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General Forums => News items => Software News => Topic started by: Varti on November 13, 2017, 09:07:50 am

Title: Linux 4.14 Kernel officially released
Post by: Varti on November 13, 2017, 09:07:50 am
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The Linux kernel v. 4.14 has been released:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news...x-4.14-Released (https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.14-Released)

https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_4.14 (https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_4.14)

This release includes fixes for both the GPD Win and GPD Pocket devices:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel...8b5312cc4455cfe (https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=503f04530fec97f93673ae9048b5312cc4455cfe)

Code: [Select]
- add DMI quirk table for x86 systems which need fbcon rotation (devices like Asus T100HA, GPD Pocket, the GPD win and the I.T.Works TW891) (Hans de Goede)
(...)
* tag 'fbdev-v4.14' of git://github.com/bzolnier/linux: (75 commits)
video/console: Update BIOS dates list for GPD win console rotation DMI quirk
(...)
video/console: Add new BIOS date for GPD pocket to dmi quirk table
(please let me know if you find any other fix not included here)

I couldn't find anything related to the Gemini PDA.

In the meanwhile, work is in progress to fix the bugs which are preventing the latest kernel to run on the Zaurus:
- the problem with the screen backlight on Corgi and all the later models has been fixed and merged by Robert Jarzmik, the fix will be released in 4.16: https://www.spinics.net/lists/kernel/msg2624470.html (https://www.spinics.net/lists/kernel/msg2624470.html)
- it was not possible to compile the kernel with GCC v7, fixed in 4.15
- new sharpslpart partition parser by Andrea "ant" Adami, to be released in 4.16: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/8/14/863 (https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/8/14/863)
- large CF cards support by greguu
- fixes for the Collie kexecboot support, for now the latest working kernel is 4.4

Thanks to ant, greguu, Robert Jarzmik and all the others who are helping to bring the latest kernel to the Zaurus!

Varti
Title: Linux 4.14 Kernel officially released
Post by: speculatrix on November 29, 2017, 12:44:04 pm
for those people with Baytrail Atom devices, newer kernels have been a big win - 4.13.latest has made the SoC relatively stable.

I've got a Toshiba Click Mini, and along with a number of people, have managed to make it run linux OK.

For those with the Asus Transformer T100 and similar, there's a great Google+ group who've got linux running fairly well, I've made good use of their patches.

https://plus.google.com/communities/117853703024346186936 (https://plus.google.com/communities/117853703024346186936)
Title: Linux 4.14 Kernel officially released
Post by: Varti on November 30, 2017, 08:28:13 am
Quote from: speculatrix
for those people with Baytrail Atom devices, newer kernels have been a big win - 4.13.latest has made the SoC relatively stable.

I've got a Toshiba Click Mini, and along with a number of people, have managed to make it run linux OK.

For those with the Asus Transformer T100 and similar, there's a great Google+ group who've got linux running fairly well, I've made good use of their patches.

https://plus.google.com/communities/117853703024346186936 (https://plus.google.com/communities/117853703024346186936)
I remember you mentioning in the past major issues with Linux running on Baytrail systems (hard locks always happening after the device has been switched on for some minutes), are these issues now fixed?

Varti
Title: Linux 4.14 Kernel officially released
Post by: speculatrix on November 30, 2017, 11:46:11 am
Quote from: Varti
I remember you mentioning in the past major issues with Linux running on Baytrail systems (hard locks always happening after the device has been switched on for some minutes), are these issues now fixed?

they're not totally fixed; the problems are, as I understand it, a design flaw in the CPU's cstates which affects the control bus to the integrated storage controller and GPU. What's been solved is to find effective work-rounds, so it is possible to have a stable system. If you're not using the SDIO interface (which tablets use for SD and SDIO) and the GPU, then the system was always stable.
With old kernels on a tablet or laptop, which use the GPU and often used SDIO for WiFi, then hard lock-ups were common, in as little as a few minutes uptime!

The Apollo Lake cores are much much better, they were actually launched with the intention of having linux support (BayTrail never was) and the cores were significantly changed with a lot of SkyLake tech, so they also run much faster.

Thus if you're buying a cheap tablet, laptop or mini PC, ensure it's got an Apollo Lake Atom chip, not a Baytrail (the Z37xx series).

Some early CherryTrail chips off production were a bit iffy too (x5-8xxx or x7-8xxx), but I think they're mostly ok, I think it was more stability at high clocks and temp.