Linux Kernel 3.8 RCX has Been Released To Test - Post Your Comments Here!

English Install/Boot/Login
1

So Tonight, on the last day on earth, I find the Linus has done released Kernel 3.8 for our testing pleasure: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/testing/linux-3.8-rc1.tar.bz2

And Here is what Linus has said about the new kernel release …

|[TABLE]
|
[TR]
[TD=“class: lp”]From|Linus Torvalds <>|
|Date|Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:00:58 -0800|
|Subject|Linux 3.8-rc1|

[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

The longest night of the year is upon us (*), and what better thing to
do than get yourself some nice mulled wine, sit back, relax, and play
with the most recent rc kernel?

This has been a big merge window: we’ve got more commits than any
other kernel in the v3.x kernel series (although v3.2-rc1 was almost
as big). It’s been a rather busy merge window, in other words.

The diffstat looks normal: about 63% of the patch being to drivers
(staging, networking, scsi, gpu, sound, drbd etc) , 18% architecture
updates (with various ARM platform things being the bulk of it as
usual, sigh), and the rest being “various”, like core networking,
filesystems (new f2fs flash-optimized filesystem) and include files
etc.

I’m appending the “merge shortlog” which is about the only half-way
readable automated data I can give you. There’s a ton of stuff here.
Go out and test it,

          Linus

(*) And by “us” I mean mainly people in the same timezone and
hemisphere as I am. Because I’m too self-centered to care about
anybody else.

Alasdair G Kergon

  • dm update

Alex Williamson

  • vfio update

Al Viro

  • big execve/kernel_thread/fork unification series
  • signal handling cleanups
  • VFS update

Andrew Morton

  • misc patches
  • misc updates
  • misc VM changes
  • patches

Anton Vorontsov

  • battery subsystem updates
  • battery update, part 2
  • pstore update

Arnd Bergmann

  • asm-generic cleanup

Artem Bityutskiy

  • UBI update

Benjamin Herrenschmidt

  • powerpc update

Ben Myers

  • xfs update

Bjorn Helgaas

  • PCI update

Boaz Harrosh

  • exofs changes

Bob Liu

  • blackfin update

Borislav Petkov

  • EDAC fixes

Bruce Fields

  • nfsd update

Bryan Wu

  • LED subsystem update

Catalin Marinas

  • ARM64 updates

Chris Ball

  • MMC updates

Chris Mason

  • btrfs update
  • two btrfs reverts

Chris Metcalf

  • tile updates

Chris Zankel

  • Xtensa patchset

Dave Airlie

  • drm bugfix
  • DRM updates

David Howells

  • MN10300 changes
  • UAPI disintegration for Alpha
  • UAPI disintegration for H8/300, M32R and Score
  • x86 UAPI disintegration

David Miller

  • networking changes
  • networking fixes
  • networking fixes
  • sparc fixes
  • tiny sparc update

David Teigland

  • dlm updates

David Woodhouse

  • MTD updates
  • preparatory gcc intrisics bswap patch

Dmitry Torokhov

  • second round of input updates

Eric Biederman

  • user namespace changes
  • (again) user namespace infrastructure changes

Eric Paris

  • filesystem notification updates

Geert Uytterhoeven

  • m68k updates

Grant Likely

  • another devicetree update
  • device tree changes
  • devicetree, gpio and spi bugfixes
  • GPIO updates
  • irqdomain changes
  • SPI updates

Greg Kroah-Hartman

  • Char/Misc driver merge
  • driver core updates
  • EXTCON patches
  • staging driver tree merge
  • TTY/Serial merge
  • USB patches

Greg Ungerer

  • m68knommu updates

Guenter Roeck

  • hwmon fixlet
  • hwmon updates

Herbert Xu

  • crypto update

Ian Kent

  • emailed autofs cleanup/fix patches

Ingo Molnar

  • core timer changes
  • irq fixes
  • “Nuke 386-DX/SX support”
  • perf fixes
  • perf updates
  • RCU update
  • scheduler updates
  • trivial fix branches
  • x86 asm changes
  • x86 boot changes
  • x86 BSP hotplug changes
  • x86 cleanups
  • x86 RAS update
  • x86 timer update
  • x86 topology discovery improvements

Jaegeuk Kim

  • new F2FS filesystem

James Bottomley

  • first round of SCSI updates

James Morris

  • security subsystem updates

Jan Kara

  • ext3, udf, quota fixes

Jean Delvare

  • hwmon subsystem update
  • i2c update

Jeff Garzik

  • libata updates

Jens Axboe

  • block driver update
  • block layer core updates

Jesper Nilsson

  • CRIS changes

Jiri Kosina

  • HID subsystem updates
  • trivial branch

Joerg Roedel

  • IOMMU updates

Jonas Bonn

  • OpenRISC update

Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk

  • swiotlb update
  • Xen bugfixes
  • Xen updates

Len Brown

  • powertool update

Linus Walleij

  • pinctrl changes

Marcelo Tosatti

  • KVM updates

Marek Szyprowski

  • CMA and DMA-mapping update

Mark Brown

  • regmap updates
  • regulator updates

Martin Schwidefsky

  • s390 update
  • s390 update #2

Mauro Carvalho Chehab

  • media updates

Mel Gorman

  • Automatic NUMA Balancing bare-bones

Michal Marek

  • kbuild changes
  • kbuild misc changes

Michal Simek

  • microblaze update

Mike Turquette

  • clock framework changes

Neil Brown

  • md update

Nicholas Bellinger

  • target updates

Olof Johansson

  • ARM SoC board updates
  • ARM SoC board updates, take 2
  • ARM SoC cleanups on various subarchitectures
  • ARM SoC device tree conversions and enablement
  • ARM SoC device-tree updates, take 2,
  • ARM SoC driver specific changes
  • ARM SoC fixes
  • ARM SoC fixes part 2
  • ARM SoC Header cleanups
  • ARM SoC multiplatform conversion patches
  • ARM SoC Non-critical bug fixes
  • ARM SoC power management and clock changes
  • ARM SoC updates
  • ARM SoC updates for Marvell mvebu/kirkwood
  • ARM Soc updates, take 2,

Pekka Enberg

  • SLAB changes

Peter Anvin

  • one final 386 removal patch
  • small x86 fixes
  • x86 ACPI update
  • x86 EFI update

Rafael Wysocki

  • ACPI and power management updates

Ralf Baechle

  • MIPS updates

Roland Dreier

  • infiniband upate
  • more infiniband changes

Russell King

  • ARM fixes
  • ARM OMAP serial updates
  • ARM updates

Rusty Russell

  • module update
  • virtio update

Sage Weil

  • Ceph update

Samuel Ortiz

  • MFS update

Stefan Richter

  • IEEE 1394 (FireWire) subsystem updates

Steve French

  • CIFS fixes
  • CIFS fixes

Steven Rostedt

  • ktest update
  • minor tracing updates and fixes

Steven Whitehouse

  • GFS2 updates

Sumit Semwal

  • dma-buf updates

Takashi Iwai

  • sound fixes
  • sound updates

Ted Ts’o

  • ext4 update
  • random updates

Tejun Heo

  • cgroup changes
  • percpu changes
  • workqueue changes

Thierry Reding

  • pwm changes

Tomi Valkeinen

  • fbdev changes

Tony Luck

  • ACPI5 error injection fix
  • ia64 fix
  • pstore fixes

Trond Myklebust

  • NFS client updates

Wim Van Sebroeck

  • watchdog updates

Wolfram Sang

  • i2c-embedded changes

Zhang Rui

  • thermal management update

Thank You,

2

http://www.h-online.com/imgs/43/9/6/3/2/6/7/KL_penguin_cogs_SRC-23d55e303d4280f5.jpeg

Linus Torvalds has announced the first pre-release version of Linux 3.8, releasing it on the “longest night of the year”. As previously reported, it includes support for the Flash-Friendly File System (F2FS), which has been designed for use on flash storage devices such as USB flash drives, memory cards, and internal storage in devices such as cameras, tablets and smartphones.

The developers have also merged a number of basic core functions developed under the “balancenuma” name. These are aimed at enabling future kernels to automatically keep processes and the memory areas they are using in close proximity. This is important for optimum performance on today’s popular multiprocessor systems with NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access). Further improvements likely to be merged in Linux 3.9 and later versions will significantly improve this automated placement and will build on the foundations merged in 3.8.

Code for a “huge zero page”, which can reduce memory usage in some setups, has also been merged. The kmem extension for the “memory” cgroup controller can now be used to limit the memory used by the kernel for processes in a group. Appropriately configuring these limits enables the kernel to keep the lid on any fork bombs run from the shell.

The addition of inline data support means that the Ext4 filesystem is now able to store very small files together with the inode entry, thereby saving storage space. The kernel has also been given a simple driver for the graphics cores on NVIDIA’s Tegra family of SoCs (system-on-a-chip). The code for using the acceleration functionality offered by these chips, which is being co-developed by NVIDIA, has, however, not yet made it into the kernel. To simplify maintenance and ongoing development, the kernel developers have removed support for Intel 386 and related CPUs. 486 and other x86-32 processors will continue to be supported.

This is, as usual, the first release of the new version of Linux, coming after the closing of the “merge window” where the majority of the changes for the new version are merged into the main development branch of Linux. The next phase, the stabilisation phase, will mostly include corrections and fixes to the new features and any regressions that appear as developers test the new kernel. Details of these and many other changes will as ever be provided by The H’s Kernel Log. Assuming the kernel developers keep to their usual tempo, Linux 3.8 is likely to be released in mid-February.

         ([EMAIL="djwm@h-online.com"]djwm[/EMAIL])

Article located here: Linux 3.8’s features staked out - The H Open: News and Features

Copyright © 2012 Heise Media UK Ltd.

Thank You,

3

I have switched to kernel 3.8-rc1 today. I have also loaded the latest VirtualBox driver 4.2.6 in the hopes it might be the fix for part of the problem I had with kernel 3.7, but not sure about that just yet. Below are some important links for any kernel tester using openSUSE.

Kernel Web Sitre for the latest Kernel Version: The Linux Kernel Archives

S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.78: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-k-c-suse-automated-kernel-compiler-version-2-50-34/

S.A.K.R. - SUSE Automated Kernel Remover - Version 1.0.4: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-k-r-suse-automated-kernel-remover-version-1-0-0-111/

S.G.T.B. - SuSE Git Kernel Tarball Creator - Version 1.86: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/sgtb-suse-git-kernel-tarball-creator-version-1-31-53/

Links for the Latest version of VirtualBox: https://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/virtualization/478410-oracle-releases-vm-virtualbox-4-2-a.html

Thank You,

4

The nVIDIA driver 310.19 does not work with kernel 3.8-rc1 as it will not compile and load I have determined tonight. While VirtualBox 4.2.6 seems to work great with kernel 3.8.rc1 as my main PC, which does not use the nVIDIA driver, is working fine with kernel 3.8-rc1 even as it would blow up with kernel 3.7.1, but I have not tried that combination (kernel 3.7 & VirtualBox 4.2.6) with the new VirtualBox driver to see if that fixes the kernel 3.7 blow up problem I was having.

Thank You,

5

On 12/22/2012 09:36 PM, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> The nVIDIA driver 310.19 does not work with kernel 3.8-rc1 as it will
> not compile and load I have determined tonight. While VirtualBox 4.2.6
> seems to work great with kernel 3.8.rc1 as my main PC, which does not
> use the nVIDIA driver, is working fine with kernel 3.8-rc1 even as it
> would blow up with kernel 3.7.1, but I have not tried that combination
> (kernel 3.7 & VirtualBox 4.2.6) with the new VirtualBox driver to see if
> that fixes the kernel 3.7 blow up problem I was having.

James,

Please mail the log file for the failed compilation to my private E-mail address

  • I believe you have it. At the moment, I am not in a position to try both
    3.8-rc1 and the nVIDIA driver on the same machine.

On the one machine where I have 3.8-rc1, I have a couple of things that are not
quite right; however, VB works fine.

6

By your command Larry. I also gave nVIDIA beta driver 313.09 a try but it did not compile either. I just saw a very interesting post by Linus. I can’t post exactly what he had to say here, but you can read it for yourself if you like:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75

Thank You,

7

On 12/23/2012 03:16 PM, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
> By your command Larry. I also gave nVIDIA beta driver 313.09 a try but
> it did not compile either. I just saw a very interesting post by Linus.
> I can’t post exactly what he had to say here, but you can read it for
> yourself if you like:
>
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75

Linus has little patience for idiots, and the subject of his wrath in this case
is certainly in that category.

8

The patch for nVIDIA driver 310.19 to build on kernel 3.8 is as follows:


Index: kernel/conftest.sh
===================================================================
--- kernel/conftest.sh.orig
+++ kernel/conftest.sh
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ build_cflags() {

if  "$ARCH" = "i386" -o "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$SOURCES/arch/x86/include"
+        CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$SOURCES/arch/x86/include/uapi"
CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$OUTPUT/arch/x86/include/generated"
CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$OUTPUT/arch/x86/include/generated/uapi"
elif  "$ARCH" = "arm" ]; then

This patch allows the driver to build; however, I cannot test it as none of my 3
nVIDIA adapters have a GPU that will work with a driver later than 304.XX.

This patch file is available for download at

http://www.lwfinger.com/nvidia_patches/patch_nvidia_310.19.run_for_3.8

9

First you must download the nVIDIA proprietary video drivers and you can find links for them here: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/installing-nvidia-video-driver-hard-way-29/

So, next I used this patch file you posted Larry, Saved as the file I called $HOME/Downloads/**NVIDIA-310_19_run_for_3_8.patch **and shown below:

Index: kernel/conftest.sh
===================================================================
--- kernel/conftest.sh.orig
+++ kernel/conftest.sh
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@ build_cflags() {
 
     if  "$ARCH" = "i386" -o "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
         CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$SOURCES/arch/x86/include"
+        CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$SOURCES/arch/x86/include/uapi"
         CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$OUTPUT/arch/x86/include/generated"
         CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -I$OUTPUT/arch/x86/include/generated/uapi"
     elif  "$ARCH" = "arm" ]; then

I then used my SANDI bash script (which works with dkms) to install the patch you can find here: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-n-d-i-suse-automated-nvidia-driver-installer-version-1-00-103/

Or you can just use my LNVHW bash script instead: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/lnvhw-load-nvidia-driver-hard-way-runlevel-3-version-1-10-32/

Both scripts expect the patch file name to begin with NVIDIA- and end with .patch, thus the name I used of **NVIDIA-310_19_run_for_3_8.patch **and after making the patch, the new nVIDIA driver was called: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.19-custom.run

After compiling the new kernel 3.8-rc1 I installed the patched nVIDIA driver and here is what is found in the My Computer icon on the KDE desktop:

http://paste.opensuse.org/view/download/98406155

Thank you Larry for you help in making this patch and it works just fine for me.

Thank You,

10

Well today I find that our next release of kernel 3.8, now at rc2 with the link for it here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/testing/linux-3.8-rc2.tar.bz2

I was able to compile and install it on my main system using SAKC, but without the nVIDIA proprietary video driver. I will give that configuration a try on Friday I think.

Here is what Linus has to say on this release: https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/2/343

And a few other findings here from the Great One: https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/2/193 & https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/2/181 & https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/3/330 & https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/3/367

Just to keep it interesting I think

Thank You,

11

The i915 driver in 3.8-rc2 has a bug. There is a fix, but if you use that
driver, I would wait for -rc3. If you are interested, the thread starts at
http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1301.0/00808.html.

12

Linux kernel 3.8rc3 is out The Linux Kernel Archives. I am currently running sakc turbo mode

13

My wireless did not work and it didn’t with rc2 either. although rc2 from
Index of /repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/standard has everything working I may recompile using sakc in standard mode
[Phoronix] Linux 3.8-rc3 Kernel: A Fairly Normal-Sized One](Linux 3.8-rc3 Kernel: A Fairly Normal-Sized One - Phoronix)

14

On 01/10/2013 09:16 AM, dale14846 wrote:
>
> dale14846;2516999 Wrote:
>> Linux kernel 3.8rc3 is out ‘The Linux Kernel Archives’
>> (http://www.kernel.org/). I am currently running sakc turbo mode
>
> My wireless did not work and it didn’t with rc2 either. although rc2
> from
> ‘Index of /repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/standard’
> (http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/HEAD/standard/) has
> everything working I may recompile using sakc in standard mode
> ‘[Phoronix] Linux 3.8-rc3 Kernel: A Fairly Normal-Sized One’
> (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTI3MTc)

All my wireless devices work with 3.8-rc2 and -rc3. What one do you have? The
wireless line from ‘/sbin/lspci -nn’ will be sufficient.

The probable cause of it not working is that the driver was not loaded when you
generated the turbo-mode configuration; therefore, that driver was not included
in the kernel. If that is the case, you will need to run ‘make xconfig’ and add
the necessary driver.

15

from lspci 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
from lsusb
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0846:9030 NetGear, Inc. WNA1100 Wireless-N 150 [Atheros AR9271]

My pci radio is working now after running make xconfig the usb radio is still bent

16

On 01/10/2013 03:36 PM, dale14846 wrote:
> from lspci 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications
> Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
> from lsusb
> Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0846:9030 NetGear, Inc. WNA1100 Wireless-N 150
> [Atheros AR9271]
>
> My pci radio is working now after running make xconfig the
> usb radio is still bent

The correct driver for USB ID 0846:9030 is ath9k_htc.

17

Well got my PC upgraded to kernel 3.8-rc3 today. Seems to be working OK and nothing new to report. Here is a link to what Linus had to say on the subject:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/1/9/791

I have nVIDIA working with the native built-in support. I have VirtualBox 4.2.6 working just fine. Really, nothing out of the ordinary seems to come to the top.

I do have a question for Larry. Do you think support for the Wifi Device called “ID 0846:9011 NetGear, Inc. WNDA3100v2 802.11abgn [Broadcom BCM4323]”, a usb Wireless-N Dual Band adapter, will ever happen in the Linux kernel? Unlike other Broadcom wireless devices using similar numbers, no Linux driver has been released and no support from the kernel so far. I just am wondering if I should toss this in the garbage or not? Oddly, one day just playing around with VirtualBox and Win7 in a VM., I actually had it work for Windows. It seems kind a strange thing to me to get to work that way as a pass through USB device.

Thank You,

18

On 01/10/2013 07:56 PM, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:

> I do have a question for Larry. Do you think support for the Wifi
> Device called “ID 0846:9011 NetGear, Inc. WNDA3100v2 802.11abgn
> [Broadcom BCM4323]”, a usb Wireless-N Dual Band adapter, will ever
> happen in the Linux kernel? Unlike other Broadcom wireless devices
> using similar numbers, no Linux driver has been released and no support
> from the kernel so far. I just am wondering if I should toss this in
> the garbage or not? Oddly, one day just playing around with VirtualBox
> and Win7 in a VM., I actually had it work for Windows. It seems kind a
> strange thing to me to get to work that way as a pass through USB
> device.

I once acquired a BCM4323 while I was trying for a device with a particular
Realtek chip. It was a V1 vs V2 situation. When I asked the Broadcom guys if a
driver would be available, the reply was “This chip requires a different driver
model (basically a split stack between host and dongle). This model is being
abandoned for newer chips so we decided not to support it in mainline linux.”.

The b43 wiki says you need to use ndiswrapper and a Windows driver with it. I
would suggest you sell yours on Ebay for $15, or so, but be sure to mention that
it is only for Windows.

I have used a number of my USB devices in pass-through mode in a VM. Nothing in
USB is particularly time critical, thus it works.

19

Thanks so much for the insight on the BCM4323. I have had it for a while and I may just hand off to a Windows user at work. I saw you mention a chipset for wireless you though worked well. Since I mainly work with desktops on my own, what wireless add-in card works best with Linux in your opinion? I have only purched one wireless device that worked with Linux out of the box and it was a ASUS PCE-N13, a low profile PCIe add-in card with two antennas. It works OK as I used it in a small profile PC I built for my disabled wife. It works OK, but I had to upgrade my wireless router to stream video to the PC. I just don’t buy enough wireless stuff to be much of a wiz at getting something good. Most things that come with wireless are laptops and the like and you don’t get to chose what you get with them. As always, I value your opinion very highly on this subject.

Thank You,

20

On 01/10/2013 09:36 PM, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> Thanks so much for the insight on the BCM4323. I have had it for a
> while and I may just hand off to a Windows user at work. I saw you
> mention a chipset for wireless you though worked well. Since I mainly
> work with desktops on my own, what wireless add-in card works best with
> Linux in your opinion? I have only purched one wireless device that
> worked with Linux out of the box and it was a ASUS PCE-N13, a low
> profile PCIe add-in card with two antennas. It works OK as I used it in
> a small profile PC I built for my disabled wife. It works OK, but I had
> to upgrade my wireless router to stream video to the PC. I just don’t
> buy enough wireless stuff to be much of a wiz at getting something good.
> Most things that come with wireless are laptops and the like and you
> don’t get to chose what you get with them. As always, I value your
> opinion very highly on this subject.

I don’t have much experience with add-in cards as my driver development is with
the mini-PCIe cards of the type used in laptops, and USB devices.

It is hard to know what chip is in the cards without having one in hand;
however, the cards below seem to have Atheros chips, and should be supported by
Linux with no problems.

D-Link Xtreme N DWA-556
TP-Link TL-WN781ND N150

I have a TP-LINK TL-WN722N (USB device) that is also in the N150 group, and
works extremely well.