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"KVM Chainsaw" Expected To Hit Linux 7.3 For Dealing With God Data Structure

Phoronix | July 26, 2026, 11:32 a.m. | Original

A patch series that appears destined for the upcoming Linux 7.3 merge window is what's dubbed the "KVM Chainsaw" as a major code clean-up in dealing with the kvm_mmu "god data structure".

Red Hat engineer and KVM maintainer Paolo Bonzini has merged the kvm-chainsaw branch to KVM's "next" Git branch. With this KVM Chainsaw work now in the next branch, it should be submitted for the upcoming Linux 7.3 cycle.

User Frustrations Over The "Tragic State of FreeBSD Audio/Sound" Support

Phoronix | July 26, 2026, 9:24 a.m. | Original

Besides the FreeBSD graphics and WiFi drivers lagging behind Linux and other operating systems, the FreeBSD audio driver support and handling of audio streams with FreeBSD on the desktop can be problematic depending upon the hardware/system. One of the most active mailing list threads this week in the FreeBSD camp was over the "tragic state" of FreeBSD audio/sound support.

This long-running mailing list thread began with a user being frustrated over a regression later in the FreeBSD 14 series that has remained at least as of FreeBSD 1

Auto-CPUFreq 3.1 Adds Monitoring Mode To GUI, New Configuration Options & Fixes

Phoronix | July 26, 2026, 7 a.m. | Original

Auto-CPUFreq is one of the open-source projects striving to be a CPU speed and power optimizer for Linux systems to improve battery life without making any real compromises to the user experience. Out today is v3.1 as the newest feature release of Auto-CPUFreq.

Auto-CPUFreq 3.1 adds a monitoring mode to the program's GUI. This GUI monitoring mode is quite basic and provides a similar layout to monitoring with Auto-CPUFreq from its alternative command-line interface:

Realtek RTL8723B/RTL8723BS Trying To Be Tacked On To The RTW88 Linux Driver

Phoronix | July 26, 2026, 6:49 a.m. | Original

Since 2017 in Linux 4.12 has been the Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver where it was introduced into the staging area and remains there nearly a decade later. The rtl8723bs driver for this Realtek 802.11n WiFi SDIO driver has seen a lot of code cleaning over the years and all these years later still is needing lots of code clean-ups from unnecessary code abstractions to dealing with malicious WiFi APs for what Greg Kroah-Hartman

Linux 7.2-rc5 Fixing Longstanding Bug In IPv4 Networking Over Firewire

Phoronix | July 26, 2026, 6:38 a.m. | Original

Firewire still isn't dead yet on Linux. Current plans call for maintaining IEEE-1394 Firewire on Linux at least through 2029 and with today's Linux 7.2-rc5 kernel release is a fix for those wanting to leverage IPv4 networking over Firewire.

RFC 2734 is the nearly thirty year old standard for IPv4 datagrams over IEEE-1394 Firewire. Mainlined since 2009 for their modern (at the time) IEEE-

Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0 Released With Support For Notches & Rounded Corners

Phoronix | July 25, 2026, 8:15 p.m. | Original

Following last month's beta release , Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0 is now available as the latest feature release for this Ubuntu 24.04 LTS derived mobile operating system for select smartphones and tablets.

Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0 brings support for the Zinwa Q25 smartphone while also being available for other devices so far like the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, F(x)tec Pro1X, Fairphone 4, Fairphone 5, JingPad

Fedora Working To Establish Conflict of Interest Policy

Phoronix | July 25, 2026, 12:37 p.m. | Original

Posted this week is a draft copy of the Fedora Conflict of Interest policy being worked on for dealing with identifying, disclosing, and managing any actual, actual, or perceived conflicts of interest within the Fedora Project.

Since last year there has been a discussion item for the Fedora Council around establishing Conflict of Interest guidelines for Fedora. This could cover items like when a FESCo ticket is opened up by a member of a committee or other conflicts of interest within the project.

Kiwi Menu Continues Bringing macOS Vibes To GNOME

Phoronix | July 25, 2026, 7 a.m. | Original

Kiwi Menu as the macOS-inspired quick menu option for the GNOME Shell desktop is continuing to enhance its macOS-esque experience on GNOME.

Kiwi Menu 1.6.4 released this week for the macOS-like quick menu option for GNOME Shell. The new release brings a macOS-style dialog for force quitting applications, an "About This PC" window akin to what is found on Apple macOS, new configurable keyboard shortcuts, and enhancements to the menu appearance.

GNU C Library 2.44 Released With /etc/tunables.conf, More Optimizations

Phoronix | July 25, 2026, 6:39 a.m. | Original

GNU developers today released GNU C Library "glibc" 2.44 as the newest feature release for this critical library to modern Linux systems and other platforms.

Among the new features in Glibc 2.44 is introducing /etc/tunables.conf for storing new system-wide tunables for the GNU C Library. This is an alternative and more persistent option than the existing GLIBC_TUNABLES= environment variable option. With /etc/tunables.conf you can store one tunable per line and a variety of filters

KDE Plasma 6.8 Introducing New kscreenctl Tool

Phoronix | July 25, 2026, 6:29 a.m. | Original

KDE developers have been working on kscreenctl as a utility replacement to kscreen-doctor. Plasma and related code has also seen a number of bug/crash fixes coming about this week too.

This Week in Plasma is out with its latest issue to sum up all of the interesting KDE Plasma desktop changes over the past week. Highlights include:

- Plasma 6.8 is introducing "kscreenctl" as a new screen control tool to eventually replace the kscreen-doctor tool. The kscreenctl tool provides various options to change the display