All of the KVM virtualization feature changes were recently merged for the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel.

KVM on x86 with Linux 7.0 now supports giving the guest full ownership of the PMU hardware, support for new Intel CPU instructions, fixes, and other updates.

To the AMD SVM code for KVM in Linux 7.0 is support for virtualizing ERAPS. Further improvements to virtualization of ERAPS is expected in a coming cycle. ERAPS is the Enhanced Return Address Predictor Security . AMD ERAPS is introduced

As a late stage change for GNOME 50 ahead of its official debut next month and following last week's GNOME 50 beta is plumbing the Mutter compositor for a new "sdr-native" color mode option.

Prominent Linux graphics-related developer Michel Dänzer of Red Hat implemented this sdr-native color mode that managed to land in time for GNOME 50. This sdr-native color mode is an alternative to the default and BT2100 modes currently available. Michel explained in the

The NTFS3 driver maintained by Paragon Software for Microsoft NTFS file-systems today saw a batch of improvements merged for Linux 7.0 This comes as there is also the competing "NTFS Remake" driver that began a few months ago as the " NTFSPLUS " driver. That NTFS Remake driver isn't looking like it will be submitted for the Linux 7.0 merge window so at least for now the NTFS3 driver continues seeing improvements with the latest mainline kernel code.

Konstantin Komarov of Paragon Software today sent out

AMD sent out a set of Linux kernel patches today for enabling use of a new instruction dubbed RMPOPT . Given the timing of these patches, RMPOPT is presumably a feature coming with next-gen AMD EPYC Zen 6 "Venice" processors.

RMPOPT is a new instruction to help minimize the performance overhead of RMP checks on the hypervisor and for non-SNP guests by letting RMP checks be skipped in certain scenarios. With RMPOPT these checks can be skipped when 1G regions of memory are known not to contain any SEV-

The LED subsystem updates for the Linux kernel typically aren't too noteworthy each kernel cycle but with Linux 7.0 is a new TI RGB LED driver that captured my attention in being curious over its "autonomous animation engine" integration.

The new driver is for the TI LP5812 4x3 matrix RGB LEDs. with an I2C interface and autonomous animation engine controls. The LP5812 is designed for use in portable/wearable electronics, smart speakers, gaming/home entertainment

The close_range system call for closing all file descriptors "FDs" in a given range should enjoy a nice speed boost with the in-development Linux 7.0 kernel.

Last week saw all the feature-heavy VFS pull requests that brought nullfs and open_tree_namespace , standardized generic I/O error reporting , non-blocking timestamps, and other improvements. Sent out on Monday were some lingering VFS patches mailed out by Christian Brauner.

Notable with the vfs misc 2 pull is optimizing the close_

One of the limitations of the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver has been the lack of its support for HDMI 2.1 and later. AMD has wanted to support HDMI 2.1+ functionality under Linux but it's been legally blocked by the HDMI Forum . But anxious independent users have been working on open-source patches for wiring up HDMI 2.1 into the AMDGPU driver outside of the realm of AMD and the HDMI Forum's blessings.

Besides AMDGPU patches working on HDMI Gaming Features worked on independently and

GhostBSD lead developer Eric Turgeon published an update regarding X.Org Server vs. XLibre vs. Wayland planning for the GhostBSD distribution moving forward as well as some future uncertainties to this desktop-focused, FreeBSD-derived OS.

Eric Turgeon shared plans this weekend for GhostBSD to move from using the X.Org Server to XLibre. Given the code reverts in the latest X.Org Server codebase and Wayland not yet being ready for GhostBSD's needs like the MATE desktop default, XLibre is planned for use use as the