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New Patches Aim To Make x86 Linux EFI Stub & Relocatable Kernel Support Unconditional ( www.phoronix.com )

Prominent Intel Linux engineer H. Peter Anvin has posted a new patch series working to clean-up the Linux x86/x86_64 kernel boot code. Besides cleaning up the code, the kernel configuration would drop options around EFI stub mode and relocatable kernels in making those features now always enabled....

Linux 7.0 Apple Silicon Device Tree Updates Have All The Bits For USB Type-C Ports ( www.phoronix.com )

Ahead of the Linux 6.20~7.0 cycle kicking off next month, the Apple Silicon Device Tree updates have been sent out for queuing ahead of that next merge window. Notable this round are the Device Tree additions for rounding out the USB 2.0/3.x support with the USB-C ports....

The Windows Interface You Didn’t Like, For Linux ( hackaday.com )

If you were asked to pick the most annoying of the various Microsoft Windows interfaces that have appeared over the years, there’s a reasonable chance that Windows 8’s Metro start screen and interface design language would make it your choice. In 2012 the software company abandoned their tried-and-tested desktop whose roots...

Support For More Bluetooth Guitars & Other HID Changes Ahead Of Linux 6.20~7.0 ( www.phoronix.com )

A lot of HID subsystem updates have been queuing up ahead of the Linux 6.20~7.0 merge window in February. There is a lot of new hardware support on the way along with quirks for some existing hardware support ranging from laptop keyboard issues to enabling support for more PS4/PS5 guitars under Linux.

An alternate path for immutable distributions ( lwn.net )

LWN has had a number of articles on immutable distributions, such as Bluefin and Bazzite, in recent years. These distributions have taken a variety of approaches, including using rpm-ostree, filesystem snapshots, and bootable container (bootc) images. But those approaches, especially the latter, lead to extra complexity for a...

X.Org Server May Create A New Selective Git Branch With Hopes Of A New Release This Year ( www.phoronix.com )

A proposal has been laid out for a new X.Org Server "main" Git branch to house their development going forward and cleaning up the development lapses over the past few years. Ultimately the hope is for having a new cleaned-up X.Org Server and XWayland Git branch for shipping new releases in 2026....

Linux replacement for MusicBee / music player?

Hi, apologies for yet another "help me replace my Windows app 😭" post. I am attempting to move to Linux and have been mostly successful - day-to-day stuff, programming, games, it all works great! The biggest deal-breaker so far has actually been a music player... Is there anything that comes even close to MusicBee? I have yet...

Block Devices In User Space ( hackaday.com )

Your new project really could use a block device for Linux. File systems are easy to do with FUSE, but that’s sometimes too high-level. But a block driver can be tough to write and debug, especially since bugs in the kernel’s space can be catastrophic. [Jiri Pospisil] suggests Ublk, a framework for writing block devices in...

Script to rename files in a specific way

Situation: My partner and I backup our photos from our phones to a shared location. We have the same phone, so the files are named the same way however we do not like the naming scheme our phones use for the files. We have been renaming them manually so far but really getting tired of it and I know it could be achieved with a...

Fedora 44 Feature Approved For Better Windows On ARM Laptop Experience ( www.phoronix.com )

A change proposal has been cleared by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee "FESCo" for providing a nice out-of-the-box experience for Windows on ARM laptops namely the recent Snapdragon X1 laptops and will also be important for the upcoming Snapdragon X2 laptops too....

New Patches From Valve Bring AMDGPU Power Management Improvements For Old GCN 1.0 GPUs ( www.phoronix.com )

Last year Valve contractor Timur Kristóf managed to improve the AMDGPU driver enough for old GCN 1.0 Southern Islands and GCN 1.1 Sea Islands GPUs that with Linux 6.19 AMDGPU is now the default for those GPUs with better performance, RADV Vulkan out-of-the-box, and other benefits. He isn't done though improving the old GCN...