Tech News Digest - 2025-04-02

📢 Coded On Location

Rockbox 4.0 released

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:11:21 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

Rockbox, a replacement firmware for audio players, has released version 4.0 with new features such as support for additional devices, updated codecs, and user interface improvements. The release also includes new games and other enhancements, marking the first update since LWN reviewed Rockbox in 2010.
For those of you who still have dedicated audio players: version 4.0 of Rockbox, a replacement firmware for many players, has been released. This release brings support for a number of new devices, updated codecs, a number of user-interface improvements, some new games, and more. (LWN last reviewed Rockbox in 2010 — and looked at the ill-fated Android port that year as well).
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Security updates for Wednesday

Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:03:12 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary:

Multiple Linux distributions have released security updates to fix various vulnerabilities, including Debian, Fedora, Red Hat, Slackware, SUSE, and Ubuntu. The updates address issues in software such as Firefox, PHP, kernel, Docker, OpenVPN, and others, helping to protect users from potential attacks and exploits.
Security updates have been issued by Debian (firefox-esr, jetty9, openjpeg2, and tomcat9), Fedora (dokuwiki, firefox, php-kissifrot-php-ixr, php-phpseclib3, and rust-zincati), Red Hat (kernel and pki-core), Slackware (mozilla), SUSE (apparmor, atop, docker, docker-stable, firefox, govulncheck-vulndb, libmodsecurity3, openvpn, upx, and warewulf4), and Ubuntu (inspircd, linux, linux-aws, linux-gcp, linux-gke, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-oem-6.8, linux-oracle, linux-oracle-6.8, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.4, linux-aws-fips, linux-azure-6.8, linux-hwe-6.8, linux-raspi, linux-realtime, nginx, phpseclib, and vim).
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[$] Slab allocator: sheaves and any-context allocations

Category: Linux
Tags: Linux
Published: Tue, 01 Apr 2025 18:54:42 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

The kernel's slab allocator plays a critical role in providing small objects as needed and its performance and reliability are essential for the system's overall functioning. Two sessions at the Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit discussed current work on the slab allocator, including new features like sheaves and safe allocation functions that can be called in any context.
The kernel's slab allocator is charged with providing small objects on demand; its performance and reliability are crucial for the functioning of the system as a whole. At the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit, two adjacent sessions in the memory-management track dug into current work on the slab allocator. The first focused on the new sheaves feature, while the second discussed a set of allocation functions that are safe to call in any context.
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Dave Täht RIP

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Tue, 01 Apr 2025 18:28:59 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a summary of the text in 2 sentences:

Dave Täht, a prominent figure in the network and technology community, has passed away. He was a pioneer in improving WiFi performance, queue management, and tackling bufferbloat, leaving behind a legacy that will be deeply missed by many.

From the LibreQoS site comes the sad news that Dave Täht has passed away. Among many other things, he bears a lot of credit for our networks functioning as well as they do. "We're incredibly grateful to have Dave as our friend, mentor, and as someone who continuously inspired us – showing us that we could do better for each other in the world, and leverage technology to make that happen. He will be dearly missed".

Searching through LWN's archives will turn up many references to his work fixing WiFi, improving queue management, tackling bufferbloat, and more. Farewell, Dave, we hope the music is good wherever you are.

(Thanks to Jon Masters for the heads-up).

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[$] Updates on storage standards

Category: Linux
Tags: General
Published: Tue, 01 Apr 2025 14:32:27 +0000
TL;DR: Here is a 2-sentence summary:

Fred Knight gave an update on storage standards at the Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit, including details on changes to NVM Express (NVMe) standards. He also discussed minor updates to SCSI and ATA standards over the past few years.
As he has in some previous editions of the Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF), Fred Knight gave an update on the status of various storage standards this year. In it, he looked at changes to the NVM Express (NVMe) standards in some detail. He also updated attendees on the fairly small changes that have come to the SCSI (T10) and ATA (T13) standards over the last few years.
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