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linmac look on ubuntu 7.10

2008-02-29T09:22:00.001-08:00

Linux 2.6.21 Changelog

2007-04-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

Short overview (for news sites, etc)

2.6.21 improves the virtualization features merged in 2.6.20 with VMI (http://lwn.net/Articles/175706), a paravirtualization interface that will be used by Vmware (and maybe -probably not- Xen) software. KVM does get initial paravirtualization along with live migration and host suspend/resume support (http://lwn.net/Articles/223839). 2.6.21 also gets a tickless idle loop mechanism called "Dynticks" (http://lwn.net/Articles/223185), a feature built in top of "clockevents" which unifies the timer handling and brings true high-resolution timers. Other features are: bigger kernel command-line, optional ZONE_DMA; support for the PA SEMI PWRficient CPU, for a Cell-based "celleb" architecture from Toshiba, better PS3 support: support for NFS IPv6, IPv4 <-> IPv6 IPSEC tunneling support, UFS2 write support, kprobes for PPC32, kexec and oprofile for ARM, public key encription for ecryptfs, Fcrypt and Camilla cipher algorithms, NAT port randomization, audit lockdown mode, many new drivers and many other small improvements.

Important things (AKA: ''the cool stuff'')

VMI (Virtual Machine Interface)

VMI is a virtualization feature built in top of the paravirt_ops paravirtualization implementation introduced in 2.6.20.

Paravirtualizated kernels need to be modified to run under a hypervisor. The goal of VMI is to become the common paravirtualization interface for hypervisors like Xen and Vmware. Vmware will certainly use VMI; Xen was going to use VMI but they may develop their own VMI-like interface. Any hypervisor can use VMI by providing a (GPLed) ROM; the ROM describes how the low-level VMI kernel must use the hypervisor. A VMI-enabled kernel can also boot on bare hardware and no hypervisor with no performance impact (commit 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

More details about VMI can be found in this LWN article: "The VMI virtualization interface"

KVM updates

KVM does evolve at a very fast pace, due to its clean design. This release (KVM-15) brings many new features:

*

Initial paravirtualization support, which has much faster performance
* Live migration (the guest continues running even while being migrated) support. It's possible to migrate a guest from a Intel CPU to an AMD CPU
* Host Suspend/resume support
* CPU hotplug support - a useful feature for data centers, where you can add/remove CPUs according to the load
* A stable userspace interface

Recommended LWN article: "KVM-15"

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Dynticks and Clockevents

Recommended LWN article: "Clockevents and dyntick"

(This feature touches a lot of low-level x86 code, so regressions are possible. If you have problems with 2.6.21, please report it)

Clockevents is a building block of dynticks. A example of a clock devices is the device which makes timer interrupts. The handling of those devices was made in the architecture-specific code, so there wasn't an unified way of using those devices. The clockevents patch unifies the clockdevice handling so the kernel can use the timer capabilities of those devices in a unified manner. This also allows to implement true high-resolution timers.

Dynticks (aka: dynamic ticks) it's a configurable feature for x86 32bits (x86-64 and ARM support is already done but not ready for this release; PPC and MIPS support are in the works) that changes the heart of the mechanism that allow a system to implement multitasking. To know what dyntick does, first you should know some basics: Traditionally, multitasking is implemented thanks to a timer interrupt that is configured to fire N times in a second. Firing this interrupt causes a call to the operative system's process scheduler routines. Then, the scheduler decides what process should run next, the process that was running before the timer interrupt was fired, or another process. This is how true multitasking is implemented in all the general-purpose operative systems, it's also what stops processes from being able to monopolize the CPU time: The timer interrupt will be fired regardless of what the process is doing and the operative system will be able to stop it.

N (the number of times the timer interrupt is fired in each second, aka 'HZ') is a hardcoded compile-time architecture-dependent constant. For Linux 2.4 (and Windows), HZ=100 (the timer interrupt fires 100 times per second). 2.6 increased HZ to 1000, for several reasons: 100 was the HZ value that x86 had been using since forever, and it didn't really had a lot of sense in modern CPUs that runs much faster: Higher HZ means smaller process time slices, which improves the minimum latency and interactivity. The downside is higher timer overhead (negligible in modern hardware, although some server-oriented distros package kernels with HZ=100 because of minor performance gains) and high pitch noises in some systems due to low-quality, cheap capacitators

Anyway, the issue is that the timer is fired HZ times in every second - even if the system is doing nothing. Dynticks is a feature that stops the system from waking up HZ times per second. When the system is entering the idle loop it disables the periodic timer interrupt, and programs the timer to fire the next time a timer event is needed. This means your system will be 'disabled' while there's nothing to do (unless a interrupt happens - ej: a incoming packet through your network). For now, dynticks does just that. However, this infrastructure will allow to create a innovative power-saving feature: When dynticks is in "tickless" mode and the system is waiting for the timer interrupt, the power-saving feature of modern CPUs will be used. This can save a few W when the laptop is idle.

Dynticks adds some nice configurable debugging features: /proc/timer_list prints all the pending timers, allowing developers to check if their program is doing something wrong when it should be doing nothing, /proc/timer_stat, in the other hand, collects some timer statistics, allowing to detect the source of commonly-programmed timers.

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)

ASoC

The ASoC (ALSA System on Chip) layer has been added to the ALSA sound system. Its aim is to provide improved support for sound processors on embedded systems. The ASoC core is designed to allow reuse of codec drivers on other platforms, reuse of platform specific audio DMA and DAI drivers on different machines, easy I2S/PCM digital audio interface configuration between codec and SoC, and allow machines to add controls and operations to the audio subsystem. e.g. volume control for speaker amp.

To achieve all this, ASoC splits an embedded audio system into 3 components: 1. Codec driver: The codec driver is platform independent and contains audio controls, audio interface capabilities, codec dapm and codec IO functions 2. Platform driver: The platform driver contains the audio dma engine and audio interface drivers (e.g. I2S, AC97, PCM) for that platform. 3. Machine driver: The machine driver handles any machine specific controls and audio events. i.e. turning on an amp at start of playback.

It includes a dynamic power management subsystem, designed to allow portable and handheld Linux devices to use the minimum amount of power within the audio subsystem at all times. It is independent of other kernel PM and as such, can easily co-exist with the other PM systems. DAPM is also completely transparent to all user space applications as all power switching is done within the ASoC core. No code changes or recompiling are required for user space applications. DAPM makes power switching decisions based upon any audio stream (capture/playback) activity and audio mixer settings within the device.

A number of platform and codec drivers for ASoC have been merged as well.

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)

Dynamic kernel command-line

The current implementation stores a command-line buffer allocated to COMMAND_LINE_SIZE (a compile-time constant) size - 256 bytes on x86. This is not enougth space today, some systems hit a limit when they use too many module parameters, video settings, initramfs parameters etc. It's possible to increase COMMAND_LINE_SIZE to a greater value, but there's a problem: a static buffer of that size (say, 2KB) will be allocated even if you aren't using all of it.

So in 2.6.21 the size of the boot command line it's allocated dynamically. A static buffer is still allocated (2K in i386), but the contents are copied into a dinamically-allocated buffer with the exact size, then the static buffer is freed with the rest of the initdata data

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)

Optional ZONE_DMA

ZONE_DMA was created for handling x86-specific ISA DMA uglities. Some arches do not need ZONE_DMA at all, the newer x86 systems are not needing ISA DMA and are starting to include IOMMUs. 2.6.21 makes possible to completely disable ZONE_DMA. This also makes possible some compiler optimizations

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

devres

"devres" is an optional subsystem for drivers that greatly simplifies the task of driver housekeeping, if you have to acquire+map then later unmap+free a bunch of device-related resources (MMIO, PIO , IRQs, iomap, PCI, DMA resources). The aim is to make easier for programmers to allocate & free resources & handle errors for a driver writer. A device driver can allocate arbirary size of devres data which is associated with a release function. On driver detach, release function is invoked on the devres data, then, devres data is freed (commit)

Recommended LWN article: "The managed resource API"

GPIO API

The GPIO API implements a simple and minimalist programming interface for GPIO APIs. A "General Purpose Input/Output" (GPIO) is a flexible software-controlled digital signal. They are provided from many kinds of chip, and are familiar to Linux developers working with embedded and custom hardware.

(commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

New drivers

Here are some important new drivers that have been added to the Linux tree:

* Graphics:
o

Add fbdev driver for the old S3 Trio/Virge (commit)
o

Driver for the Silicon Motion SM501 multifunction device framebuffer subsystem (commit), (commit)
* Storage devices:
o

Add two drivers for the it8213 IDE device, one using the old IDE stack (commit), (commit) and other using libata (commit)
o

Add IDE Driver for Delkin/Lexar/etc.. cardbus CF adapter (commit)
o

Add IDE driver for Toshiba TC86C001 (old IDE stack) (commit)
o

Add SCSI driver for SNI RM 53c710 (commit)
o

Add driver for Initio 162x SATA devices (commit)
* Networking devices
o

Add driver for the latest 1G/10G Chelsio adapter, T3 (commit), (commit)
o

Add driver for the Attansic L1 ethernet device (commit)
o

Add driver for the Gigaset M101 wireless ISDN device (commit)
o

Add PC300too alternative WAN driver (commit)
o

Add driver for Silan SC92031 device (commit)
o

Add driver for the Davicom DM9601 USB 1.1 ethernet device (commit)
* Various
o

Add driver to charge USB blackberry devices (commit)
o

Add driver for iowarrior USB devices. (commit)
o

Add support for the GTCO CalComp/InterWrite USB tablet (commit)
o

New driver for the Analog Devices ADM1029 hardware monitoring driver (commit)

Crashing soon a kernel near you

This is a list of some of the ongoing patches being developed at the kernel community that will be part of future Linux releases. Those features may take many months to get into the Linus' git tree, or may be dropped. The features are tested in the -mm tree, but be warned, it can crash your machine, eat your data (unlikely but not impossible) or rape your sister (just because it has never happened it doesn't means you're safe):

*

Con Colivas' RSDL process scheduler, which seems to work much better than the stock scheduler according to some reports (LWN article)
* For too long the linux wireless support hasn't been as bright as it should, specially from a desktop-ready POV. A new wireless stack based on the GPLed Devicescape wifi stack has been being developed for many time and soon will be merged. It brings better hardware support, better wireless capabilities, and better tool enablement.
*

The Blackfin architecture
*

Utrace (LWN article)
*

Revoke()/frevoke() system calls (LWN article)
* Mel Gorman's fragmentation avoidance patches and Lumpy reclaim
* Unionfs
*

EXT 4 patches (wiki)
* Lguest
*

Adaptive Readhead
* Reiser 4

Various core changes

*

Remove the SMT-nice feature which idles sibling cpus on SMT cpus to facilitiate nice working properly where cpu power is shared. The idling of cpus in the presence of runnable tasks is considered too fragile, easy to break with outside code, and the complexity of managing this system if an architecture comes along with many logical cores sharing cpu power will be unworkable (commit)
*

EDAC: Add support for Fully-Buffered DIMM APIs to core (commit)
*

Add shadow directory support for sysfs (commit)
*

Add whole_disk partition attribute for disks (commit)
*

Use zone-based counters for: free_pages (commit) and for inactive and active counts (commit)
*

Make mincore work for anon mappings, nonlinear, and migration entries (commit)
*

lockdep: add graph depth information to /proc/lockdep (commit)
*

Support for reshape of a raid6 (commit)
*

Relay: add CPU hotplug support (commit)
*

List all active probes in the system in /sys/kernel/debug/kprobes/list (commit)
*

PCI: Make PCI device numa-node attribute visible in sysfs (commit) Export the numa-node attribute of PCI devices in sysfs so that user applications may choose where to be placed accordingly.
*

PCIEHP: Add Electro Mechanical Interlock (EMI) support to the PCIE hotplug driver. (commit) * EDAC: Add memory scrubbing controls API to core (commit)
*

Make MSI useable more architectures (commit)
*

New toplevel target: headers_check_all (commit)
*

Add the module name for built in kernel drivers (commit)
*

Add retain_initrd boot option to control freeing of initrd memory after extraction (commit)
*

Allow taint flags to be set from userspace by writing to /proc/sys/kernel/tainted, and add a new taint flag, TAINT_USER, to be used when userspace has potentially done something dangerous that might compromise the kernel. This will allow support personnel to ask further questions about what may have caused the user taint flag to have been set. Recommended LWN article: "Tainting from userspace" (commit)

Architecture-specific changes

* x86-32
o

Compile with -freg-struct-return, which returns struct and union values in registers when possible (like pte_t) (commit)
o

Convert i386 PDA code to use %fs (commit)
o

Add option to show more code in oops reports (commit)
o

Support Classic MediaGXm (commit)
* x86-64
o

Add copy_from_user_nocache. This does user copies in fs write() into the page cache with write combining. This pushes the destination out of the CPU's cache, but allows higher bandwidth in some case (commit)
* PPC
o

Add support for the Toshiba's Cell Reference Set 'Celleb' Architecture (commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
o

Pa Semi PWRficient CPU support (commit 1), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
o

Add kprobes support to ppc32 (commit)
o

Add stackEnable stack overflow checking (DEBUG_STACKOVERFLOW) and stack usage (DEBUG_STACK_USAGE) on ppc32 (commit)
o

Freescale 8xx support (commit), (commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
o

83xx: Add support for MPC8349E-mITX-GP (commit), add base support for the MPC8313E RDB (commit)
o

85xx: Add support for the 8568 MDS board (commit), (commit)
o

PS3: System manager support (commit), vuart add async read (commit), AV Settings Driver (commit), repository storage support (commit), virtual Frame Buffer Driver (commit)
o

Remove the broken Gemini support (commit)
o

Add mpc52xx/lite5200 PCI support (commit) and support for the MPC52xx ATA controller (commit)
o

Add PMI driver for cell blade (commit)
o

Open Firmware serial port driver (commit)
o

Add support for AMCC Taishan 440GX evaluation board (commit)
* ARM
o

Add kexec support (commit)
o

Add support for SMDK2443 (commit)
o

Add ARM11 oprofile support (commit), (commit), (commit)
o

Add support for AT91SAM9263 (commit 1, 2, 3, 4)
o

Add Samsung S3C2443 support (commit), (commit), (commit)
o

Add support for AT91SAM9XE processors. (commit)
o

AACI record support on Versatile platform (commit)
o

Add support for the RealView/EB MPCore revC platform (commit)
o

Add initial board support for Contec Hypercontrol Micro9 boards. (commit)
o

Add Armzone QT2410 support(commit)
* S390
o

Mark kernel text section read-only. (commit)
o

noexec protection on s390 hardware. This hardware does not have any bits left in the pte for a hw noexec bit, so this is a different approach using shadow page tables and a special addressing mode that allows separate address spaces for code and data (commit)
o

Support for s390 Pseudo Random Number Generator (commit)
o

Boot from NSS support (commit)
o

Add AF_IUCV socket support (commit)
o

Rewrite of the IUCV base code (commit), (commit), (commit)
o

Adapt the following drivers to the new IUCV API: netiucv (commit), vmlogrdr (commit), monreader (commit),
o

Hypervisor filesystem (s390_hypfs) for z/VM (commit)
o

Calibrate delay and bogomips (commit)
o

Add support for clock synchronization to an external time reference (ETR) (commit)
o

Add crypto support for 3592 tape devices (commit)
* PARISC
o

Generic BUG (commit)
o

Add TIF_RESTORE_SIGMASK support (commit)
o

Generic time infrastructure support (commit)
* MIPS
o

Add basic support for the SMARTMIPS extension. This extension is currently implemented by 4KS[CD] CPUs support (commit)
o

Iomap implementation (commit)
o

Add UART support for Philips PNX8330/8550/8950 (commit)
o

Add Cobalt Server front LED (commit) and MTD device support (commit)
o

TURBOchannel bus support for the DECstation (commit),(commit)
* SPARC64
o

Add PCI MSI support on Niagara. (commit)
o

Remove the broken SUN_AURORA driver. (commit)
*

IA64: Altix: Add ACPI SSDT PCI (commit) and ACPI SSDT PCI device support (commit)

Filesystems

* eCryptfs
o

Public key encryption support (commit), (commit)
o

Encrypted passthrough: it provides an option to provide a view of the encrypted files such that the metadata is always in the header of the files, regardless of whether the metadata is actually in the header or in the extended attribute. This mode of operation is useful for applications like incremental backup utilities that do not preserve the extended attributes when directly accessing the lower files (commit)
o

Introduce the ability to store cryptographic metadata into an lower file extended attribute rather than the lower file header region. The two new nmount options are: 1) ecryptfs_xattr_metadata: when set, newly created files will have their cryptographic metadata stored in the extended attribute region of the file rather than the header 2) ecryptfs_encrypted_view: when set this option causes eCryptfs to present applications a view of encrypted files as if the cryptographic metadata were stored in the file header, whether the metadata is actually stored in the header or in the extended attributes (commit)
* GFS2
o

Add writepages for "data=writeback" mounts (commit)
o

Speed up readdir (commit)
o

Increase default lock limit (commit)
o

Shrink gfs2_inode memory by half (commit)
* CIFS:
o

Additional POSIX CIFS Extensions infolevels (commit), (commit)
o

Allow update of EOF on remote extend of file (commit)
* XFS
o

Reduction global superblock lock contention near ENOSPC (commit)
o

Make growfs work for amounts greater than 2TB (commit)
*

NFS: IPv6 support (commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
*

Minix: V3 format support (commit)
*

UFS2: read/write support (commit), (commit), (commit)
*

JFFS: Remove JFFS (version 1), as scheduled. Unmaintained for years, few if any users (commit)
*

JFS: Add lockdep annotations (commit)
*

Debugfs: implement symbolic links (commit)

Networking

*

Add Camellia cipher support to IPSEC (commit), (commit)
*

IPv4 over IPv6 IPsec tunnel (commit)
*

IPv6 over IPv4 IPsec tunnel (commit)
*

Make net use the jiffies rounding code (commit)
*

Add CONFIG_NET_KEY_MIGRATE option which makes it possible for user application to send or receive MIGRATE message to/from PF_KEY socket. This feature is required, for instance, in a Mobile IPv6 environment with IPsec configuration where mobile nodes change their attachment point to the Internet. Detail information can be found in the internet-draft "draft-sugimoto-mip6-pfkey-migrate" (commit), (commit)
* NETFILTER
o

NAT: optional source port randomization support (commit)
o

Add IPv6-capable TCPMSS target support (commit)
o

Add SANE connection tracking helper (commit)
o

Introduces match for Mobility Header (MH) described by Mobile IPv6 specification (RFC3775) (commit)
* XFRM
o

Add CONFIG_XFRM_MIGRATE option which makes it possible for for user application to send or receive MIGRATE message to/from netlink socket (commit)
o

User interface for handling XFRM_MSG_MIGRATE (commit)
o

Extension for dynamic update of endpoint address(es) (commit)
*

X.25: Add /proc/net/x25/forward to view active forwarded calls. (commit) and /proc/sys/net/x25/x25_forward to control forwarding (commit). Also add call forwarding (commit)

Various subsystems

Software suspend

crypto/audit

*

Audit: "lockdown" mode where further configuration changes cannot be made. Any attempt to change the configuration while in this mode is audited. To change the audit rules, you'd need to reboot the machine (commit)
*

Add the Camellia cipher algorithm. Camellia is a symmetric key block cipher developed jointly at NTT and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (commit 1, 2, 3)
*

tcrypt: Added test vectors for SHA384 HMAC and SHA512 HMAC (commit)
*

Allow multiple frontends per backend (commit)
*

fcrypt: Add FCrypt from RxRPC (commit)
*

pcbc: Add Propagated CBC template (commit)

Drivers

Network drivers

*

sky2: add Wake On Lan support (commit), Yukon Extreme support (commit)
*

s2io: Making LRO and UFO as module loadable parameter. (commit) and add a loadable parameter to enable or disable vlan stripping in frame (commit)
*

ucc_geth: Add support to local-mac-address property (commit)
*

zd1211rw: 4 new ZD1211B device ID's (commit), (commit), (commit)
*

prism54: add ethtool -i interface (commit)
*

ipw2200: add iwconfig rts/frag auto support (commit)
*

sungem_phy: support bcm5461 phy, autoneg (commit)
*

spidernet: add support for Celleb (commit), (commit)
*

skge: WOL support (commit)
*

forcedeth: statistics supported (commit)
*

natsemi: Support Aculab E1/T1 PMXc cPCI carrier cards (commit)
*

phylib: Add support for Marvell 88e1111S and 88e1145 (commit)
*

Remove the broken SKMC driver (commit)
*

Remove the broken OAKNET driver (commit)

SATA/IDE/SCSI

*

IDE: ACPI support for IDE devices (commit)
* SATA
o

Update libata core layer to use devres (commit), (commit)
o

Add PIIX3 support to ata_piix (commit)
o

Support PCI MSI in sata_vsc (commit)
o

sata_promise: ATAPI support (commit), add TX2plus PATA support (commit)
o

sata_sis: support SiS966/966L (commit), add support for PATA (commit)
o

sata_via: PATA support (commit)
o

sata_nv: add suspend/resume support (commit)
o

pata_cs5520: add suspend/resume support (commit)
o

libata: implement HDIO_GET_IDENTITY (aka hdparm -i) (commit)
o

ACPI _SDD (commit) and _GTF support (commit)
* SCSI
o

qla3xxx: Add support for Qlogic 4032 chip. (commit)
o

fusion: greater than 255 target and lun support (commit), inactive raid support (commit)
o

lpfc: add PCI error recovery support (commit)
o

wd33c93: Support fast SCSI with WD33C93B (commit)
o

qla2xxx: Add MSI-X support. (commit)
o

libsas: Add a sysfs knob to enable/disable a phy (commit)
o

aic94xx: Add support for scanning SAS devices asynchronously (commit)

Graphics

*

Add display output class (commit), (commit)
*

Remove broken video drivers that had already been marked as BROKEN in 2.6.0 three years ago and are still marked as BROKEN: FB_CYBER, FB_VIRGE, FB_RETINAZ3 and FB_SUN3 (commit)
*

remove the broken FB_S3TRIO driver (commit)
*

tgafb: support the DirectColor visual (commit)

ALSA

*

HDA: Add support for Fujitsu PI1556 Realtek ALC880 (commit), add sigmatel 9205 eapd support (commit), add asus-laptop model for ALC861 (ALC660) (commit), add support for Evesham Voyager C530RD laptops (commit), add asus model to ALC861 codec (commit), add support for Sigmatel STAC9202/9250/9251 codecs (commit), add toshiba model to ALC861 codec (commit), add support for Toshiba M105 to Realtek patch (commit), add support for Clevo M540JE, M550JE laptops (Nvidia MCP51 chipset, ALC883 codec) (commit), add support for Medion laptops (commit), add support for VIA VT1708(A) HD audio codec (commit), add new modesl for Realtek codecs (commit), add HP BPC-D7000 support (commit), add support for Sony UX-90s (commit), add model for ASUS W3j laptop (commit), add ALC861VD/ALC660VD support (commit), add support for Samsung Q1 Ultra (commit)
*

emu10k1: Add Audio capture support for Audigy 2 ZS Notebook (commit), add support for 14dB Attenuation PADS on DACs and ADCs. (commit), added support for emu1010, including E-Mu 1212m and E-Mu 1820m (commit), add emu1010 internal clock rate control for 44100 or 48000. (commit)
*

hdsp: support for mixer matrix of RME9632 rev 152 (commit)
*

hdspm: Add support for AES32 (commit)
*

Add snd-portman2x4 driver for Midiman Portman 2x4 MIDI device (commit)
*

ice1724: Add support of M-Audio Audiophile 192 (commit) and add support for Prodigy 7.1 XT (commit)
*

Enable capture from line-in and CD on Revolution 5.1 (commit)
*

Add Conexant audio support to the HD Audio driver (commit)
*

usbaudio: Add support for Edirol UA-101 (commit), allow pausing (commit), add PCR-A PCM support (commit)
*

ac97: Suppress power-saving mode on non-supporting drivers (commit)
*

Add support of the ESI Waveterminal 192M to the ice1724 ALSA driver (commit)
*

Enable the analog loopback of the Revolution 5.1 (commit)

Input

*

Add force feedback driver for PantherLord USB/PS2 2in1 Adapter (commit)
*

Add support for Logitech Momo racing wheel (commit)
*

Add Atlas button driver (commit)
*

wistron: Add support for Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo D88x0 (commit)
*

gpio-keys: Add keyboard driver for GPIO buttons (commit)
*

HID: Add support for Logitech Formula Force EX (commit), allow force feedback for multi-input devices (commit), quirk for multi-input devices with unneeded output reports (commit), handle multi-interface devices for Apple macbook pro properly (commit), add support for using the HID subsystem in bluetooth (commit)
*

Remove scan_keyb driver (commit)

USB

*

usbmon: add a new, "binary" API in addition to the old, text API usbmon had before. The new API allows for less CPU use, and it allows to capture all data from a packet where old API only captured 32 bytes at most (commit)
*

Add dynamic id support to usb-serial core (commit)
*

Add autosuspend support for usb printer driver (commit)
*

Add Sony PS3 ohci/ehci bus support (commit), (commit)
*

Add power management support (commit) and better ethtool support for kaweth (commit)
*

Add EPIC support to the io_edgeport driver (commit)
*

PL2303: Willcom WS002IN Support. (commit)
*

Implement support for "split" endian OHCI (commit) and EHCI with big endian MMIO (commit)
*

EHCI: force high-speed devices to run at full speed (commit)
*

Add "activesync" support for rndis_host (commit)
*

ASIX: Add IO-DATA ETG-US2 Support. (commit)
*

Remove CONFIG_USB_BANDWITH - "Enforce USB bandwidth allocation", since it's no longer neccesary (commit)

V4L

*

Bttv cropping support (commit)
*

Adds video output routing (commit)
*

Pvrusb2: Enable radio mode for 24xxx devices (commit), implement multiple minor device number handling (commit), implement /dev/radioX (commit), allow streaming from /dev/radioX (commit)
*

Add support for more Encore TV cards (commit), add a new qt1010 tuner module (commit), (commit), add VIDIOC_G_ENC_INDEX ioctl (commit), SN9C102 driver updates (commit), add support for svideo/composite input of the Terratec Cinergy 1400 DVB-T (commit), add support for the ASUS P7131 remote control (commit), add cablestar2 support (commit), add support for Terratec Cinergy HT PCI (commit), add support for the Technotrend 1500 bundled remote (commit), add support for Ultraview DVB-T Lite (commit), initial support for Sigmatek DVB-110 DVB-T (commit), initial support for MSI Mega Sky 580 based on Uli m9206 (commit), initial support for MSI Mega Sky 580 DVB-T based on GL861 (commit)

Cpufreq

*

Introduce Nehemiah C (commit)
*

Enhanced PowerSaver driver present in VIA C7 processors (commit)
*

Add VT8235 support (commit)
*

Remove "ignore_latency" option (commit)

ACPI

*

Add support for ACPI controlled removable drive bays such as the IBM ultrabay or the Dell Module Bay (commit)
*

Implement simplified Table Manager. It reduces the size of the kernel-resident ACPICA by 5% (commit), (commit), (commit)
*

ACPICA: Removed all 16-bit support (commit)
*

Remove motherboard driver (redundant with PNP system driver) (commit)
*

Remove the generic hotkey driver, as scheduled - the hotkeys are not part of the ACPI specification so they must be handled instead in the platform-specific drivers (commit)
*

Convert ACPI to sysfs framework - removes /sys/firmware/acpi (commit)
*

Add backlight sysfs support for acpi video driver. (commit)
*

sony_acpi: Add backlight support (commit), add backlight support (commit), add SNC device support for Sony Vaios (commit), rename this driver to sony-laptop (commit)
*

sony-laptop: Remove /proc/acpi/sony interface and implement platform_device. (commit)
*

Add asus-laptop driver (commit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

I2C

*

Add suspend/resume/shutdown support (commit)
*

i2c-piix4: Add support for the ATI SB600 SMBus controller (commit)
*

i2c-parport: Add support for One For All remote JP1 interface (commit)
*

i2c-viapro: Add support for the VIA CX700 south bridge (commit)

Various

* hwmon:
o

it87: Add PWM base frequency control (commit)
o

Add support for the W83627DHG chip in w83627ehf (commit)
*

APM: Add shared version of APM emulation (commit), (commit), (commit), (commit)
* SPI
o

Freescale iMX SPI controller driver (BIS+) (commit)
o

eeprom driver (commit)
o

controller driver for OMAP Microwire (commit)
o

atmel_spi driver (commit)
* MTD
o

EXcite nand flash driver (commit)
o

S3C2410: Hardware ECC correction code (commit)
o

OneNAND: Add support for auto-placement of out-of-band data (commit)
*

RDMA: Add multicast communication support (commit)
*

IPoIB: Connected mode experimental support (commit)
*

RTC framework driver for CMOS RTCs (commit)
*

RTC gets sysfs wakealarm attribute (commit)
*

mmc: Add support for SDHC cards (commit)
*

tifm_core: add suspend/resume infrastructure for tifm devices (commit)
*

tifm_sd: add suspend and resume functionality (commit)
*

leds: Add IPAQ h1940 LEDs support (commit)
*

backlight: Add Frontpath ProGear HX1050+ driver (commit)
*

drivers: add LCD support (commit)

Sabayon Linux x86/x86-64 miniEdition 3.3

2007-03-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

SabayonLinux x86/x86-64 miniEdition, commonly called the "mini", is the CD release of the latest SabayonLinux x86/x86-64 DVD. The creation of this special version, has been made with an automatic script that shrinks down the whole chroot jail by removing every duplicated, useless or server-oriented package. The multimedia features of these special editions are kept intact. So, enjoy that beautiful piece of software on a single CD!

New features (F) and bug fixes (B) since SabayonLinux 3.20 (DVD)

* F: K3B updated to 1.0
* B: Sabayon Linux Installer fixes (including the ones reported in 3.3)
* F: Added VIA OpenChrome GFX drivers
* F: Updated gpu-detector to the work accordingly to the new feature listed above
* F: Updated to Beryl 0.2.0
* F: Updated IVTV driver to 0.10.0
* F: Updated rt2500 driver to 20070323 CVS snapshot
* B: Fixed pppoe-setup scripts
* F: Updated ndiswrapper to 1.39
* F: Binary packages support through a simple binhost (Alpha release - read below)

Sabayon Linux Project Entropy RoadMap - Binary packages on steroids!
Project Entropy continues to attract users' curiosity: what is that? Easy answer, Entropy is a complete software stack that works on top of the Gentoo Portage repository. Its architecture is designed to provide the maximum flexibility and scalability and is composed by 3 developer/server-side applications: Enzyme, Reagent and Activator; 2 user-side ones: Equilibrium and its API.

Question: What is what?

* Enzyme: the Portage tree manager and build tool.
* Reagent: the Entropy specifications writer. For each binary package, this tool write a specification file that describes its information.
* Activator: the Entropy binary packages uploader. It manages a set of mirrors keeping them updated automatically. It also does QA tests.
* Equilibrium: the Entropy stack user client that will be interfaced to a GUI through its API.

Question: What all this will give to Sabayon Linux?

* Complete interaction between source-based packages and binary-based ones, keeping Gentoo Linux compatibility intact. Sabayon Linux will be the first Linux distribution to actively support both worlds (source,binary)
* Gentoo Portage independence when using Entropy binary packages repository
* No more compilation issues and their waste of time
* Full dependency and reverse dependency management
* GUI connectivity trough the future Equilibrium API
* Extreme developer-side packages building flexibility and speed
* Much, much more...

Question: What does work at the moment?
At the moment, Enzyme and Reagent are well structured and work quite well. Activator is starting to do some funny things and Equilibrium does not exist yet.
Currently, we are filling our preliminary binary packages repository that is still based on what Portage and emerge say.
To test the installation of the currently available binary packages, try to run, as root:
Code:
binmerge

Where is the name of an application, you can browse this list using Kuroo.
Firstly, we need to test the amount of bandwidth needed to maintain such repository, secondly, we have to complete Activator and Equilibrium before moving away from this "binmerge" emerge hook.

Question: What is the RoadMap?
More or less, the roadmap consists of these milestones:

* Complete Reagent module with basic features [DONE]
* Complete Enzyme module with basic features [DONE]
* Complete Activator module with basic features [WORK IN PROGRESS]
* Consolidate the server stack [NOT DONE]
* Complete Equilibrium [NOT DONE]
* Interface a GUI to Equilibrium [NOT DONE]

Question: When will it be considered completed?
Hard question... It's done when it's done

We really want to thank all the members of our crazy Beta Testing Team. Thanks!

IMPORTANT NOTES:

* We encourage you to use 3.3 iso as a base and patch as this is the most efficient mode of transfer for such bug fixes and then set up to seed the torrent for those that cannot. Make sure you check your md5sums!
* As of linux kernel 2.6.19, all hard drives are seen as sd* through SCSI emulation. As such, our installer compensates for this and does its best to query your hardware set up and properly set grub and fstab during installation time. You must upgrade your installer for the latest fixes. If you run into problems with this, please file a bug report at bugs.sabayonlinux.org
* This distribution contains libdvdcss look here if you live in the U.S. !.
* This distribution contains proprietary and non-GPL softwares too (like from NVIDIA, ATI, Google, etc). Before running them, be sure to read their license and agree with that, otherwise, just remove those applications. To run SabayonLinux without Proprietary drivers, just use "noproprietary" boot flag.
* Trademarks are property of their respective owners, everywhere.

UPGRADE INFO:
Using this feature, you can upgrade any Gentoo-based installation (Gentoo, VLOS, RR4, RR64) to the latest SabayonLinux without losing your personal data and settings. Our Team, however, will only actively support the upgrades using SabayonLinux as base.
Also, you can:

* 6th senseing your running system: installed packages will be updated to the ones on the DVD and the conflicting ones automatically removed.
* You can fix your current installation by choosing to reinstall every package, This will take a lot of time but will resurrect your SabayonLinux installation in cases of hard damaging.
* You could (even if it's not so much tested) even upgrade your 32bit installation to a powerful 64bit one (but not the contrary) by using the function described above.
* You can re-configure/reinstall your GRUB (Boot) settings/ without touching any configuration file and/or command line.

c/p from sabayon forum.

very good distribution

Linux commands

2007-03-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Some useful linux commands

alias Create an alias
apropos Search Help manual pages (man -k)
awk Find and Replace text, database sort/validate/index
break Exit from a loop
builtin Run a shell builtin
bzip2 Compress or decompress named file(s)

cal Display a calendar
case Conditionally perform a command
cat Display the contents of a file
cd Change Directory
cfdisk Partition table manipulator for Linux
chgrp Change group ownership
chmod Change access permissions
chown Change file owner and group
chroot Run a command with a different root directory
cksum Print CRC checksum and byte counts
clear Clear terminal screen
cmp Compare two files
comm Compare two sorted files line by line
command Run a command - ignoring shell functions
continue Resume the next iteration of a loop
cp Copy one or more files to another location
cron Daemon to execute scheduled commands
crontab Schedule a command to run at a later time
csplit Split a file into context-determined pieces
cut Divide a file into several parts

date Display or change the date & time
dc Desk Calculator
dd Data Dump - Convert and copy a file
declare Declare variables and give them attributes
df Display free disk space
diff Display the differences between two files
diff3 Show differences among three files
dir Briefly list directory contents
dircolors Colour setup for `ls'
dirname Convert a full pathname to just a path
dirs Display list of remembered directories
du Estimate file space usage

echo Display message on screen
egrep Search file(s) for lines that match an extended expression
eject Eject removable media
enable Enable and disable builtin shell commands
env Environment variables
ethtool Ethernet card settings
eval Evaluate several commands/arguments
exec Execute a command
exit Exit the shell
expand Convert tabs to spaces
export Set an environment variable
expr Evaluate expressions

false Do nothing, unsuccessfully
fdformat Low-level format a floppy disk
fdisk Partition table manipulator for Linux
fgrep Search file(s) for lines that match a fixed string
file Determine file type
find Search for files that meet a desired criteria
fmt Reformat paragraph text
fold Wrap text to fit a specified width.
for Expand words, and execute commands
format Format disks or tapes
free Display memory usage
fsck File system consistency check and repair
ftp File Transfer Protocol
function Define Function Macros

gawk Find and Replace text within file(s)
getopts Parse positional parameters
grep Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern
groups Print group names a user is in
gzip Compress or decompress named file(s)

hash Remember the full pathname of a name argument
head Output the first part of file(s)
history Command History
hostname Print or set system name

id Print user and group id's
if Conditionally perform a command
import Capture an X server screen and save the image to file
install Copy files and set attributes

join Join lines on a common field

kill Stop a process from running

less Display output one screen at a time
let Perform arithmetic on shell variables
ln Make links between files
local Create variables
locate Find files
logname Print current login name
logout Exit a login shell
look Display lines beginning with a given string
lpc Line printer control program
lpr Off line print
lprint Print a file
lprintd Abort a print job
lprintq List the print queue
lprm Remove jobs from the print queue
ls List information about file(s)
lsof List open files

make Recompile a group of programs
man Help manual
mkdir Create new folder(s)
mkfifo Make FIFOs (named pipes)
mkisofs Create an hybrid ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS filesystem
mknod Make block or character special files
more Display output one screen at a time
mount Mount a file system
mtools Manipulate MS-DOS files
mv Move or rename files or directories

netstat Networking information
nice Set the priority of a command or job
nl Number lines and write files
nohup Run a command immune to hangups

passwd Modify a user password
paste Merge lines of files
pathchk Check file name portability
ping Test a network connection
popd Restore the previous value of the current directory
pr Prepare files for printing
printcap Printer capability database
printenv Print environment variables
printf Format and print data
ps Process status
pushd Save and then change the current directory
pwd Print Working Directory

quota Display disk usage and limits
quotacheck Scan a file system for disk usage
quotactl Set disk quotas

ram ram disk device
rcp Copy files between two machines.
read read a line from standard input
readonly Mark variables/functions as readonly
remsync Synchronize remote files via email
return Exit a shell function
rm Remove files
rmdir Remove folder(s)
rsync Remote file copy (Synchronize file trees)

screen Terminal window manager
scp Secure copy (remote file copy)
sdiff Merge two files interactively
sed Stream Editor
select Accept keyboard input
seq Print numeric sequences
set Manipulate shell variables and functions
sftp Secure File Transfer Program
shift Shift positional parameters
shopt Shell Options
shutdown Shutdown or restart linux
sleep Delay for a specified time
sort Sort text files
source Run commands from a file `.'
split Split a file into fixed-size pieces
ssh Secure Shell client (remote login program)
strace Trace system calls and signals
su Substitute user identity
sum Print a checksum for a file
symlink Make a new name for a file
sync Synchronize data on disk with memory

tail Output the last part of files
tar Tape ARchiver
tee Redirect output to multiple files
test Evaluate a conditional expression
time Measure Program running time
times User and system times
touch Change file timestamps
top List processes running on the system
traceroute Trace Route to Host
trap Run a command when a signal is set(bourne)
tr Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters
true Do nothing, successfully
tsort Topological sort
tty Print filename of terminal on stdin
type Describe a command

ulimit Limit user resources
umask Users file creation mask
umount Unmount a device
unalias Remove an alias
uname Print system information
unexpand Convert spaces to tabs
uniq Uniquify files
units Convert units from one scale to another
unset Remove variable or function names
unshar Unpack shell archive scripts
until Execute commands (until error)
useradd Create new user account
usermod Modify user account
users List users currently logged in
uuencode Encode a binary file
uudecode Decode a file created by uuencode

v Verbosely list directory contents (`ls -l -b')
vdir Verbosely list directory contents (`ls -l -b')
vi Text Editor

watch Execute/display a program periodically
wc Print byte, word, and line counts
whereis Report all known instances of a command
which Locate a program file in the user's path.
while Execute commands
who Print all usernames currently logged in
whoami Print the current user id and name (`id -un')
Wget Retrieve web pages or files via HTTP, HTTPS or FTP

xargs Execute utility, passing constructed argument list(s)
yes Print a string until interrupted

.period Run commands from a file
### Comment / Remark

Ipod Linux

2007-03-08T03:52:00.000-08:00

iPodLinux is a µCLinux-based software distribution targeted specifically to run on Apple Inc.'s iPods. Besides the kernel, iPodLinux features as a primary component podzilla and podzilla2, applications which provide:

* An iPod-like interface
* Video playback with sound
* Support for AAC, MP3 and basic OGG playback (4G & 5G Music Player Daemon is malfunctional, but can be fixed).
* Many games, including TuxChess, Bluecube (Tetris clone), Chopper, StepMania (a Dance Dance Revolution clone) and more.
* Recording through audio jack at much higher quality than Apple's firmware
* Ability to play the games Doom and Doom II, as well as games for the Nintendo Game Boy (with appropriate add-on software, for instance iBoy).
* Color scheme support
* Many emulators, such as iBoy (Gameboy Emulator) and iNES (Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator)

List of program for linux

2007-03-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

General user

* dd – Convert and copy a file (Disk Dump)
* echo – Print to standard output
* env – Show environment variables; run a program with altered environment variables
* file – Determine the type of a file
* nohup – Run a command with immunity to hangups outputting to non-tty
* sh – The Bourne shell, the standard Unix shell
* uptime – Print how long the system has been running

System Management

* fuser – Identify processes by files or sockets
* logger – Make entries in the system log
* newgrp (or sg) – Log in to a new group
* pathchk – Check the validity/portability of filenames

Kernel specific

* date – Print or set the system date and/or time
* dmesg – Print the kernel message ring buffer
* ipcrm – Remove a message queue, semaphore set or shared memory id
* ipcs – Provide information on IPC facilities
* uname – Print assorted system statistics

Processes and tasks management

* anacron – Periodic command scheduler
* at – Single-time command scheduler
* chroot – Change the system root directory for all child processes
* cron – Periodic command scheduler
* crontab – Crontab file editor
* daemonic – Interface to daemon init scripts
* exit – Terminate the current shell process
* htop – Interactive ncurses-based process viewer that allows scrolling to see all processes and their full command lines
* kill – Send a signal to process, or terminate a process (by PID)
* killall – Terminate all processes (in GNU/Linux, it's kill by name)
* nice – Alter priorities for processes
* pgrep – Find PIDs of processes by name
* pidof – GNU/Linux equivalent of pgrep
* pkill – Send a signal to process, or terminate a process (by name). Equivalent to Linux killall
* ps – Report process status
* renice – Alter the priorities of an already running process
* sleep – Delay for specified time
* time – Time a command
* timex – Time process shell execution, measure process data and system activity
* top – Produce a dynamic list of all resident processes
* wait – Wait for the specified process
* watch – Runs the specified command repeatedly

Job Control

* bg – Resume a job in background
* jobs – Lists active jobs
* fg – Resume a job in foreground

User management and support

* chsh – Change user shell
* finger – Get details about user
* id – Print real/effective UIDs/GIDs
* last – show listing of last logged in users
* lastlog – show last log in information for users
* locale – Get locale specific information
* localedef – Compile locale definitions
* logname – Print user's login name
* man – Manual browser
* mesg – Control write access to your terminal
* passwd – Change user password
* su – Start a new process (defaults to shell) as a different user (defaults to root)
* sudo – execute a command as a different user.
* users – Show who is logged on (only users names)
* w – Show logged-in users and their current tasks
* whatis – command description from whatis database
* whereis – locates the command's binary and manual pages associated with it
* which (Unix) – locates where a command is executed from
* who – Show who is logged on (with some details)
* write – Send a message to another user

Terminal configuration

* stty – Change and print terminal line settings
* tput – Initialize a terminal/query terminfo database
* tty – Print filename of terminal connected to standard input

Files and texts

* info – The GNU alternative to man
* man – The standard unix documentation system

Filesystem Utilities

* chattr – Change file attributes on a Linux second extended file system
* chgrp – Change the group of a file or directory
* chmod – Change the permissions of a file or directory
* chown – Change the owner of a file or directory
* cd – Change to another directory location
* cp – Copy a file or directory to another location
* df – Report disk space
* dircmp – Compare contents of files between two directories
* du – Calculate used disk space
* fdupes – Find or remove duplicate files within a directory
* find – Search for files through a directory hierarchy
* fsck – Filesystem check
* ln – Link one file/directory to another
* ls – List directory contents
* lsattr – List file attributes on a Linux second extended file system
* lsof – list open files
* mkdir – Make a directory
* mkfifo – Make a named pipe
* mount – Mount a filesystem
* mv – Move or rename a file or directory
* pwd – Print the current working directory
* rm – Delete a file or directory tree
* readlink – Display value of a symbolic link, or display canonical path for a file
* rmdir – Delete an empty directory
* touch – Create a new file or update its modification time
* tree – Print a depth-indented tree of a given directory
* unlink – System call to remove a file or directory

Archivers and compression

* afio – Compatible superset of cpio with added functionality
* ar – Maintain, modify, and extract from archives. Now largely obsoleted by tar
* bzip2 – Block-sorting file compressor
* compress – Traditional compressor using the LZW algorithm
* cpio – A traditional archiving tool/format
* gzip – The gzip file compressor
* p7zip – 7zip for unix/linux
* pack, pcat, unpack – included in old versions of ATT Unix. Uses Huffman coding, obsoleted by compress.
* pax – POSIX archive tool that handles multiple formats.
* tar – Tape ARchiver, concatenates files
* uncompress – Uncompresses files compressed with compress.
* zcat – Prints files to stdout from gzip archives without unpacking them to separate file(s)

Text Processing

* awk – A pattern scanning and processing language
* banner – Creates ascii art version of an input string for printing large banners
* cat – Concatenate files to standard output
* cksum – Print the CRC checksum and bytecount of a file (see also MD5)
* cmp – Compare two files byte for byte
* comm – Sort two files and compare them line for line
* csplit – Split a file into sections determined by context lines
* cut – Remove sections from each line of a file or standard input
* diff3 – Compare one text file against two other files
* diff – Compare two text files line by line
* egrep – Extended pattern matching (synonym for "grep -E")
* expand – Convert tabs to spaces
* fc – Processes the command history list
* fgrep – Simplified pattern matching (synonym for "grep -F")
* fold – Wrap each input line to fit within the given width
* grep – Print lines matching a pattern
* head – Output the first parts of a file
* iconv – Convert the encoding of the specified files
* join – Join lines of two files on a common field
* less – Improved more-like text pager
* merge – Three way merge of files (see also paste)
* more – Pager
* nkf – Convert Japanese characters
* nl – Number the lines of a file
* nroff – Fixed-width (non-typesetter) version of the standard Unix typesetting system
* od – Dump files in various formats, e.g. octal
* paste – Merge lines of files
* patch – Change files based on a patch file
* rev – reverse lines of a file
* sed – Stream EDitor
* sort – Sort lines of text files
* split – Split a file into pieces
* tac – cat in reverse — displays files to standard output in reverse order starting at the end of the file
* tail – Output the tail end of files
* tee – Read from standard input, write to standard output and files
* tr – Translate characters
* tsort – Perform a topological sort
* unexpand – Convert spaces to tabs
* uniq – Remove duplicate lines from a sorted file
* uudecode – Decodes a binary file that was used for transmission using electronic mail
* uuencode – Encodes a binary file for transmission using electronic mail
* wc – Word/line/byte count

Text editors

* acme – Bitmapped text editor and integrated development environment ported from the Plan 9 operating system with client-server design, by Rob Pike. This is the successor of sam.
* ed – Original line-oriented, regular-expression based Unix text editor
* ex – Line-oriented text editor from BSD Unix, originally derived from Unix ed, later augmented by a screen-oriented "visual" mode, creating vi; typically a symbolic link to vi (or vim) causing it to start up in line-editing mode
* GNU Emacs – Freely programmable full-screen text editor and general computing environment (using builtin Elisp, a simple dialect of the Lisp programming language)
* Joe – a screen-oriented text editor using a Wordstar-style command set
* Jove – a screen-oriented text editor using an Emacs-style command set
* MicroEMACS – a screen-oriented text editor using an Emacs-style command set
* nano – Clone of pico (see below)
* NEdit – A Motif based text editor for the X11 windowing system, remniscient of text editors on Mac or Windows systems
* nvi – "New" vi, unencumbered (no remaining original Unix code) reimplementation of ex/vi for the 4.4BSD operating system release
* pico – PIne's message COmposition editor (simple, easy to use screen editor)
* sam – Bitmapped text editor ported from the Plan 9 operating system with client-server design, by Rob Pike
* vi – "Visual" (screen-oriented) text editor (originally ex in screen-oriented "visual" mode)
* VILE – "Vi like Emacs", a vi-like text editor that has been derived from the MicroEMACS text editor
* vim – Vi IMproved, portable vi-compatible editor with multiple buffers, screen splitting, syntax highlighting and a lot of other features not found in standard ex/vi
* XEmacs – Popular version of emacs that is derived from GNU Emacs

Communication, networking and remote access

* Apache webserver
* efax – integrated fax program
* ftp, sftp – File transfer protocol, secure FTP
* HylaFAX – Fax server
* netcat – "TCP/IP Swiss Army knife"
* NFS – Network filesystem
* OpenVPN – virtual private (encrypting) networking software
* Postfix — mail transfer agent
* rsh, SSH, telnet – Remote login
* Samba – SMB and CIFS client and server for UNIX
* Sendmail – popular E-Mail transport software
* talk – Talk to another logged-in user
* uustat – a Basic Networking Utilities (BNU) command that displays status information about several types of BNU operations
* uux – Remote command execution over UUCP

Email programs (user agents)

* elm – (Once very popular) screen-oriented mail program
* mail – Original Unix email program
* mailx/Mail – Improved version of Unix mail from BSD Unix
* Mulberry – powerful graphical IMAP-centric e-mail client (Proprietary Software)
* Mutt – screen-oriented mail program
* Opera – Web browser and e-mail client (Proprietary Software)
* Pine – screen-oriented mail and news program, originally derived from elm
* Mozilla Thunderbird – Extensible e-mail client

Network system services

* fingerd – a daemon for finger – a program used return a human-readable status report on either the system at the moment or a particular person in depth
* inetd – a daemon on many Unix systems that manages Internet services
* xinetd – replacement for inetd

Network Utilities

* dhclient – the DHCP client
* dhcpd – the DHCP daemon
* ifconfig – a tool used to configure a network interface for TCP/IP
* iwconfig – similar to ifconfig, but is dedicated to wireless networking interfaces
* ping – a network tool that tests of whether a particular host is up and reachable on the network
* pppd – Point-to-Point Protocol daemon
* tcpd – Secures programs launched from inetd

Network monitoring and security

* Ethereal and tethereal – a feature rich protocol analyzer (now called Wireshark, see below)
* ettercap – a tool for network protocol analysis
* John the Ripper – password cracking software
* Nessus – a comprehensive open-source network vulnerability scanning program
* Netstat – displays a list of the active network connections the computer
* Nmap – free port scanning software
* SAINT – System Administrator’s Integrated Network Tool – Network Vulnerability Scanner.
* SATAN – the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks – a testing and reporting tool that collects information about networked hosts
* Snoop – Solaris packet sniffer
* Snort – an open source network intrusion detection system
* tcpdump – a computer network debugging tool that intercepts and displays TCP/IP packets being transmitted or received
* Wireshark – a protocol analyzer, or "packet sniffer", similar to tcpdump, that adds a GUI frontend, and more sorting and filtering options (formerly named Ethereal)

Programming tools

Script Interpreters

Shells

* bash – Bourne Again SHell, (mostly) sh-compatible and csh-compatible, standard shell on Linux systems and Mac OS X.
* csh – C shell. Written by Bill Joy for BSD systems.
* ksh – Korn shell, standard shell on many proprietary Unix systems, powerful successor to the Unix Bourne shell (sh), written by David Korn,
* rc – originally written for Plan 9.
* sh – Bourne shell, only shell present on all UNIX and Unix-like systems, written by Stephen Bourne for Version 7 Unix.
* tcsh – TENEX C shell, standard shell on BSD systems.
* zsh – Z shell.

Non-shells

* awk – Standard Unix pattern scanning and text processing tool.
* perl – Perl scripting language.
* PHP – PHP scripting language.
* Python – Python scripting language.

Compilers and Programming tools

The classic UNIX environment includes a basic set of broadly available programming tools, but in the 21st century this classic environment is increasingly rare, as Unix-like operating system distributions diversify. Some include vastly more, and more modern and sophisticated, programming tools and environments, whereas others, focussing on serving a less technical audience, may exclude even the most rudimentary programming utilities. Commands most familiar to a prior generation of UNIX users include:

* admin – Administer SCCS files.
* as – GNU assembler tool.
* c99 – C programming language.
* cc – C compiler.
* cfront – C++ front-end compiler
* ctags – Generate tags file summarising location of objects in source files.
* dbx – (System V and BSD) Symbolic debugger.
* distcc – Tool for distributing compiles across multiple machines.
* f77 – Fortran 77 compiler.
* gcc – GNU Compiler Collection C frontend (also known as GNU C Compiler)
* gdb – GNU symbolic debugger.
* ktrace – (BSD) Analogous to strace.
* ld – Program linker.
* lex – Lexical scanner generator.
* ltrace – (Linux) Trace dynamic library calls in the address space of the watched process.
* m4 – Macro language.
* make – Automate builds.
* nm – List symbols from object files.
* rmdel – remove a delta from an SCCS file.
* size – return the size of the sections of an ELF file.
* strace – (Linux) or truss (Solaris) Trace system calls with their arguments and signals. Useful debugging tool, but does not trace calls outside the kernel, in the address space of the process(es) being watched.
* strip – Remove debugging symbols from object files.
* yacc – LALR parser generator.

Scripting utilities

* basename – Returns the final component of a path
* batch – Runs jobs when the system load level permits
* false – Return a value that evaluates as False
* hash – Command that remembers or reports command path names
* printf – Format and print data
* strings – Print strings of printable characters found in a file
* test – Test an expression
* times
* true – Return a value that evaluates as True
* unset – Unsets a shell variable
* xargs – Build and execute command lines from standard input
* expr – Evaluate expressions

User interfaces

* X11 – Graphical user interface (GUI)
o startx and xinit
o xterm

Desktops/Graphical User Interfaces

* Blackbox and its variants (including Fluxbox and Waimea)
* CDE – Common Desktop Environment, most commonly found on proprietary UNIX systems
* Enlightenment – an open source window manager for the X Window System
* FVWM and its variant FVWM95, which has been modified to behave like Windows 95 Also FVWM-Crystal that aims to be eye candy
* GNOME – GNU Network Object Model Environment
* IceWM – ICE Window Manager
* Ion (window manager) – tiling and tabbing window manager for the X Window System. Designed for use without a mouse.
* JWM – Joe's Window Manager
* KDE – K Desktop Environment
* Quartz Compositor – Apple's GUI interface for the Darwin BSD based operating system Mac OS X
* Window Maker
* WMI – Window Manager Improved
* XFce – a desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms
* EDE

Shells

See Script Interpreters.

Computer security

Antivirus software

* ClamAV – E-mail virus scanner.

Cryptography

* Enigmail – Graphical interface to gpg for Mozilla Application Suite and Mozilla Thunderbird.
* gpg – GNU Privacy Guard, a complete and free replacement for PGP (to do file and email encryption and signature).
* mcrypt -- Replacement for the legacy crypt program; can also make OpenPGP-compatible files.
* openssl – Secure Sockets Layer and general crypto library.
* pinepgp – Filters that enable pine to use signed/encrypted email.

Package management software

* apt – Front-end for dpkg or rpm
* debconf – Debian package configuration management system
* dpkg – The Debian package manager
* drakconf – Front-end configuration utility for Mandriva Linux
* emerge – A frontend to portage
* pacman – A package manager used primarily by Arch Linux
* portage – The Gentoo Linux package manager
* rpm – Originally the package manager for Red Hat Linux, now used by several distributions including Mandriva Linux
* Synaptic – GTK+ frontend for the apt package manager. Primarily used by Ubuntu Linux, Debian Sarge, and other Debian-based systems; but usable on any system using apt.
* urpmi – Front-end to rpm, used by Mandriva Linux
* YaST - System management utility mainly used by SuSE
* yum - Front-end for rpm, used by Fedora

OS X/Darwin specific programs

* defaults (software) – Access the Mac OS X user defaults system
* fink – The Fink package manager
* open – opens it's argument(s) in the GUI as if the user had double clicked
* osacompile – Compile AppleScripts and other OSA language scripts
* osalang – Information about installed OSA languages
* osascript – Execute AppleScripts and other OSA language scripts
* say – Convert text to audible speech

Application software

Office

* AbiWord
* Gnumeric
* KOffice
* OpenOffice.org

Multimedia

* Amarok – Audio jukebox
* Ardour – Digital audio workstation for multitrack HD recording and editing
* Audacity – Sound recording and editing program
* Baudline – Audio recorder, analyzer, and player
* GIMP – Powerful image manipulation package
* GStreamer – Plugin-based multimedia framework
* ImageMagick – Image conversion library
* Inkscape – Vector graphics editor
* mpg123 – MP3 player
* MPlayer – General-purpose media player
* Netpbm – package of graphics programs and programming library
* Rhythmbox – Audio jukebox similar to Apple's iTunes
* Rosegarden – Powerful digital audio workstation
* SoX – Sound conversion tool
* Totem – Media player
* transcode – Flexible command-line media encoding tool
* VLC media player – Video player
* xine – Video Player
* XMMS – Winamp-like multimedia player

Web browsers

* Dillo – Extremely light-weight web browser
* ELinks – Enhanced links
* Epiphany – Light-weight GNOME web browser
* Galeon – Light-weight old GNOME web browser
* Konqueror – KDE web browser
* Links – Console based web browser
* lynx – Console based web browser
* Mozilla Application Suite – Graphical cross platform web browser & email client
* Mozilla Firefox – Extensible Web browser
* Opera – Web browser and e-mail client (Proprietary Software)
* w3m – Console based web browser

Desktop Publishing

* groff – Traditional typesetting system
* LaTeX – Popular TeX macro package for higher-level typesetting
* lp – Print a file (on a line printer)
* Passepartout – Desktop publishing program
* pr – Convert text files for printing
* Scribus – Desktop publishing program
* TeX – Macro-based typesetting system
* troff – The original and standard Unix typesetting system

Databases

* DB2
* Firebird
* MySQL
* Oracle
* PostgreSQL
* Progress Software
* SQLite
* Sybase

Mathematical and scientific software

* maxima – Symbol manipulation program.
* octave – Numerical computing language (mostly compatible with Matlab) and environment.
* R – Statistical programming language.
* units – Unit conversion program.

Desktop utilities

* bc – An arbitrary precision calculator language with syntax similar to the C programming language.
* cal – Displays a calendar
* dc – Reverse-Polish desk calculator which supports unlimited precision arithmetic
* fortune – Fortune cookie program that prints a random quote

Fedora on PS3

2007-03-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

Fedora linux run on PS3 very nice

BSD ''Berkeley Software Distribution''

2007-03-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

Berkeley Software Distribution

"BSD" redirects here. For other uses, see BSD (disambiguation). BSD Unix Beastie, the BSD daemon by Poul-Henning Kamp Website: N/A Company/ developer: CSRG, UC Berkeley OS family: Unix Source model: Open source Latest stable release: 4.4-Lite2 / 1995 Kernel type: Monolithic License: BSD license Working state: Superseded by derivatives (see below) Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD, sometimes called Berkeley Unix) is the Unix derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley, starting in the 1970s. The name is also used collectively for the modern descendants of these distributions. BSD is one of several branches of Unix operating systems. Another one is evolved from UNIX System V developed by AT&T's Unix System Development Labs. A third consists of the GNU/Linux operating systems which draw from Unix System V and BSD, as well as Plan9, and non-UNIX operating systems. BSD was widely identified with the versions of Unix available for workstation-class systems. This can be attributed to the ease with which it could be licensed and the familiarity it found among the founders of many technology companies during the 1980s. This familiarity often came from using similar systems—notably DEC's Ultrix and Sun's SunOS—during their education. While BSD itself was largely superseded by the System V Release 4 and OSF/1 systems in the 1990s (both of which incorporated BSD code), in recent years modified open source versions of the codebase (mostly derived from 4.4BSD-Lite) have seen increasing use and development. Contents

The earliest distributions of Unix from Bell Labs in the 1970s included the source code to the operating system, allowing researchers at universities to modify and extend Unix. The first Unix system at Berkeley was a PDP-11 installed in 1974, and the computer science department used it for extensive research thereafter.

Other universities became interested in the software at Berkeley, and so in 1977 Bill Joy, then a graduate student at Berkeley, assembled and sent out tapes of the first Berkeley Software Distribution (1BSD). 1BSD was an add-on to Sixth Edition Unix rather than a complete operating system in its own right; its main components were a Pascal compiler and Joy's ex line editor.

The Second Berkeley Software Distribution (2BSD), released in 1978, included updated versions of the 1BSD software as well as two new programs by Joy that persist on Unix systems to this day: the vi text editor (a visual version of ex) and the C shell.

Later releases of 2BSD contained ports of changes to the VAX-based releases of BSD back to the PDP-11 architecture. 2.9BSD from 1983 included code from 4.1cBSD, and was the first release that was a full OS (a modified Version 7 Unix) rather than a set of applications and patches. The most recent release, 2.11BSD, was first released in 1992, with maintenance updates from volunteers continuing until 2006 (patch 445 was released on December 26, 2006).
BSD pioneered many of the advances of modern computing. Berkeley's Unix was the first Unix to include libraries supporting the Internet Protocol stacks: Berkeley sockets. By integrating sockets with the Unix operating system's file descriptors, it became almost as easy to read and write data across a network as it was to access a disk. The AT&T laboratory eventually released their own STREAMS library, which incorporated much of the same functionality in a software stack with a better architecture, but the wide distribution of the existing sockets library, together with the unfortunate omission of a function call for polling a set of open sockets equivalent to the select call in the Berkeley library, reduced the impact of the new API.

Today, BSD continues to be used as a testbed for technology by academic organizations, as well as finding uses in a lot of commercial and free products and, increasingly, in embedded devices. The general quality of its source code, as well as its documentation (especially reference manual pages, commonly referred to as man pages), make it well-suited for many purposes.

The permissive nature of the BSD license allows companies to distribute derived products as proprietary software without exposing source code and sometimes intellectual property to competitors. Searching for strings containing "University of California, Berkeley" in the documentation of products, in the static data sections of binaries and ROMs, or as part of other information about a software program, will often show BSD code has been used. This permissiveness also makes BSD code suitable for use in open source products, and the license is compatible with many other open source licenses.

BSD operating systems can run much native software of several other operating systems on the same architecture, using a binary compatibility layer. Much simpler and faster than emulation, this allows, for instance, applications intended for Linux to be run at effectively full speed. This makes BSDs not only suitable for server environments, but also for workstation ones, given the increasing availability of commercial or closed-source software for Linux only. This also allows administrators to migrate legacy commercial applications, which may have only supported commercial Unix variants, to a more modern operating system, retaining the functionality of such applications until they can be replaced by a better alternative.

Current BSD operating system variants support many of the common IEEE, ANSI, ISO, and POSIX standards, while retaining most of the traditional BSD behavior. Like AT&T Unix, the BSD kernel is monolithic, meaning that device drivers in the kernel run in privileged mode, as part of the core of the operating system. Early versions of BSD were used to form Sun Microsystems' SunOS, founding the first wave of popular Unix workstations.

* FreeBSD, a major open source effort focusing on performance and the x86 platform
* NetBSD, an open source BSD with an emphasis on portability and clean design
* OpenBSD, a 1995 fork of NetBSD, focuses on portability, security, standardization and correctness
* DragonFly BSD, a fork of FreeBSD to follow an alternative design, particularly related to SMP
* MidnightBSD, a fork of FreeBSD to develop a desktop operating system utilizing GNUstep.
* PC-BSD, a variant of FreeBSD with emphasis on ease of use and user friendly interfaces for the desktop/laptop PC user
* DesktopBSD, another custom install of FreeBSD for the desktop/laptop PC user. It provides a number of graphical front ends to make learning FreeBSD less of a challenge.
* Tru64 UNIX (formerly DEC OSF/1 AXP or Digital UNIX), the port of OSF/1 for DEC Alpha-based systems from DEC, Compaq and HP.
* Apple Inc.'s Darwin, the core of Mac OS X; built on the XNU kernel (part Mach, part FreeBSD, part Apple-derived code) and a userland much of which comes from FreeBSD
* Juniper Networks JunOS, the operating system for Juniper routers
* Force10 Networks FTOS, the operating system for Force10 TeraScale E-Series switches/routers, based on NetBSD
* Nokia IPSO, the operating system for the Nokia IP security appliances

Ubuntu

2007-03-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu (Linux distribution)
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Ubuntu

Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft" running GNOME.
Website: http://www.ubuntu.com/
Company/
developer: Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Foundation
OS family: Linux
Source model: Free and Open Source Software
Latest stable release: 6.10 / October 26, 2006
Latest unstable release: Feisty Fawn Herd 5 [1] / February 15, 2007
Available language(s): multilingual
Update method: APT
Package manager: dpkg
Supported platforms: i386, AMD64, PowerPC, UltraSPARC[1]
Kernel type: Linux kernel
Default user interface: GNOME
Working state: Current

Ubuntu (IPA pronunciation: /u'buntu/) is a widely used Linux distribution predominantly targeted at personal computers. Based on Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu concentrates on usability, regular releases, ease of installation, and freedom from legal restrictions. Ubuntu is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.

The name of the distribution comes from the Zulu and Xhosa concept of ubuntu, which means, "humanity towards others," or, "I am what I am because of who we all are." Ubuntu’s slogan – “Linux for Human Beings”, encapsulates one of its main goals – making Linux more available and easy to use.

The most recent version, Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft), was released on October 26, 2006. Version 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) is scheduled for release on 19 April 2007.

The original name of the Ubuntu project was no-name-yet.com.[3]

Ubuntu's first release on October 20, 2004 began as a temporary fork of Debian GNU/Linux, with the aim of drawing from Debian's code regularly in order to allow for a new version of Ubuntu to be released every six months,[4] in step with the six month GNOME release cycle. In contrast to other general-purpose forks of Debian such as Xandros, Linspire and Libranet, Canonical remains close to Debian's philosophy with Ubuntu and uses predominantly free software rather than making the inclusion of proprietary applications part of their business model.[5]

Ubuntu uses Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool to manage installed packages. Ubuntu packages are generally based on packages from Debian's unstable repository; however, they are not always compatible with each other. Several Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of packages within Debian's repositories, and Ubuntu changes are contributed back to Debian as they are made, rather than being announced only at release time.[6] Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, criticised Ubuntu in April 2005 for incompatibilities between its packages and those of Debian sarge, saying that Ubuntu had diverged too far to remain compatible.[7]

Bugs in Ubuntu are tracked through the Launchpad web interface, which integrates with the Bazaar version control system in a similar way to SourceForge's integration with CVS.

Ubuntu is currently funded by Mark Shuttleworth through Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 2005, Canonical announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu, but as of 2006, the foundation remains dormant. Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an emergency fund should Canonical's involvement end
Usability

Ubuntu is based on the GNOME desktop environment, which is intended to provide a free, simple and intuitive interface while offering a full range of modern desktop applications.[9] While Ubuntu distributes common productivity software including OpenOffice.org, the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the GIMP image editor, it aims to avoid overlap in its default feature set rather than providing many different choices of similar packages.

After the initial Ubuntu installation, the user is greeted with a pale brown desktop which contains no desktop icons by default. General desktop applications are located under the Applications menu, an easy to use desktop launcher menu. Open windows can be viewed on the taskbar along the bottom of the screen. The default user interface in Ubuntu is characterized by shades of orange and brown, imitating African tribal imagery. The user retains the option to customize the look and behavior of the desktop in a variety of ways. Ubuntu is available in over 40 languages. It also allows users to submit additional translations by using the Rosetta Translation tool.[10]

Ubuntu's focus on usability includes the widespread use of the sudo tool, which allows users to carry out administrative tasks without initiating a potentially unsafe superuser session.

Distribution

Ubuntu ships as an ISO image that fits on a single CD or alternatively, in the case of the older version 6.06 LTS, mailed free to anyone requesting them via Canonical's ShipIt service.[12] This is intended to reduce the amount of time it takes to download Ubuntu and the possibility of losing part of the installation software. Many Linux distributions necessitate the downloading of multiple iso images and hours of installation process, while Ubuntu is one of the few distributions that can be installed quickly, and from a single CD.

Since version 6.06 LTS, Ubuntu's disc has served both as a Live CD and an install disc. This disc boots into a fully featured desktop, allowing the user to see whether his or her hardware is compatible and experiment with the applications available. The CD also allows the user to install Ubuntu to the hard disk using the Ubiquity application, and preserves documents created on the live desktop. An alternate install disc using the text-mode debian-installer is also available, aimed towards those with lower system specifications, towards administrators installing Ubuntu on many systems, and for complex disk partitioning.

There are two types of releases: one for desktop and laptop computers and one for servers. The desktop and laptop version is available for Intel x86 PCs, 64-bit AMD64 PCs, and PowerPC Macintosh computers. The server edition is available for these platforms in addition to SPARC and does not ship as a Live CD (using the text-mode installer exclusively).

Package classification and support
Browsing Ubuntu core packages in Synaptic.
Browsing Ubuntu core packages in Synaptic.

Ubuntu divides all software into four sections, called components, to reflect differences in licensing and level of support available.[13] The components are Main, Restricted, Universe and Multiverse.

Main and Universe contain software which meets the Ubuntu license requirements, which correspond roughly to the Debian Free Software Guidelines.[14] Main may also contain binary firmware and selected fonts used in supported software that cannot be modified without permission. In all cases, redistribution is unencumbered.

Non-free device drivers remain in the Restricted component, where support is present because of their importance, but limited due to lack of, or limited, access to the source code.

It is intended that Main and Restricted contain all software needed for a general-use desktop operating system. Other, unsupported programs are placed in Universe (free) and Multiverse (Non-free). Multiverse contains software packages which may infringe on U.S. and international patent or copyright law. Examples of these include software that enables the playback of patented media formats. Due to the questionable legal status of unofficial DVD-decoding in some parts of the world, Libdvdcss was removed from Ubuntu's official repository, but can still be downloaded at the VideoLAN Project's website.[15] Encoding and decoding libraries for many proprietary media formats such as Windows Media are also unavailable by default.[16]

Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized project to backport newer versions of certain software that are available only in unstable versions of Ubuntu. The repository is not comprehensive; it mostly consists of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines.[17]

Unofficial utilities such as EasyUbuntu and Automatix aim to automate the installation and configuration of software which is not officially packaged for Ubuntu for legal or philosophical reasons. They are not recommended by the Ubuntu development team and have been accused of breaking updates.[18]

Ubuntu has a certification system for third-party proprietary software, and Canonical manages a special repository for certified proprietary packages named Commercial,[19] which includes software that Canonical has obtained special permission to distribute.[20] As of this writing, the repository includes the Opera web browser and the RealPlayer media player.

next realase of ubuntu is 07.04.2007. name of this Ubuntu 7.04

Linutop

2007-02-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

Linutop is a Linux-based diskless computer. It offers a completely silent, low-power operation in an extremely small packagen.

Lintop is ideal for Internet usage and office work.

Specifications:
- AMD Geode
- 512 MB ROM
- 256 MB RAM
- 4x USB 2.0 ports
- audio in & out
- 100baseT Ethernet
- VGA output
- Size: 9.3 x 2.7 x 15 cm
- Weight: 280 gr
Expandability:
- USB2 Wifi connection, Flat panel

Software:
- Firefox Web browser
- Gaim instant messenger
- Totem media player
- AbiWord Word Processor
- Evince PDF reader

Linux 2.6.20 changelog

2007-02-14T15:15:00.000-08:00

Linux 2 6 20

Contents

1. Short overview (for news sites, etc)
2. Important things (AKA: ''the cool stuff'')
1. Sony Playstation 3 support
2. Virtualization support through KVM
3. Paravirtualization support for i386
4. Relocatable kernel support for x86
5. Fault injection
6. IO Accounting
7. Relative atime support
8. UDP-Lite support
9. Generic HID layer
10. Sleazy FPU optimization
11. Use 'regparm' in x86-32
12. round_jiffies() infrastructure
13. New drivers
3. Various core changes
4. Architecture-specific changes
5. Filesystems
6. Networking
7. Various subsystems
1. Software suspend
2. Crypto
3. CPUFREQ
4. DM
5. SELinux
8. Drivers
1. Graphics
2. Sound
3. V4L/DVB
4. libata
5. SCSI
6. Input drivers
7. Networking devices
8. USB
9. Hwmon
10. Watchdog
11. I2C
12. PCMCIA
13. MMC
14. IPMI
15. RTC
16. Firewire
17. Various

Short overview (for news sites, etc)

With 2.6.20, Linux joins the virtualization trend. This release adds two virtualization implementations: A full-virtualization implementation that uses Intel/AMD hardware virtualization capabilities called KVM (http://kvm.sourceforge.net) and a paravirtualization implementation (http://lwn.net/Articles/194543) that can be used by different hypervisors (Rusty's lguest; Xen and VMWare in the future, etc). This release also adds initial Sony Playstation 3 support, a fault injection debugging feature (http://lwn.net/Articles/209257), UDP-lite support, better per-process IO accounting, relative atime, support for using swap files for suspend users, relocatable x86 kernel support for kdump users, small microoptimizations in x86 (sleazy FPU, regparm, support for the Processor Data Area, optimizations for the Core 2 platform), a generic HID layer, DEEPNAP power savings for PPC970, lockless radix-tree readside, shared pagetables for hugetbl, ARM support for the AT91 and iop13xx processors, full NAT for nf_conntrack and many other things.

Important things (AKA: ''the cool stuff'')

Sony Playstation 3 support

You may like the Wii or the 360 more, but only the PS3 is gaining official Linux support, written by Sony engineers. Note that the support at this time is incomplete (apparently enabling it will not boot on a stock PS3) and it doesn't support the devices included like the graphics card, etc.

Virtualization support through KVM

KVM (project page) adds a driver for Intel's and AMD's hardware virtualization extensions to the x86 architecture (KVM will not work in CPUs without virtualization capabilities). See the Virtualization wiki for more information about virtualization in Linux

The driver adds a character device (/dev/kvm) that exposes the virtualization capabilities to userspace. Using this driver, a process can run a virtual machine (a "guest") in a fully virtualized PC containing its own virtual hard disks, network adapters, and display. Each virtual machine is a process on the host; a virtual CPU is a thread in that process. kill(1), nice(1), top(1) work as expected. In effect, the driver adds a third execution mode to the existing two: we now have kernel mode, user mode, and guest mode. Guest mode has its own address space mapping guest physical memory (which is accessible to user mode by mmap()ing /dev/kvm). Guest mode has no access to any I/O devices; any such access is intercepted and directed to user mode for emulation.

32 and 64 bits guests are supported (but not x86-64 guests on x86-32 hosts!). For i386 guests and hosts, both pae and non-pae paging modes are supported. SMP hosts and UP guests are supported, SMP guests aren't (support will be added in the future). You also can start multiple virtual machines in a host. Performance currently is non-stellar, it will be improved by a lot with the future inclusion of KVM paravirtualization KVM support.

The Windows install currently bluescreens due to a problem with the virtual APIC, a fix is being worked on and will be added in future releases. A temporary workaround is to use an existing image or install through qemu - Windows 64-bit does not work either

Paravirtualization support for i386

Paravirtualization is the act of running a guest operating system, under control of a host system, where the guest has been ported to a virtual architecture which is almost like the hardware it is actually running on. This technique allows full guest systems to be run in a relatively efficient manner (continue reading this LWN article for more information). This allows to link different hypervisors (lguest/lhype/rustyvisor implements a hypervisor in 6.000 lines; Xen and Vmware will be probably ported to this framework some day). There are limitations like no SMP support yet; this feature will evolve a lot with the time

Relocatable kernel support for x86

This feature (enabled with CONFIG_RELOCATABLE) isn't very noticeable for end-users but it's quite interesting from a kernel POV. Until now, it was a requirement that a i386 kernel was loaded at a fixed memory address in order to work, loading it in a different place wouldn't work. This feature allows to compile a kernel that can be loaded at different 4K-aligned addresses, but always below 1 GB, with no runtime overhead. Kdump users (a feature introduced in 2.6.13 that it triggers kexec in a kernel crash in order to boot a kernel that has been previously loaded at a 'empty' address, then runs that kernel, saves the memory where the crashed kernel was placed, dumps it in a file and continues booting the system) will benefit from this because until now the "rescue kernel" need to be compiled with different configuration options in order to make it bootable at a different address. With a relocatable kernel, the same kernel can be boot at different addresses.

Fault injection

This is a debugging feature that 'injects' failures in several layers in the kernel (kmalloc() failures, alloc_pages() failures, disk IO errors). By 'injecting' them on purpose, a developer can test how their code reacts to errors that are very difficult to find in the real world, where things does not fail so often. For example, a filesystem could not be handling correctly an error triggered by a broken hard disk. Because those error code paths are exercised very rarely the code may contain bugs that could be hit by an user some day. This feature 'injects' those errors on purpose so testing can find bugs much faster. Enabled by the following configuration options: CONFIG_FAILSLAB, CONFIG_PAGE_ALLOC and CONFIG_MAKE_REQUEST. If you also want to configure them via debugfs you must enable CONFIG_FAULT_INJECTION_DEBUG_FS. Here is a LWN article about it; and the documentation is here.

IO Accounting

The present per-task IO accounting isn't very useful. It simply counts the number of bytes passed into read() and write(). So if a process reads 1MB from an already-cached file, it is accused of having performed 1MB of I/O, which is 'wrong'. So this IO accounting implements per-process statistics of "storage I/O" (i.e.: I/O that _really_ does I/O on the storage device - Linux already had I/O storage statistics but it's not per-task). The data is reported through taskstats and procfs (/proc/$PID/io)
Relative atime support

'Atime' is the 'Access time' field of a file: When a process reads a file, its atime is updated. Disabling atime updates, with the 'noatime' mount flag, is probably the most used performance tweak that Linux administrators use: An active server is continually reading files, generating lots of atime updates, which translate to metadata updates that the filesystem must write to disk. And writing those updates can seriously damage your performance. Believe it or not, a busy server like kernel.org (vsftpd + apache workload) cut their load average in half just by mounting their filesystems with 'noatime'.

Relative atime ('relatime') only updates the atime if the previous atime is older than the mtime or ctime. It avoids a lot of metadata atime updates (but not all of them, obviously, there's 'noatime' for that). It's like noatime, but useful for applications like mutt that need to know when a file has been read since it was last modified. Currently only OCFS2 supports it. A corresponding patch against mount(8) is available here. , ocfs2 support

UDP-Lite support

Support for UDP-Lite (RFC 3828) for IPv4 and a extension for UDP-Lite over IPv6 is added in 2.6.20. Documentation and programming guide. UDP-Lite is a Standards-Track IETF transport protocol whose characteristic is a variable-length checksum. This has advantages for transport of multimedia (video, VoIP) over wireless networks, as partly damaged packets can still be fed into the codec instead of being discarded due to a failed checksum test

Generic HID layer

Currently the HID layer (Human Interface Device) does only work with USB devices. 2.6.20 turns the USB-oriented HID layer into a generic HID layer that can be used for any subsystem that needs it, like Bluetooth.

Sleazy FPU optimization

This is an x86-32 port of the x86-64 feature implemented in 2.6.19. It gives only a small improvement in FPU-intensive programs, but it's also a interesting optimization. Right now the kernel has a 100% lazy FPU behavior: after *every* context switch a trap is taken for the first FPU use to restore the FPU context lazily. This is great for applications that have very sporadic or no FPU use (since then you avoid doing the expensive save/restore all the time).

However, for very frequent FPU users every context switch takes an extra trap. This feature adds a simple heuristic to this code: After 5 consecutive context switches of FPU use, the lazy behavior is disabled and the context gets restored every context switch. If the application indeed uses the FPU, the trap is avoided (the chance of the 6th time slice using FPU after the previous 5 having done so are quite high obviously). After 256 switches, this is reset and lazy behavior is returned (until there are 5 consecutive switches again). The reason for this is to give the lazy behavior back to applications that use the FPU in bursts.

Use 'regparm' in x86-32

This is another not-relevant-to-users-yet-interesting-for-geeks feature, that has been available as an option for a while but it's default now. Since forever the x86 architecture has stored the function parameters in the stack. Modern architectures (PPC, SPARC, etc) use registers: It's much faster, since you don't need to do anything to bring the parameters back: The parameters are just there, in the register. The x86 world (including Linux) continued using stacks for parameter passing, for compatibility reasons with software, compilers, etc; they only added extensions to compilers to optionally tell the compiler to use parameters for parameter passing in a given function (usually involving the 'fastcall' keyword) for performance-critical paths.

Thanks to a GCC extension, the Linux kernel uses the '-mregparm=3' compile option, which means that as long as a function uses 3 or less arguments, GCC will automatically use registers to pass its parameters. And if you're wondering about x86-64, in that platforms using the registers has always been the default

round_jiffies() infrastructure

This is a example of the power savy trend ongoing in the Linux kernel. This feature Introduce the round_jiffies()/round_jiffies_relative() functions. These functions round a jiffies value to the next whole second. The target of this rounding is all the "we don't care exactly when" timers. By rounding these timers to whole seconds, all such timers will fire at the same time, rather than at various times spread out; with dynamic ticks these extra timers cause wakeups from deep sleep CPU sleep states and thus waste power

New drivers

Here are some important new drivers that have been added to the Linux tree:

* Networking:
o

Driver for the Atmel MACB on-chip Ethernet module
o

Tsi108/9 On Chip Ethernet device driver
o

Netxen 1G/10G Ethernet driver
* Hwmon
o

New Winbond W83793 hardware monitoring driver
o

New PC87427 hardware monitoring driver
o

New AMS hardware monitoring driver
* I2C
o

New ARM Versatile/Realview bus driver
o

New Atmel AT91 bus driver
o

New Philips PNX bus driver
* Watchdog:
o

NS pc87413-wdt Watchdog driver
o

MIPS RM9000 on-chip watchdog device driver
* Input
o

Add Philips UCB1400 touchscreen driver
o

Add driver for keyboard on AAED-2000 development board (ARM)
*

Graphics: Fbdev driver for IBM GXT4500P videocards
*

RTC: rtc-omap driver

Various core changes

* Memory management, block layer, etc
o

Make the readside of the radix-tree (used in the page-cache) RCU lockless
o

Shared page tables for hugetlb
o

New swap token algorithm. The old algorithm had a crude timeout parameter that was used to handover the token from one task to another. The new algorithm transfers the token to the tasks that are in need of the token. The urgency for the token is based on the number of times a task is required to swap-in pages. Accordingly, the priority of a task is incremented if it has been badly affected due to swap-outs. To ensure that the token doesn't bounce around rapidly, the token holders are given a priority boost. The priority of tasks is also decremented, if their rate of swap-in's keeps reducing
o

Memory page_alloc zonelist caching speedup: Optimize the critical zonelist scanning for free pages in the kernel memory allocator by caching the zones that were found to be full recently (in the last second), and skipping them. Benchmarks on a 56-CPU/96GB-RAM systems can be found in the commit link

fdtable: Implement new pagesize-based fdtable allocator
o

Optimize o_direct on block devices
o

Support larger block pc requests. Modify blk_rq_map/unmap_user() so that it supports requests larger than bio by chaining them together
o

Add numa node information to struct device
o

Add 'noaliencache' boot option to disable numa alien caches. When using numa=fake on non-NUMA hardware there is no benefit to having the alien caches, and they consume much memory
*

Workqueue revamp. The struct work_struct was a bit bloated, so efforts have been done to fix it, resulting in a division between delayable and non-delayable events, and some API changes. See this LWN article for complete details and this link for details on how to adapt broken code for the new workqueue API
*

TTY: termios revamp, adds proper speed control
*

Generic BUG implementation
*

Driver core: add API for internal notification of bus events ; show the initialization state(live, coming, going) of the module (cat /sys/module/usbcore/initstate) ; show drivers in /sys/module/ ,
*

Sysrq: Add new sysrq feature: Sysrq + X: show blocked (TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE) tasks.;useful for debugging IO stalls ; add sysrq_always_enabled boot option
*

Create CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED
*

Add child reaper to pid_namespace
*

Allow user processes to raise their oom_adj value
*

Use softirq for load balancing
*

LOG2: Implement a general integer log2 facility in the kernel
*

bit reverse library
*

Implement prof=sleep profiling. TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE sleeps will be taken as a profile hit, and every millisecond spent sleeping causes a profile-hit for the call site that initiated the sleep
*

kprobes: enable booster on the preemptible kernel
*

Switch pci_{enable,disable}_device() to be nestable, so that eg, three calls to enable_device() require three calls to disable_device(). The reason for this is to simplify PCI drivers for multi-interface/capability devices. These are devices that cram more than one interface in a single function. A relevant example of that is the Wireless [USB] Host Controller Interface ,

Architecture-specific changes

* i386
o

Support for Processor Data Area (PDA). From now, the kernel will use the %gs register as the PDA base-segment (the old value of %gs is saved away). This will make possible to do some optimizations in the future (in this release, 2.6.20 will use the PDA to get the 'current' task in a single instruction, as an example)
o

300Hz support. It is useful to have 300Hz support when doing multimedia work: 250 is fine for us in Europe but the US frame rate is 30fps (29.99 blah for pedants). 300 gives us a tick divisible by both 25 and 30, and for interlace work 50 and 60. It's also giving similar performance to 250Hz
o

Add sysctl for kstack_depth_to_print
o

Add support for compilation optimizations for Core2 ,
o

x86-64: Don't keep interrupts disabled while spinning in spinlocks, like i386
o

x86-64: Speed and clean up cache flushing in change_page_attr
o

Acpi: add support for the generic backlight device in asus_acpi , ibm_acpi and toshiba_acpi
* PPC
o

Enable DEEPNAP power savings mode on 970MP Without this patch, a idle 4-way system gets 103.8W. With this patch: 65.0W. LoweringHZ to 100 can get it as low as 60.2W. Another (older) Quad G5 went from 54W to 39W at HZ=250. Coming back out of Deep Nap takes 40-70 cycles longer than coming back from just Nap (which already takes quite a while).
o

Add Efika platform support
o

Add MPC5200 Interrupt Controller support
o

Cell: Add support for adding/removing spu sysfs attributes , remove /spu_tag_mask file , cell iommu support , add oprofile support for cell , add isolated-mode SPE recycling support , native cell support for MPIC in southbridge , add a sd command (spu dump) to xmon to dump spu local store , add cpufreq driver for Cell BE processor , prepare for spu disassembly in xmon , add support for nonschedulable contexts , implement /mbox_info, /ibox_info, and /wbox_info. , add support for dumping spu info from xmon , import spu disassembly code into xmon , add spu disassembly to xmon , add temperature to SPU and CPU sysfs entries , add /lslr, /dma_info and /proxydma files , add SPU elf notes to coredump. , add shadow registers for pmd_reg , add low-level performance monitoring code , add support for registering sysfs attributes to spus , add support for stopping spus from xmon ,
o

Add non-OF serial console support , add Kurobox(HG)/Linkstation-I NAS systems by Buffalo Technology support , support ibm,dynamic-reconfiguration-memory nodes , add xserve cpu-meter driver , add lite5200 board support to arch/powerpc , , , allow CONFIG_BOOTX_TEXT on iSeries , import updated version of ppc disassembly code for xmon , allow xmon to build on legacy iSeries , make 970MP detectable by oprofile , lazy interrupt disabling for 64-bit machines , support for DCR based MPIC
* ARM
o

Add iop13xx support. The iop348 processor integrates an Xscale (XSC3 512KB L2 Cache) core with a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) controller, multi-ported DDR2 memory controller, 3 Application Direct Memory Access (DMA) controllers, a 133Mhz PCI-X interface, a x8 PCI-Express interface, and other peripherals to form a system-on-a-chip RAID subsystem engine. The iop342 processor replaces the SAS controller with a second Xscale core for dual core embedded applications. The developer's manual is available here: ftp://download.intel.com/design/iio/docs/31503701.pdf
o

AT91: Initial support for AT91SAM9261 and AT91SAM9260 , SAM9 platform devices , Update drivers for new headers , split up system header file , rename user peripheral header files , support for Atmel AT91SAM9260-EK board , hardware headers for SAM9 peripherals , support for Atmel AT91SAM9261-EK board , final SAM9 integration patches. , SAM9 timer driver , AT91RM9200 RTC
o

clocksource driver for netx and pxa2xx , suspend to RAM support in H1940 and RX3715 , MX/MX1 CPU Frequency scaling support , add cirrus logic edb9302a board support to ep93xx , add ads sphere support , add sys_*at syscalls support
* SH:
o

Dyntick infrastructure and stacktrace/lockdep/irqflags tracing support
o

Add initial support for the SH7206 (SH-2A) and SH7619 (SH-2) MMU-less CPUs , Solution Engine 7206 and 7619 boards. , preliminary support for SH-X2 MMU. , and SH-MobileR SH7722 CPU support.
*

S390: Add runtime switch for qdio performance statistics , add virtual memmap for s390. , add dynamic subchannel mapping
*

MIPS: Add support for kexec , add STB810 support (Philips PNX8550-based) , oprofile kernel support for the R10000.
*

SPARC: Add irqtrace/stacktrace/lockdep support.
*

IA64: Kexec and kdump support ; add initial ACPI IO support to Altix , SN ACPI hotplug support for Altix and ROM shadowing for Altix
*

M32R: bootloader support for OPSPUT platform
*

m68knommu: add SHM support

Filesystems

* OCFS2:
o

Add atime update , splice and configurable timeouts via configfs
o

Add support for 'local' OCFS2 filesystems: This allows users to format an ocfs2 file system with a special flag, OCFS2_FEATURE_INCOMPAT_LOCAL_MOUNT. When the filesystem sees that flag, it won't use any cluster services nor it will require cluster configuration, thus acting as a 'local' filesystem, like ext3 & co
*

FUSE: Add support for block device based filesystems. Useful for ntfs-3g, zfs, etc
*

DebugFS: inotify create/mkdir support
*

DLM: Add support for tcp communications

Networking

* Add sparse annotations to the networking code (lots of patches)
*

IPV6: Per-interface statistics support; for IP MIB (RFC4293)
*

Node-aware skb allocation
*

Turn nfmark into generic mark
*

The scheduled removal of the frame diverter.
*

TCP: Restrict congestion control choices for users via a sysctl: the list of allowed congestion control choices is set in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_allowed_congestion_control (the list of available congestion control algorithms is at /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_available_congestion_control) ,
*

ieee80211: allow mtu bigger than 1500 (up to 2304)
*

TCP: MD5 Signature Option (RFC2385) support.
*

DCCP: Support for partial checksums (RFC 4340, sec. 9.2) , use higher RTO default for CCID3 , set TX Queue Length Bounds via Sysctl , , add sysctls to control retransmission behaviour
*

SCTP: Add support for SCTP_CONTEXT socket option.
* Netfilter
o

Add full NAT support for nf_conntrack
o

Add IRC helper port , FTP NAT helper port , SIP helper port , TFTP helper port , PPTP helper port , H.323 helper port . NetBIOS name service helper port , SNMP NAT helper port
o

sysctl and /proc compatibility with old connection tracking , tatistics.
o

x_tables: add port of hashlimit match for IPv4 and IPv6 and add NFLOG target
o

ebtables: add --snap-arp option
* IPSEC
o

Add auditing to ipsec. An audit message occurs when an ipsec SA or ipsec policy is created/deleted
o

Add netlink interface for the encapsulation family.
o

Add AF_KEY interface for encapsulation family.
o

Add encapsulation family. * Add support for AES-XCBC-MAC

Various subsystems

Software suspend

*

Support swap files
*

Improve handling of highmem
*

Support i386 systems with PAE or without PSE
*

Measure memory shrinking time

Crypto

*

Add support for the Geode LX AES hardware
*

Liskov Rivest Wagner, a new tweakable narrow block cipher mode
*

New XCBC algorithm
*

Table driven multiplications in GF(2^128)

CPUFREQ

*

Grand unification of ACPI based speedstep-centrino and acpi-cpufreq drivers. It combines functionality of these two driver into acpi-cpufreq driver. ACPI based functionality in speedstep-centrino is marked deprecated and will be removed in future. speedstep-centrino will continue to work on systems that depend on older non-ACPI table based P-state changes
*

p4-clockmod: fix support for Core and add support for more Intel CPUs
*

Longhaul: add support for CN400

DM

Noflush suspending
SELinux

Add support for DCCP

Drivers

Graphics

Add support for secondary vertical blank interrupt to DRM core and add support to i915; add ioctl in i915 for scheduling buffer swaps at vertical blanks.

sstfb: add sysfs interface , support command line options , support flat panel timings , fixups for the AMD Geode GX framebuffer driver , add support for STN displays in s3c2410fb , add YUV video overlay support in mbxfb

Sound

The scheduled removal of the OSS drivers depending on OSS_OBSOLETE_DRIVER: miroSOUND PCM20 radio, Creative SBLive! (EMU10K1), Crystal Soundfusion (CS4280/461x), AD1816(A) based cards, AD1889 based cards (AD1819 codec), ACI mixer (miroSOUND PCM1-pro/PCM12/PCM20), NM256AV/NM256ZX audio support, Yamaha OPL3-SA2 and SA3 based PnP cards
V4L/DVB

Add support for remote control of Hauppauge HVR1110 , add support for both DVB frontends of the Lifeview Trio , add support ptv-305 , add support for Avermedia AverTV Studio 507 , add support for the Terratec Cinergy HT PCMCIA module , add support for Pinnacle 310i , add working dib7000m-module , dynamic cx88 mpeg port management for HVR1300 MPEG2/DVB-T support , add usbvision driver, add support for a ASUSTEK P7131 Dual DVB-T variant , add support for Leadtek Winfast DTV Dongle (STK7700P based) , add initial DiB7000M-demod driver , add support for Dibcom DiB7000PC , remove the broken VIDEO_ZR36120 driver , add Omnivision OV7670 driver , adds support for Pinnacle PCTV 400e DVB-S , add support for Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1110 DVB-T/Hybrid , add support for the Compro Videomate DVB-T200A , Implement IR reception for 24xxx devices , add Marvell 88ALP01 "cafe" driver , add support for new revision of Nova-T Stick

libata

*

Add power management (suspend/resume) support for libata drivers: pata_ali , pata_serverworks , pata_via suspend/resume support , pata_sis and pata_pdc202xx , pata_marvell , pata_cmd64x , pata_cs5520 , pata_sil680 , pata_hpt3x3 , pata_amd , pata_jmicron , pata_it821x , pata_cs5530 , pata_hpt366 , pata_atiixp, pata_cs5535, pata_cypress, pata_efar, pata_marvell, pata_mpiix, pata_netcell, pata_ns87410, pata_oldpiix, pata_opti, pata_optidma, pata_radisys, pata_sc1200, pata_triflex
*

Generic platform_device libata driver , add 40pin "short" cable support, honour drive side speed detection
*

Winbond 83759A support
*

sata_nv ADMA/NCQ + 64 bit DMA support for nForce4
*

Add ixp4xx PATA driver for ARM platforms

SCSI

*

Add ability to scan scsi busses asynchronously. Since it often takes around 20-30 seconds to scan a scsi bus, it's highly advantageous to do this in parallel with other things , ; add asynchronous scsi scanning support for qla2xxx
*

SCSI target support
*

lpfc : Add MSI support
*

ipr: Add PCI IDs for some new SAS adapters , add support for logging SAS fabric errors
*

qla4xxx: add support for qla4032

Input drivers

*

lifebook: Add Hitachi Flora-IE 55mi tablet DMI signature
*

appletouch: Add Geyser IV support ables.

Networking devices

* e1000
o

Add a new dynamic itr algorithm, with 2 modes, and make it the default operation mode. This greatly reduces latency and increases small packet performance, at the "cost" of some CPU utilization. Bulk traffic throughput is unaffected
o

Enable hw TSO for IPV6, reduces CPU utilizations by 50% when transmitting IPv6 frames
o

Add support for a Low Profile quad-port PCI-E adapter and 2 variants of the ICH8 systems' onboard NIC's
* Chelsio
o

Working NAPI
o

Add support for other 10G boards
o

Add MSI support
o

add 1G swcixw support
* forcedeth:
o

Add support for new mcp67 device
o

Add recoverable error support
o

Power management support
* zd1211rw
o

Add ID for Belkin F5d7050 v4000 , for ZyXEL G-220 and for Planex GW-US54Mini
o

Support for multicast addresses
*

BNX2: 5709 copper and Serdes chips support
*

bcm43xx: add PCI-E code
*

sk98lin: MII ioctl support
*

AT91RM9200 Ethernet: Add netpoll / netconsole support
*

Gianfar: add netpoll support

USB

*

usbtouchscreen: add support for DMC TSC-10/25 devices
*

Allow hubs up to 31 children
*

Added dynamic major number for USB endpoints
*

Add driver for the USB debug devices
*

Add support for Novatel S720/U720 CDMA/EV-DO modems
*

Add autosuspend support to the hub driver

Hwmon

*

f71805f driver: Add support for "speed mode" fan speed control , add manual fan speed control , let the user adjust the PWM base frequency , support DC fan speed control mode
*

Add support for the Fintek F71872F/FG chip
*

Remove the SMBus interface support for it87

Watchdog

*

Add iTCO vendor specific support

I2C

*

Delete the broken i2c-ite bus driver

PCMCIA

*

IDs for Elan serial PCMCIA device
*

Allow for four multifunction subdevices
*

ide-cs: Add ID for "transcend TS1GCF80" and "Weida TWTTI"

MMC

*

Support for high speed (50 Hz clock speed) SD cards
*

Add support for mmc v4 high speed mode
*

Add support for mmc v4 wide-bus modes
*

SDHCI high speed support

IPMI

*

Add maintenance mode , allow hot system interface remove , add system interface hotplug

RTC

*

ds1743 support
*

This adds alarm support for the RTC_ALM_SET, RTC_ALM_READ, RTC_WKALM_SET and RTC_WKALM_RD operations to rtc-sh

Firewire

*

ohci1394: Implement suspend/resume

Various

*

Add support for Korenix 16C950-based PCI cards
*

Driver for the PCEngines WRAP boards (http://www.pcengines.ch)
*

Remove long-unmaintained ftape driver subsystem.
*

pktcdvd: add sysfs and debugfs interface
*

Add a driver for the Xilinx uartlite serial controller
*

Exar quad port serial
*

cciss set sector_size to 2048 for performance, add support for 1024 logical volumes, increase number of commands on controller

Unix Based Distribution

2007-02-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

Some Unix Linux Based distributin and their home pages's

DEBIAN

AbulÉdu • Adamantix • AGNULA GNU/Linux Audio Distribution • Amber Linux • ANTEMIUM Linux • Arabbix • ARMA aka Omoikane GNU/Linux • ASLinux • Auditor Security Linux • Augustux • B2D Linux • BeatrIX Linux • BEERnix • Biadix • BIG LINUX • Bioknoppix • BlackRhino • Bluewall GNU/Linux • Bonzai Linux • BrlSpeak • Càtix • CensorNet • Clusterix • ClusterKNOPPIX • Condorux • Damn Small Linux • Danix • DeadCD • DebXPde • Dizinha Linux • eduKnoppix • ERPOSS • ESware • Evinux • Euronode • FAMELIX • Feather Linux • Flonix • Vital Data Forensic or Rescue Kit (FoRK) • Freeduc-cd • Freeduc-Sup • GEOLivre Linux • Gibraltar Firewall • GNIX-Vivo • Gnoppix Linux • gnuLinEx • GNU/Linux Kinneret • GNUstep Live CD • grml • Guadalinex • Helix • Hikarunix • Hiweed Linux • Impi Linux • IndLinux • Julex • K-DEMar • Kaella-Knoppix Linux Azur • Kalango Linux • KANOTIX • KlusTriX • knopILS • Knoppel • Knoppix • Knoppix 64 • Knoppix STD • KnoppiXMAME • KnoppMyth • KnoSciences • Kurumin Linux • LAMPPIX • Libranet GNU/Linux • LIIS Linux • LinEspa • Linspire • Linux Live Game Project • Linux Loco • LinuxDefender Live! CD • Linuxin • LiVux • Local Area Security Linux (L.A.S.) • Luinux • Luit Linux • MAX: Madrid_Linux • Mediainlinux • MEPIS Linux • Metadistro-Pequelin • MIKO GNYO/Linux • MoLinux • Morphix • Munjoy Linux • Nature's Linux • NordisKnoppix • OGo Knoppix • Oralux • Overclockix • Quantian • PaiPix • ParallelKnoppix • Parsix GNU/Linux • Penguin Sleuth • PHLAK • PilotLinux • Progeny Debian • Rays Linux • ROSLIMS Live CD • Salvare • Santa Fe Linux • Skolelinux • Slavix • Slix • Slo-Tech Linux • Soyombo Mongolian Linux • SphinxOS • Tablix on Morphix • Tilix Linux • TupiServer Linux • Ubuntu Linux • UserLinux • WHoppiX • X-evian • Xfld • Xandros Desktop OS • Xarnoppix • Zen Linux • ZoneCD • Zopix

FEDORA

ADIOS Linux Boot CD • Asianux • Aurora SPARC Linux • Aurox Linux • ASP Linux • Basilisk Live CD • Berry Linux • BioBrew • BLAG Linux And GNU • Chinese 2000 Linux • Chinese Linux Extension • ClarkConnect Broadband Gateway • Cobind Desktop • Cool Linux • Cosix Linux • CPUBuilders Linux • ELX Linux • EnGarde Secure Linux • FoX Linux • Freedows • FTOSX Desktop • Gelecek Linux • Haansoft Linux • Hakin9 Live • Hancom Linux • Haydar Linux • HispaFuentes Linux • Holon Linux • IDMS Linux • Ignalum Linux • K12 Linux Terminal Server Project • KoreLinux • KRUD • LBA-Linux • Linare Linux • Linpus Linux • Linux Media Lab Distribution • Linux XP • LinuxTLE • Lorma Linux • Magic Linux • MIZI Linux • MSC.Linux • OpenDesktop • OpenNA Linux • Openwall GNU/*/Linux • PHP Solutions Live CD • Plan-B • Red Flag Linux • redWall Firewall • Resala Linux • Rocks Cluster Distribution • SME Server • TFM Linux • Thiz Linux • tinysofa enterprise linux • Trustix Secure Linux • Turbolinux • Vine Linux • WOW Linux • Xteam Linux • Yellow Dog Linux

KNOPIX

AbulÉdu • Auditor Security Linux • Arabbix • BEERnix • BIG LINUX • Bioknoppix • ClusterKNOPPIX • Condorux • Damn Small Linux • Danix • LinuxDefender Live! CD • eduKnoppix • Evinux • Feather Linux • Vital Data Forensic or Rescue Kit (FoRK) • Freeduc-cd • Julex • Helix • K-DEMar • Kaella-Knoppix Linux Azur • GNU/Linux Kinneret • KlusTriX • knopILS • Knoppel • Knoppix 64 • Knoppix STD • KnoppMyth • KnoSciences • Kurumin Linux • Local Area Security Linux (L.A.S.) • MAX: Madrid_Linux • Mediainlinux • MEPIS Linux • Munjoy Linux • NordisKnoppix • OpenGroupware.org Knoppix CD • Oralux • Overclockix • PaiPix • ParallelKnoppix • Pardus Live CD • Parsix GNU/Linux • Penguin Sleuth • Metadistro-Pequelin • Quantian • ROSLIMS Live CD • Slix • Tilix Linux • WHoppiX • Xarnoppix • X-evian • Zopix

SLACKWARE

AUSTRUMI • BearOps Desktop Linux OS • Blin Linux • Burapha Linux • Buffalo Linux • CollegeLinux • DARKSTAR Linux • Definity Linux • DeLi Linux • DNALinux • eLearnix • Frugalware Linux • gNOX • GoblinX • JoLinux • Linux LiveCD Router • Minislack • MoviX • Netwosix • OpenLab Community Edition • Plamo Linux • Recovery Is Possible • ROOT GNU/Linux • RUNT: The ResNet USB Network Tester • SLAX Linux Live • STUX GNU/Linux • Vector Linux

MANDRIVA

Annvix • APODIO • Ayrsoft icon • blackPanther OS • EduLinux • HKLPG Linux • LinuxConsole • LINUXO Live! • Mandows • MCNLive CD • PCLinuxOS • SAM Mini-Live-CD • vnlinuxCD • Turkix

RED HAT

CentOS • Eadem Enterprise AS • Fermi Linux • Lineox Enterprise Linux • Miracle Linux • NuxOne Linux • Pie Box Enterprise Linux • Scientific Linux • StartCom Linux • Tao Linux • White Box Enterprise Linux • X/OS Linux

GENTOO

Flash Linux • Gentoox • iBox • Jollix • Knopperdisk • Navyn OS • Pardus Live CD • Shark Linux • SystemRescueCd • Ututo • Vidalinux Desktop OS • ZerahStar Zesktop

DAMN SMALL

Flonix • Hikarunix • INSERT - Inside Security Rescue Toolkit • JUSIX • LAMPPIX • Luit Linux

Free BSD

DragonFly BSD • FreeSBIE • GuLIC-BSD • m0n0wall • TrianceOS

SUSE

Linux Caixa Mágica • kmLinux • Novell Linux Desktop • stresslinux • Sun Java Desktop System

GNOME

2007-02-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

The GNOME project was started in August 1997 by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena in response to licensing concerns over software used by KDE, a free software desktop environment that relies on the Qt widget toolkit. At the time, Qt did not use a free software license and members of the GNU project became concerned about the use of such a toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications. Two projects were started: the Harmony toolkit, to create a free replacement for the Qt libraries, and GNOME to create a new desktop without Qt and built entirely on top of free software.[2]

In place of the Qt toolkit, GTK+ was chosen as the base of the GNOME desktop. GTK+ uses the GNU Lesser Public License (LGPL), a free software license that allows software linking to it, such as applications written for GNOME, to use a much wider set of licenses, including proprietary software licenses.[3] The GNOME desktop itself is licensed under the LGPL for its libraries, and the GPL for applications that are part of the GNOME project itself. While Qt is dual-licensed under both the QPL and the GPL, the freedom to link proprietary software with GTK+ at no charge makes it differ from Qt.

GNOME is designed around the traditional computing desktop metaphor. Its handling of windows, applications and files is similar to that of contemporary desktop operating systems. In its default configuration, the desktop has a launcher menu for quick access to installed programs and file locations; open windows may be accessed by a taskbar along the bottom of the screen and the top-right corner features a notification area for programs to display notices while running in the background. However these features can be moved to almost anywhere the user desires, replaced with other functions or removed altogether.

The appearance of GNOME can be changed by the use of themes, which are sets consisting of an icon set, window manager border and GTK+ theme engine and parameters. Popular GTK+ themes include Bluecurve and Clearlooks (the current default theme).

GNOME puts emphasis on being easy for everyone to use. The HIG helps guide developers in producing applications which look and behave similarly, in order to provide a cohesive GNOME interface.

Since GNOME v2.0, a key focus of the project has been usability. As a part of this, a large effort was put into creating the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). The HIG is an extensive guide for creating high quality, consistent, usable GUI programs, covering everything from GUI design to recommended pixel-based layout of widgets.

GNOME HIG introduction:[12]
“ This document tells you how to create applications that look right, behave properly, and fit into the GNOME user interface as a whole. It is written for interface designers, graphic artists and software developers who will be creating software for the GNOME environment. Both specific advice on making effective use of interface elements, and the philosophy and general design principles behind the GNOME interface are covered. ”

During the v2.0 rewrite, many settings were deemed to be “crack” settings (of little or no value to the majority of users) and were removed. For instance, the preferences section of the Panel were reduced from a sprawling dialog of six large tabs to a much simpler one with two small tabs.

KDE Desktop

2007-02-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

KDE or (K Desktop Environment is desktop environment) for Unix like OS, KDE have many application.

KDE was founded in 1996 by Matthias Ettrich. At the time, he was troubled by certain aspects of the UNIX desktop. Among his qualms were that none of the applications looked, felt, or worked alike. He proposed the formation of not only a set of applications, but rather a desktop environment, in which users could expect things to look, feel, and work consistently. He also wanted to make this desktop easy to use; one of his complaints with desktop applications of the time was that his girlfriend could not use them. His initial Usenet post spurred a lot of interest, and the KDE project was born.[1] The name KDE was intended as a word play on the existing Common Desktop Environment available for Unix systems. The K was originally suggested to stand for "Kool", but it was quickly decided that the K should stand for nothing in particular.

Matthias chose to use the Qt toolkit for the KDE project. Other programmers quickly started developing KDE/Qt applications, and by early 1997, large and complex applications were being released. At the time, Qt did not use a free software license and members of the GNU project became concerned about the use of such a toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications. Two projects were started: "Harmony", to create a Free replacement for the Qt libraries, and the GNOME project to create a new desktop without Qt and built entirely on top of free software.

In November 1998, the Qt toolkit was licensed under the open source Q Public License (QPL). This same year the KDE Free Qt foundation [3] was created which guarantees that Qt would fall under a variant of the very liberal BSD license should Trolltech cease to exist or no open source version of Qt be released during 12 months. But debate continued about compatibility with the GNU General Public License (GPL). In September 2000, Trolltech made the Unix version of the Qt libraries available under the GPL, in addition to the QPL, which has eliminated the concerns of the Free Software Foundation. Starting with the release of Qt 4.0, it is available as free software for the Unix, Mac and Windows platforms, indicating that the next major version of KDE applications and libraries will have native support on these platforms.

Both KDE and GNOME now participate in Freedesktop.org, an effort to standardize Unix desktop interoperability, although there is still some friendly competition between them.

Like many open source/free software projects, KDE is primarily a volunteer effort, although various companies, such as Novell (in the form of SuSE), Trolltech, and Mandriva employ developers to work on the project. Since a large number of individuals contribute to KDE in various ways (e.g. code, translation, artwork), organization of such a project is complex. Most problems are discussed on a number of different mailing lists.

Important decisions, such as release dates and inclusion of new applications, are made on the kde-core-devel list by the so-called core developers. These are developers who have made significant contributions to KDE over a long period of time. Decisions are not made by a formal voting process, but by discussion on the mailing lists. In most cases this seems to work well, and major discussions (such as the question of whether the KDE 2 API should be broken in favour of KDE 3) are rare.

While developers and users are now located all over the world, the project retains a strong base in Germany. The web servers are located at the universities of Tübingen and Kaiserslautern, a German non-profit organization (KDE e.V.) owns the trademark on "KDE", and KDE conferences often take place in Germany.

Most KDE applications have a K in the name, mostly as an initial letter and capitalized. However, there are notable exceptions like kynaptic, whose K is not capitalized, Gwenview, which doesn't have a K in the name at all, and Amarok which formerly had its final k capitalized. Many KDE application's K is obtained by spelling a word which originally begins with C or Q differently, for example Konsole and Kuickshow. Also, some just prefix a commonly used word with a K, an instance being KOffice.

New Kernel 2.6.20

2007-02-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

List of change

[PATCH] fix rtl8150
[PATCH] EFI x86: pass firmware call parameters on the stack
[PATCH] x86-64: define dma noncoherent API functions
[PATCH] revert blockdev direct io back to 2.6.19 version
[PATCH] net/smc911x: match up spin lock/unlock
[PATCH] kexec: Avoid migration of already disabled irqs (ia64)
[SCSI] sd: udev accessing an uninitialized scsi_disk field results in a crash
libata: Initialize nbytes for internal sg commands
- Fix ata_busy_wait() kernel docs
[PATCH] via82cxxx: fix typo ("cx7000" should be corrected to "cx700")
[PATCH] KVM: fix lockup on 32-bit intel hosts with nx disabled in the bios

Full Changelog

Boot Speed

2007-02-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

Distribution_____________________Seconds

1. Mandriva Linux 2007_______________40 sec.
2. PCLinuxOS 0.93a _________________ 46 sec.
3. Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 _____________ 47 sec.
4. Pardus Linux 2007 ________________ 48 sec.
5. Ubuntu 6.10 _____________________49 sec.
6. SimpleyMEPIS 6.0-4 (BETA 1) ________51 sec.
7. OpenSUSE 10.2 ___________________61 sec.
8. Fedora Core 6 ____________________ 72 sec.
9. Xandros Desktop 4.1 ________________89 sec.

Boot times for some distribution.

8.)Damm Small

2007-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

It is pass all relief linux disribution with only 50 mb,they have Graphical installer.they can boot from CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD),even from a USB pen drive Damn Small also has the ability to act as an SSH/FTP/HTTPD server right off of a live CD.DSL use DEB Package Management.

CD-s 1

Installation--------------Graphical

Package Management---deb

Processor Architecture--i386

Current version:----3.2 (download .iso)

Damn Small Based on Damn Small Linux: 6 Distributions

Flonix

Hikarunix

Luit Linux

LAMPPIX

JUSIX

INSERT - Inside Security Rescue Toolkit

Why you should to use Linux ?

2007-02-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

Because Linux have many good offices

Forget about viruses

Linux protects your computer

Don't pay $300 for your operating system.

When the system has installed, why would you still need to install stuff?

Update all your software with a single click.

Why copy software illegally if you can get it for free?

Why does your Windows get slower day after day?

Get a great music player

Enjoy free and unlimited support.

Choose what your desktop looks like.

Use MSN, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, with a single program.

Let your old computer have a second life.

Linux Logos

2007-02-01T02:47:00.000-08:00

What is Linux ??

2007-01-31T15:25:00.000-08:00

Linux is an OS (operating system) for your desktop or server computer,like a Microsoft Windows. Linux is very different however (and we believe, better!).

Linux was started in 1992 by then university student Linus Torvalds, who released his software for free, including all of the source code. Because Linus made his source code freely available, thousands of developers around the world have downloaded it, made changes and sent improvements back to him!

Because of this global collaboration effort, Linux is stable, extremely flexible and well supported. It is the fastest growing operating system in the world and it is freely available for you to install onto your computer! Sound great? It is!

Linux comes with thousands of free applications, which are maintained by thousands of volunteers around the world. These projects also release their source code, which means they too are 'open source'.

"But how can they do all this for free?" I hear you ask. The Linux and open source communities do all this for free because they love the software, not because they try to make money from it. They are doing it for prestige, honour and because they believe in open source ideals.

It is important to note that due to the nature of open source software (the ability to customise it however you like) there are many different version of Linux. This is great because you can find a version that suits you best! These different versions of Linux are called 'distributions'. This is because the creators of the various versions take Linux and make their own changes to it, add their own packages and then distribute it for free. It might sound complicated, but it's not. So don't worry, we'll help you get started on the right track!

We invite you to look further into Linux and welcome you to 'make the move' into an amazing new world.

Upcoming releases of Linux/BSD distros

2007-01-31T14:37:00.001-08:00

2007-01-30: Fedora 7 Test1
2007-01-XX: Freespire 2.0 Beta
2007-02-01: Linux Mint 2.2 BETA
2007-02-15: Frugalware Linux 0.6rc1
2007-02-15: openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 1
2007-02-20: Linux Mint 2.2
2007-02-27: Fedora 7 Test2
2007-02-28: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
2007-02-XX: Freespire 2.0 RC
2007-02-XX: Gentoo Linux 2007.0
2007-03-08: Frugalware Linux 0.6rc2
2007-03-22: Frugalware Linux 0.6
2007-03-22: Ubuntu 7.04 Beta
2007-03-26: Fedora 7 Test3
2007-03-XX: Asianux 3.0
2007-04-04: Mandriva Linux 2007.1
2007-04-12: Ubuntu 7.04 RC
2007-04-19: Ubuntu 7.04
2007-04-24: Fedora 7
2007-08-XX: Gentoo Linux 2007.1

Linux/BSD distros

2007-01-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

Top 10 liunux distributions

1)Ubuntu

2)openSUSE

3)Fedora

4)Mepis

5)PC Linux OS

6)Mandriva

7)Debian

8)Damm Small

9)Slackware

10)Sabayon

Hi

2007-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today start blog dedicted to linux and Open source community