Linux Archive

Wake Your Linux Up From Sleep for a Cron Job

Guest post by Dedoimedo 2010-12-08 Linux 12 Comments

Here's the latest in our new series on OS tips from power users: a seemingly trivial task. You have a computer, most likely a laptop, that you wish to keep suspended while you're not working. For example, let's say overnight. At the same time, you wish to run a handful of maintenance tasks, like backups and cleanup, which you don't normally do during the day. So you need a mechanism that will send your machine to sleep, wake it up when necessary, run cron jobs, then send it back to sleep again.

Splashtop Unveils New Chromium-based ‘Instant on’ OS

Thom Holwerda 2010-11-30 Linux 9 Comments

Splashtop has released a new version of its instant-on OS that is based on the Chromium browser and could shorten PC boot times to just a few seconds. The latest version of the Splashtop OS, now in beta, is a lightweight version of Linux that allows users to surf the Web, access online applications or check e-mail almost instantly after switching on a PC.

Running the Native ZFS Linux Kernel Module, Plus Benchmarks

Submitted by Michael 2010-11-22 Linux 8 Comments

"There has been work by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in porting ZFS to Linux as a native Linux kernel module. This LLNL ZFS work though is incomplete but still progressing due to a US Department of Energy contract. It is though via this work that developers in India at KQ Infotech have made working a Linux kernel module for ZFS. In this article are some new details on KQ Infotech's ZFS kernel module and our results from testing out the ZFS file-system on Linux."

The ~200 Line Linux Kernel Patch that Does Wonders

Submitted by Michael 2010-11-16 Linux 48 Comments

"In recent weeks and months there has been quite a bit of work towards improving the responsiveness of the Linux desktop with some very significant milestones building up recently and new patches continuing to come. This work is greatly improving the experience of the Linux desktop when the computer is withstanding a great deal of CPU load and memory strain. Fortunately, the exciting improvements are far from over. There is a new patch that has not yet been merged but has undergone a few revisions over the past several weeks and it is quite small - just over 200 lines of code - but it does wonders for the Linux desktop."

Linux Super-Duper Admin Tools: audit

Guest post by Dedoimedo 2010-11-15 Linux 7 Comments

How do you audit your Linux environment? How do you track after changes to your files? What kind of processes are running on your system at any given moment? What uses the most resources? Valid questions, all. Special contributor Dedoimedo gives us the straight scoop on "audit.". Editor's note: Call for submissions: are you an OS expert? Can you provide some special insight, some tips and tricks, or just plain illuminate an obscure feature in your OS of choice? We'd like to publish it.

Could Linux Abandon Directories in Favour of Tagging?

Submitted by rhyder 2010-11-04 Linux 81 Comments

"For a fairly scruffy looking guy, I have a surprisingly healthy approach to organising my files. However, I'm constantly pushing up against the limitations of a system that is based around directories. I'm convinced that Linux needs to make greater use of tagging, but I'm also beginning to wonder if desktop Linux could abandon the hierarchical directory structure entirely."

Third Release of Linux SCHED_DEADLINE Available

Guest post by cloud 2010-10-29 Linux No Comments

The third version of the SCHED_DEADLINE patchset has been released to LKML: SCHED_DEADLINE is a real-time scheduling class for Linux with bandwidth isolation (a.k.a. 'resource reservation') capabilities based on the EDF algorithm. This version adds support for global/clustered multiprocessor scheduling through dynamic task migrations. This means that tasks can migrate among (a subset of) CPUs when this is needed, by means of pushes & pulls. Moreover, (c)group based task admission logic and bandwidth management has been removed, in favour of a per root_domain tasks bandwidth accounting mechanism." The code is being jointly developed by ReTiS Lab and Evidence S.r.l in the context of the ACTORS EU-funded project. Development takes place right here.

Clang Builds a Working Linux Kernel on Debian

Submitted by tyrione 2010-10-26 Linux 26 Comments

Clang can build a kernel now. "The kernel can successfully boot to runlevel 5 (aka X + networking) on the Macbook, both on bare metal and in Qemu. The kernel can successfully boot to runlevel 3 on a secondary test machine, a microATX desktop box (Intel Atom). I haven't tried to start X on this box yet. The kernel can self-host; I am currently running a 'fourth generation' self-hosted Linux kernel built by a 'fourth generation' Clang."

London Stock Exchange Smashes Record Trade Speed with Linux

Submitted by tux68 2010-10-21 Linux 17 Comments

"The London Stock Exchange has said its new Linux-based system is delivering world record networking speed, with 126 microsecond trading times. The news comes ahead a major Linux-based switchover in twelve days, during which the open source system will replace Microsoft .Net technology on the group’s main stock exchange. The LSE had long been criticised on speed and reliability, grappling with trading speeds of several hundred microseconds. The record breaking times were measured on the LSE’s Turquoise smaller dark pool trading venue, where trades are conducted anonymously. That network switched over to Linux from Cinnober technology two weeks ago. Speed is crucial as more firms trade automatically at lightning speed, using advanced algorithms."

Linux 2.6.36 Released

Submitted by diegocg 2010-10-21 Linux 10 Comments

Linux 2.6.34 has been released. This version includes support for the Tilera architecture, a new filesystem notification interface called fanotify, a redesign of workqueues optimized for concurrency, CIFS local caching, support for Intel Intelligent Power Sharing in i3/5 systems, integration of the kernel debugger and KMS, inclusion of the AppArmor security system and several new drivers and small improvements. You can read the full changelog as well.

Desktop Linux Is Dead, But Who Cares?

Thom Holwerda 2010-10-18 Linux 119 Comments

Well, it's been a while since we've opened this particular jar (box is not historically accurate) owned by Pandora. Desktop Linux... Yes, that ever elusive readiness of the desktop that is Linux-powered. Some story on ComputerWorld argues that the desktop Linux dream is dead, and apparently, the story is causing some stir on the web. Well, paint me pink and call me a lightbulb, but of course desktop Linux is dead. However - who gives a flying monkey? Linux is being used by more people than ever!

LinSched, a Userspace Linux Scheduler Simulator

Submitted by diegocg 2010-10-13 Linux 22 Comments

Well, this is quite interesting. This is one of those items where I have to make sure everybody realises I'm no developer as to not make myself look like an idiot. Having said that - LinSched. It's a user-space program that hosts the Linux kernel scheduler, so you can create and test scheduling policies on arbitrary hardware topologies - without actually having to work with the real hardware.

BREAKING: BROADCOM OPEN SOURCES WIRELESS DRIVERS

Submitted by kragil 2010-09-09 Linux 77 Comments

Ahem. I just had to write that all-caps headline. Broadcom's wireless chips - used by just about everybody in this industry - have been a major pain in the bum for Linux users, because the company did not release open source drivers. Workarounds had to be created, lots of pain was had in the process, but now, Broadcom has finally seen the light: they have open sourced their wireless Linux drivers.

Linux Mint Releases Rolling Distribution

Submitted by Kishe 2010-09-08 Linux 22 Comments

"Linux Mint Debian Edition comes with a Debian base, which we transformed into a live media and on top of which we added a new installer. It's rougher and in some aspects not as user-friendly as our other editions, it's very young but it will improve continuously and rapidly, and it brings us one step closer to a situation where we're fully in control of the system without being impacted by upstream decisions." It's a rolling release, so expect continuous updates. Not a new concept by a long shot, but it's interesting to see a distribution like Mint try this out.

Bricscad V10 for Linux Released

Submitted by lemur2 2010-09-07 Linux 15 Comments

Finally Bricsys has released the official version of Bricscad V10 for Linux. Linux users now have very capable desktop CAD software able to handle the DWG file format. From Bricscad website: "Bricsys is the first to release a .dwg based CAD software for Linux users. Bricsys NV, the developer of Bricscad, announced today that Bricscad V10 for Linux is now available. Bricscad V10 is the first .dwg based CAD platform available for the Linux Operating System. Bricscad V10, the leading alternative CAD platform for the .dwg file format, continues to offer freedom of choice to the CAD and Engineering community."

Should Daemons Just Be Frontends to the OS Auditing System?

Guest post by Dennis Heuer 2010-08-25 Linux 16 Comments

I came across a news entry at Phoronix about a new init replacement, systemd, and curiously started a read into the surprisingly heavy matter. Systemd is by no means as simple as upstart. It does far more things far more straight and in more detail. The differences are so significant that they enforce quite different configuration strategies. One can argue for both, depending on the goal to reach. However, that's not what I want to write about. After having read what systemd is capable of, and how it does it, I began to put the existence of all system daemons - in their today's forms - in question.

systemd Status Update

Guest post by diegocg 2010-08-23 Linux 24 Comments

Lennart Poettering has posted a status update about systemd, an init/upstart alternative. systemd is able now to replace /etc/fstab and cron, and it seems it will be the default init system for Fedora 14. He has also written a post about systemd for administrators.

High Availability With the Linux Distributed Replicated Block Device

David Adams 2010-08-06 Linux 4 Comments

The 2.6.33 Linux kernel has introduced a useful new service called the DRBD - Distributed Replicated Block Device. This service mirrors an entire block device to another networked host during run time, permitting the development of high-availability clusters for block data. Explore the ideas behind the DRBD and its implementation in the Linux kernel.

Who Really Contributes the Most to Linux?

Submitted by sjvn 2010-08-03 Linux 144 Comments

As we mentioned in a previous article, Red Hat advocate Greg DeKoenigsberg claimed that due to the much larger amount of code it's contributed, Red Hat is a better open source citizen than Canonical, adding, "Canonical is a marketing organization masquerading as an engineering organization." A Computerworld blog retorts that that's no insult; and that marketing Linux could be just as important to the cause as contributing code. Updated

What’S New in Linux 2.6.35

Submitted by Elv13 2010-08-03 Linux 6 Comments

Measures to support the power saving mechanisms of AMD graphics chips, network code optimizations for multi-core processors, features for de-fragmenting the working memory and an improved support of the power management and turbo features offered by modern processors are among the highlights of the new kernel version. After a development time of almost two-and-a-half months, Linus Torvalds has released version 2.6.35 of the Linux kernel.