Linux 6.0 is coming

Linux 6.0 is expected to arrive soon. The next version of the Linux kernel is jumping version numbers, with some performance gains, but it’s not a major change all the same: What was previously planned to be version 5.20 is now Linux 6.0 according to Linux 5.19 announcement.

There will be new hardware support. Especially Support for the RISC-V architecture continues to accrue, with changes that improve the new platform’s support for handling for Docker containers and apps packaged with Ubuntu’s Snap system, plus page-based memory types.

There is one big ticket feature has made it for the Linux 6.0 kernel: the Runtime Verification infrastructure for running Linux on safety-critical systems. Over last few years researchers have been exploring the possibility of verifying the Linux kernel behavior using Runtime Verification. Runtime Verification (RV) is a lightweight (yet rigorous) method that complements classical exhaustive verification techniques (such as model checking and theorem proving) with a more practical approach for complex systems. RV works by analyzing the trace of the system’s actual execution, comparing it against a formal specification of the system behavior. The usage of deterministic automaton for RV is a well-established approach.

linux

Information sources and links to more information:

Ready for the Linux 6.0 splashdown? Here are some of the highlights
Don’t panic if you’re not a fan of big changes… it’s 5.20 by another name
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/linux_6_point_0_highlights/

Linux Kernel 6.0 is Likely the Next Version Upgrade With Initial Rust Code
Linux Kernel’s next upgrade is going to be 6.0, instead of Linux 5.20. That’s what Linus Torvalds is going with. Sounds good!
https://news.itsfoss.com/linux-kernel-6-0-reveal/

Linux 6.0 Adding Run-Time Verification For Running On Safety Critical Systems
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.0-Runtime-Verification

De Oliveira, Daniel Bristot; Cucinotta, Tommaso; De Oliveira, Romulo Silva. *Efficient formal verification for the Linux kernel.* In: International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods. Springer, Cham, 2019. p. 315-332.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30446-1_17

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace.git/tree/Documentation/trace/rv/runtime-verification.rst?h=for-next&id=ff0aaf671230d409a68fd7400f41e9eb3ac61dd8

https://lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-=wgrz5BBk=rCz7W28Fj_o02s0Xi0OEQ3H1uQgOdFvHgx0w@mail.gmail.com/

143 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Why Corporate Owned Linux Distributions are a Bad Idea
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqfyM7zE6KM

    When it comes to Linux Distros, each are either managed by their community or by a company. With recent news, it becomes clearer than ever that those managed by a company should be avoided. With a recent history of being untrustworthy, Red Hat is on the list to steer clear of – but they’re not the only example. With histories of misleading claims (with some being downright lies) it’s time to leave corporate-owned Linux distributions behind. Here’s why.

    00:00 – Introduction and what I’ll cover in this video
    01:45 – To be fair, Red Hat has had a HUGE impact on Linux
    03:10 – A history of Red Hat and CentOS up until now
    07:46 – Red Hat is putting source code behind a pay wall?!
    09:05 – Now it’s harder for downstream recompiles to exist
    10:40 – Can Red Hat do this?
    12:00 – Red Hat has a history of breaking trust
    13:54 – Canonical ALSO exhibits lesser (but similar) behaviors
    19:08 – Why Learn Linux TV has switched AWAY from Ubuntu

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RedHat Responds to The Open Source Community about RHEL..
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPpDn6HByjU

    RHEL is planning on limiting sources from their git.centos.org repo which will effect the open source community and distros like Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. This is the response Red Hat has to the open source community. Are they actually closed source now?

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Contributing to Open Source Can Change Your Life – Here’s How to Do It
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CML6vfKjQss

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Rocky Linux Shares How They May Continue To Obtain The RHEL Source Code
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Rocky-Linux-RHEL-Source-Access

    Following Red Hat’s decision earlier this month to limit access to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code and that leading to downstreams scrambling to figure out their paths forward to avoid tracking CentOS Stream instead and still aiming to offer 1:1 RHEL compatibility without being restricted by the Red Hat Customer Portal, the Rocky Linux distribution today expressed a few of the ideas they are considering.

    On the Rocky Linux project site in a new post entitled “Keeping Open Source Open” they brought up novel ideas how they may obtain Red Hat Enterprise Linux source RPMs (SRPMs) via public cloud instances and/or via UBI container images based on RHEL from various online sources.

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:
    Red Hat’s new source code policy doesn’t violate the GPL itself but makes it harder to verify the company’s GPL compliance, angering the open-source community

    Red Hat’s new source code policy and the intense pushback, explained
    A (reasonably) condensed version of two weeks’ worth of heated GPL argument.
    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/red-hats-new-source-code-policy-and-the-intense-pushback-explained/

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    https://www.facebook.com/100064470498902/posts/pfbid02oUheuc5fu15AJDiYpCdyWZ1KJCvjhsCWy2Zpm8o8a9sjkoFR6qMy9L8fpPyX1QkWl/
    Open Source community after Red Hat decides to go closed source
    By limiting the RHEL public sources to CentOS Stream, it will now be more difficult for community/off-shoot enterprise Linux distributions like Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux, etc, to provide 1:1 binary compatible builds against given RHEL releases. #linuxadministrator #Linux

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    https://www.facebook.com/100064470498902/posts/pfbid02oUheuc5fu15AJDiYpCdyWZ1KJCvjhsCWy2Zpm8o8a9sjkoFR6qMy9L8fpPyX1QkWl/

    I’m old enough to remember when IBM defended Linux as Open Source software against rogue distro Caldera (later SCOX). Maybe being a distro maintainer induces dementia?

    Red hat still provides dev licenses. So if your vendor isn’t testing their code against them, maybe you need a new vendor.

    To be honest, the enterprise linux world has changed a lot since RHEL. I’m not sure it’s really relevant any longer.

    seems quite relevant in the corporate world.

    Rocky found a way, let’s see if RH will close that door as well or if they will let it slide

    I haven’t used CentOS and Red Hat for production for a very long time. Now I will stop using them for personal usage too.

    Switch full time to Ubuntu.

    So imagine being one of so many volunteer coders who coded for free. Now that it’s a commercial entity, all of your work now belongs to someone else?

    I think they might argue that the versions those people coded are still free and open source, and that only future versions are going to be closed source. This is no different than any other closed source program that started from open source code.

    I wonder if every project stopped providing repos and rpms for red hat how fast they’d see that quid pro quo was good for everyone? If every red hat user was paying just to compile from source anything not in a redhat official repo how long they’d stay before upping to debian or suse

    yeah, IBM/REDHAT dont understand free RHEL distros are good – they are getting patches and relevance and free marketing, but this IBM back with a vengences from M$ days are back … with the IBM

    RedHAT/IBM DOES NOT OWN any of the code in RHEL, PERIOD!!.. what else do i have to say to get into their THICK capitalists HEADS?

    It’s amazing how Red Hat concentrates so much on downstream making money from their work, but completely forgets the vast majority of their product comes from upstream contributors.

    They have basically forgot their own business model.

    I’d be very happy to see them go bust over this, as a warning to everybody else, especially Microsoft.

    Looks lile the 10 years long plan by IBM to successfully own, sabotage and convert certain inconvenient assets is proceeding more than well.

    Embrace, extend, and extinguish?

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Red Hat strikes a crushing blow against RHEL downstreams
    From now on, only CentOS Stream’s source code is available to all
    https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/23/red_hat_centos_move/

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Linux 6.5 Features From USB4 v2 To More WiFi 7, Unaccepted Memory, Scope-Based Resource Management
    https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux-65-features

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ubuntu saa täysin uuden sovelluskaupan – heittää heti bensaa kriitikoiden liekkeihin
    5.7.202307:12
    Monet eivät ole tyytyväisiä Ubuntun snap-teknologiaan.
    https://www.mikrobitti.fi/uutiset/ubuntu-saa-taysin-uuden-sovelluskaupan-heittaa-heti-bensaa-kriitikoiden-liekkeihin/230ab7fc-46da-49e7-9f16-a51a20fb2111

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Linux on saavuttanut ensimmäistä kertaa kolmen prosentin markkinaosuuden tietokoneiden käyttöjärjestelmistä.

    Analytiikkayhtiön raportti: Linuxilla pyyhkii hyvin, macOS kasvattaa suosiotaan mutta Windowsin käyrä on laskusuunnassa
    https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/analytiikkayhtion-raportti-linuxilla-pyyhkii-hyvin-macos-kasvattaa-suosiotaan-mutta-windowsin-kayra-on-laskusuunnassa/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1UBRfLCfjVEdvqMbSqtzNMeI5Gu1AHZufQawOv1UMbYGHZci_qnsW66YE#Echobox=1689242241

    Linux on saavuttanut ensimmäistä kertaa kolmen prosentin markkinaosuuden tietokoneiden käyttöjärjestelmistä.

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    RHEL Response Discussed by SFC Conference’s Panel – Including a New Enterprise Linux Standard
    https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/07/23/0517219/rhel-response-discussed-by-sfc-conferences-panel—including-a-new-enterprise-linux-standard

    Last weekend in Portland, Oregon, the Software Freedom Conservancy hosted a new conference called the Free and Open Source Software Yearly.

    And long-time free software activist Bradley M. Kuhn (currently a policy fellow/hacker-in-residence for the Software Freedom Conservancy) hosted a lively panel discussion on “the recent change” to public source code releases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux which shed light on what may happen next. The panel also included:
    benny Vasquez, the Chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation
    Jeremy Alison, Samba co-founder and software engineer at CIQ (focused on Rocky Linux). Allison is also Jeremy Allison – Sam Slashdot reader #8,157.
    James (Jim) Wright, Oracle’s chief architect for Open Source policy/strategy/compliance/alliances

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New Linux Kernel Code Works On APIC “Decrapification”, Suggests Dropping x86 32-bit
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Decrapify-x86-APIC

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    “We can fix this now. We don’t have to wait.”

    AlmaLinux says Red Hat source changes won’t kill its RHEL-compatible distro
    Red Hat made being a 1:1 clone hard. So AlmaLinux is pivoting and speeding up.
    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/07/almalinux-says-red-hat-source-changes-wont-kill-its-rhel-compatible-distro/?utm_source=facebook&utm_brand=ars&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&fbclid=IwAR3VCCv8i-Cik3iRnYQvJukz-YPT8p_Y3aAA1Zq8XOqc88p7f05TRA8DmAo

    AlmaLinux lets you build applications that work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux but can’t promise the exact same bug environment. That’s different from how they started, but it’s also a chance to pick a new path forward.

    “The changes that have recently been made are best summed up as: Red Hat has historically made it easy for what they view as competitors to exist,” she said. “And the changes they’ve made, they think, make it less easy for competitors to exist. From a high-level perspective, for people who don’t understand ‘build pipelines,’ that’s how I would want to explain it.”

    “We can fix this now. We don’t have to wait.”
    AlmaLinux OS, until recently, aimed to be a “1:1,” or “bug for bug” replication of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). When RHEL announced that its source code would only be available in CentOS Stream, the “rolling preview” of RHEL, it made creating a 1:1 rebuild of RHEL far more tricky. Rocky Linux, founded by one of the original CentOS’s founders, has said it intends to keep providing bug-for-bug rebuilds through some elaborate means.

    AlmaLinux, after waiting out the initial confusion and surveying its customers and supporters, is going a different route. AlmaLinux will be binary-compatible (or ABI-compatible), meaning applications that run on RHEL will run on AlmaLinux. Freed from complete parity with RHEL releases, however, means that AlmaLinux can:

    Accept bug fixes outside RHEL’s release cycle
    Include comments in patches that point to sources and authors
    Decide its own priorities
    Continue contributing upstream to CentOS Stream, Fedora, and Linux as a whole
    “Now we can do stuff!” Vasquez said. “That’s exactly how it’s been feeling for us. We’ve used that one-to-one compatibility as our North Star, so every decision we’ve made about what we’re doing has been, yes or no, based on one-to-one compatibility. This opens up so many doors.”

    One of those doors, it seems, is security patches undertaken quite differently from RHEL.

    One of those doors, it seems, is security patches undertaken quite differently from RHEL. Jonathan Wright, infrastructure team lead at AlmaLinux and a Fedora package maintainer, recently posted about his experience submitting a pull request, based on an existing CVE (vulnerability), to CentOS Stream. Michal Ruprich, senior software engineer at Red Hat, replied in GitLab that RHEL didn’t plan to address it, but “we will keep it open for evaluation based on customer feedback.” On further querying by Wright, Ruprich replied that vulnerabilities with low or moderate severity are addressed “on demand when customer or other business requirement exist to do so.”

    There was more context, of course, but the moment served as a kind of proof of concept for the new AlmaLinux. “It is an example of what we wanted to be able to do, what we were hoping this would be… we can fix this now. We don’t have to wait.”

    AlmaLinux OS has about 30 regular contributors, 10 people sponsored by their employers to work on the project full-time, around 25 sponsors, roughly 300 mirrors, and “a massive user community,” Vasquez said. The new mission, regardless of how it was derived, should result in “more sponsorships, more people backing us in ways they might not have otherwise… more people involved, and involved in ways they couldn’t be before. And that’s really exciting.”

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Linux so good
    slay haha
    FIPS 140 compliant
    gang gang
    yes yes yes
    DISA-STIG and CIS ready
    build your apps
    thank you lopez
    build in a weekend, scale to millions
    linux so good

    https://www.facebook.com/100064470498902/posts/pfbid0B9WQX7Uj96AEc5HdxuRKww7st46yHyp2MkwsCekZ4HSTqonMLQ9t8axJbdwfMwPTl/

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Linux Patches Revised Around Non-Blocking Consoles
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Patches-Non-BKL-Consoles

    As one of the last blockers for getting real-time (PREEMPT_RT) support mainlined in the Linux kernel, this week saw a revised patch series around non-blocking consoles.

    This non-BKL (NBCON) consoles support is part of the broader effort around threaded/atomic consoles support but to ease the effort in getting the code reviewed and upstreamed

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE Create Open Enterprise Linux Association for a Collaborative and Open Future. New trade association brings together open source Enterprise Linux community
    It will provide an open process to access source code that organizations can use to build distributions compatible with RHEL. It seems like history is repeating itself with this situation, reminiscent of the United Linux era from many years ago. You either die a hero or live enough to see yourself becoming the villain. That is what I think. #Linux #RHEL #Redhat #IBM #OpenSource

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What to learn the internals of the Linux kernel? Version 6.5-rc5 has about 36 million lines of code in it, so good luck! has a different approach. Go back to the beginning and examine the 0.01 version of the kernel. Now you are talking about 10,000 lines and, removing comments and blanks, way less. Sure, some things have changed, but the core ideas are the same….

    https://hackaday.com/2023/08/13/linux-kernel-from-first-principles/?fbclid=IwAR04Qx_lfBh7pNhqQNCxm8PiV0hkITKQzWaqTwDglgP2iYz304FpZoUeCeQ

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    It’s an ignoble end for a filesystem that, at one time, could have been the next big thing for Linux.

    ReiserFS is now “obsolete” in the Linux kernel and should be gone by 2025 [Updated]
    A little-used file system named for a convicted murderer is slated for removal.
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/the-torrid-saga-of-reiserfs-nears-its-end-with-obsolete-label-in-linux-kernel/?utm_brand=ars&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&fbclid=IwAR1aV5F8Wy86GeuIsJtpqKtNDPvcfqNw4w1vS97u_3SfYTUoO0QkS3yGqDI

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    By Sayan Sen – Microsoft is improving Hyper-V support in the upcoming Linux kernel version 6.6 so that both AMD and Intel processors will benefit. The upgrade mainly pertains to improved guest support. #Microsoft #Intel #AMD #Linux

    https://www.neowin.net/news/linus-torvalds-accepts-microsofts-linux-hyper-v-upgrades-so-both-intel-and-amd-can-benefit/?fbclid=IwAR0gwGAoV468a3CH1DUgjyXTBbQyLoOAReed7Bg7v6HU00dYDXOnms-LYn8

    Microsoft recently pushed some changes that are aimed at improving Hyper-V support on the upcoming Linux kernel version 6.6. Among the several improvements are the support for AMD SEV-SNP guests as well as Intel TDX guests on Hyper-V.

    Aside from these two, there are other upgrades as well like improved ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) root object handling in VMBus driver, and more.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ubuntu 23.10 Adding Experimental TPM-Backed Full Disk Encryption
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-23.10-TPM-FDE

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The new version of Linux is here. The odds are that it will become the next long-term support version of Linux, so it deserves your attention.

    Heavy metal Linux 6.6 has arrived
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/heavy-metal-linux-linux-6-6-arrives/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0h&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2womHdFZfozP8xcjFJ7AGKJodqUxI04kXLP5Ww-3-DgW5-5WCgRqzEbaI

    The new version of Linux is here. The odds are that it will become the next long-term support version of Linux, so it deserves your attention.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Rust in Linux: Where we are and where we’re going next
    Step by step, the Rust programming language is moving deeper into the Linux kernel.
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/rust-in-linux-where-we-are-and-where-were-going-next/

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Think twice before abandoning Xorg. Wayland breaks everything!
    https://gist.github.com/probonopd/9feb7c20257af5dd915e3a9f2d1f2277

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    64-bit ARM Linux Kernel Against CPU-Specific Optimizations: “Pretty Unmaintainable”
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/ARM64-Linux-No-Uarch-Opts

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    TikTok parent company used AI to optimize Linux kernel, boosting performance and efficiency
    News
    By Matthew Connatser published 3 days ago
    TikTok Linux distro when?
    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/chinese-company-uses-ai-to-optimize-linux-kernel

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Kernel security now: Linux’s unique method for securing code
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/kernel-security-now-linuxs-unique-method-for-securing-code/

    At Open Source Summit Japan, Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman recaps the current state and future challenges of kernel security, including the specter of government regulation and the essential pain of unceasing updates.

    Hardly a day goes by without a software security issue popping up, and governments are now trying to direct how companies and organizations should mitigate security issues. There’s just one problem: Governments barely understand how to use software, much less how open-source developers create software.

    For example, the European Union’s proposed Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is full of good intentions, but it’s a bad fit for anyone who builds open-source software. While the most recent version is much better, as Kroah-Hartman pointed out, it still means that since “all the world sells their devices and products into the EU, this is going to define their security requirements.”

    Are we ready to deal with this new wave of regulation? No, we aren’t.

    As for the Linux community, Kroah-Hartman has said that the Linux kernel security team is fundamentally reactive, contrary to other security teams that adopt a proactive stance. Since its formal inception in 2005, the team has operated informally, without corporate affiliations or contracts. This allows for neutrality and flexibility in addressing security issues. This approach has fostered trust among companies and effectively managed and triaged security problems.

    “There are other groups, kernel security teams, and other projects,” he added, “that are proactive. But that’s not what we do. We just react to problems.”

    And there are plenty of problems to go around. For instance, Kroah-Hartman highlighted the ongoing challenges with hardware security, particularly in the wake of vulnerabilities like Spectre and Meltdown. Indeed, as he pointed out, it’s been more than three years since those serious CPU bugs appeared, and while “they keep trying to fix them in hardware, another one just got announced a few hours ago. So there’s no end to this anytime soon.”

    Kroah-Hartman also pointed out that, “a lot of people [today] don’t realize that while the Linux commercial distribution model is not dead, it’s not the majority anymore by far. 80% of the world’s servers and systems run free and open source projects based on Debian, Fedora, or openSUSE” — not Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Now Linux Users Can Experience BSODs Just Like Windows, Why That’s A Good Thing
    https://hothardware.com/news/linux-experience-bsods-just-like-windows-why-thats-a-good-thing

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The First Rust-Written Network PHY Driver Set To Land In Linux 6.8
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.8-Rust-PHY-Driver

    Since Linux 6.1 when the very initial Rust infrastructure was added to the Linux kernel there’s been a lot of other plumbing and house keeping merged since for enabling kernel drivers to be written in the Rust programming language. With the upcoming Linux 6.8 kernel cycle, the first Rust network driver is set to be introduced.

    Merged this week to net-next.git ahead of Linux 6.8 is landing the “net-phy-rust” branch. This features Rust abstractions necessary for network PHY drivers. There are Rust bindings for the phylib code and other bits needed to enable PHY drivers written in Rust.

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Linux is the only OS to support diagonal PC monitor mode — dev champions the case for 22-degree-rotation computing
    News
    By Mark Tyson published December 29, 2023
    2024 could be the year of the Linux diagonal desktop.
    https://www.tomshardware.com/monitors/linux-is-the-only-os-to-support-diagonal-pc-monitor-mode-dev-champions-the-case-for-22-degree-rotation-computing

    Ideal monitor rotation for programmers
    https://sprocketfox.io/xssfox/2021/12/02/xrandr/

    Reply

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