Linux 5.10 Has Initial Support For NVIDIA Orin, DeviceTree For Purism's Librem 5

Complementing the ARM(64) architecture changes for Linux 5.10 are now the SoC and board updates that are quite interesting this round.

The ARM platform/SoC support with Linux 5.10 ranges from initial bring-up of the NVIDIA Tegra Orin SoC to finally mainlining the DeviceTree support for the Purism Librem 5 smartphone revisions thus far to Raspberry Pi 4 display setup. Highlights:

- NVIDIA Tegra234 SoC support. The NVIDIA T234 is the Orin SoC used by the NVIDIA

OpenJ9 0.23 Released As Latest Eclipse Java Virtual Machine

Version 0.23 of the Eclipse OpenJ9 Java Virtual Machine was released this week in continuing to focus on being a high performance, open-source JVM.

With OpenJ9 0.23 there is expanded platform support for JITServer, which is the project's initiative to separate the just-in-time compiler from the virtual machine in order to free up CPU/RAM resources by having punted it off as its own process. JITServer also supports the ability of moving the JIT compilation off to a remote

EXT4 Changes Land In Linux 5.10 With Fast Commits, Big Boost For Parallel Writes

The EXT4 file-system updates have landed in Linux 5.10 with some notable additions for this mature file-system.

As noted previously, there is a big optimization for file overwrites when in DAX/DIO modes for EXT4 such as when running off Intel Optane DCPMM storage.For parallel writes in such scenarios -- particularly random overwrites -- there can be upwards of a 10x performance improvement or a 2x performance improvement in more basic areas. But you must be using the EXT4

Wine 5.20 Released With Various Improvements For Running Windows Software On Linux

Wine 5.20 was just released as the newest bi-weekly development milestone for this solution to run Windows games and other software on Linux, macOS, and other platforms.

Wine 5.20 isn't the most notable update in recent time but has a number of low-level improvements. Among the work in v5.20is continuing the implementation of the DSS crypto provider, fixes for windowless RichEdit handling, support for FLS callbacks, window resizing support in the new console host, and

Intel

Intel Xe Graphics' Incredible Performance Uplift From OpenCL To oneAPI Level Zero To Vulkan

Since picking up the Dell XPS 13 9310 for delivering Tiger Lake Linux benchmarks, most of the focus so far has been about the overall processor performance while in this article is our first deep dive into the Gen12 Xe Graphics performance on Linux with Intel's fully open-source graphics and compute stack. Here is a look at how the Tiger Lake Xe Graphics performance is with the Core i7-1165G7 ranging from OpenGL and Vulkan graphics tests to OpenCL, oneAPI

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AMD SFH Driver To Land With Linux 5.11 For Better Ryzen Laptop Handling In 2021

It was sadly too late for squeezing into the current Linux 5.10 merge window but it looks like for Linux 5.11 in early 2021 the AMD Sensor Fusion Hub "SFH" driver will make its long awaited debut.

The AMD SFH driver is similar to the long-standing Intel ISH driver for supporting the sensor hub on modern laptops. The AMD SFH support is needed for laptops bearing gyroscopic sensors and other capabilities.

Back in January AMD finally published the Sensor Fusion Hub Linux driver for
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Ubuntu 21.04 Installer Might Allow EXT4 Encryption Without LVM

Ubuntu for many years has allowed EXT4 file-system encryption when making use of LVM management but for Ubuntu 21.04 it's looking to offer the file-system encryption without having to go through LVM.

An early proposal by Ubuntu/Canonical developer Dimitri John Ledkov is proposing full disk encryption by default without LVM. With Ubuntu Core 20 there is going to be support for TPM-backed full disk encryption created directly on the LUKS volume and in turn directly on a GPT partition without LVM.

Fedora 33 To Be Released Next Week

Fedora 33 will manage to ship on-time per its back-up target date of next week Tuesday.

While Fedora 33 wasn't ready to ship this Tuesday per its "preferred" target date, Fedora 33 has been cleared by to ship next week on its "Final Target date #1" for this major update to the Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution.

Fedora Workstation 33 switches from EXT4 to Btrfs by default, the workstation spin is powered by the GNOME 3.38 desktop

Intel Sends Linux Kernel Patches For VRR / Adaptive-Sync Enablement

For months now Intel's open-source Linux driver stack has been preparing for VRR support with Gen11/Gen12 graphics. We've seen user-space patches by Intel around VRR while now they are finally sending out their key Linux kernel driver patches with the i915 DRM code.

This kernel code is what's needed for actually enabling DisplayPort 1.4 Adaptive-Sync / Variable Refresh Rate on capable Intel graphics hardware with capable displays. The 11 patches add just under

The Most Innovative ~$50 Graphics Card For Linux Users

This ~$50 USD graphics card is open-source friendly, can drive four display outputs simultaneously, passively cooled, and can fit in a PCI Express x1 slot. It's a unique card offering good value especially for those Linux users wanting open-source friendly hardware.

Earlier this year ASUS announced the GT710-4H-SL-2GD5 . In the months since we didn't hear anything more about it given the pandemic but recently saw it became available via Internet

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