackled these issues by upstreaming necessary fixes. His work not only addressed these build problems but also involved fixing bugs and enhancing kselftests to improve their overall quality.
Helen Koike and Vignesh Raman added VKMS support in DRM-CI, allowing IGT tests to run on top of VKMS. The IGT testlist is no longer included in the kernel; instead, it now relies on the testlist from the IGT build to ensure that all renamed or new tests are covered. Additional updates include revised test expectations, adaptations to recent changes in Mesa CI, and an upgrade to the latest IGT version.
On the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) side, Sebastian Reichel's patch improves the handling of USB Type-C connections by avoiding unnecessary hard resets when the USB PD source fails to send Source Capability messages after a soft reset. Instead, it implements a fallback mechanism that explicitly requests these capabilities, preventing boot loops on batteryless platforms and enhancing compatibility with various USB PD sources.
Adrián Larumbe:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
Christopher Obbard:
Cristian Ciocaltea:
Derek Foreman:
Dmitry Osipenko:
Julien Massot:
Laura Nao:
Mary Guillemard:
Muhammad Usama Anjum:
Nícolas F. R. A. Prado:
Sebastian Reichel:
Vignesh Raman:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
Helen Koike:
Sebastian Reichel:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
Sebastian Fricke:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
Benjamin Gaignard:
Boris Brezillon:
Daniel Stone:
Dmitry Osipenko:
Muhammad Usama Anjum:
Nicolas Dufresne:
Nícolas F. R. A. Prado:
Sebastian Reichel:
AngeloGioacchino Del Regno:
Daniel Stone:
Helen Koike:
Muhammad Usama Anjum:
Nicolas Dufresne:
Pekka Paalanen:
Sebastian Reichel:
Dmitry Osipenko:
Nícolas F. R. A. Prado:
Laura Nao:
Nícolas F. R. A. Prado:
19/09/2024
The latest 6.11 kernel release is here! This release improves performance, security, and hardware compatibility, increasing the kernel's…
18/09/2024
It is now possible to start kicking the tires on Vulkan with an open source driver on Arm Mali-G610 and Mali-G310 GPUs. The Panfrost project…
16/09/2024
Collabora will be in Vienna for the Media Summit, Open Source Summit Europe, and Linux Plumbers! Catch one of our many talks.
Whether writing a line of code or shaping a longer-term strategic software development plan, we'll help you navigate the ever-evolving world of Open Source.
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