14 DAY TRIAL // Here's a nice Christmas present for all you Linux users, developers, fanboys out there, as Linus "almost Santa" Torvalds announced on December 24th the final release of Linux kernel 2.6.28, a version that brings stable support for the highly expected Ext4. The fourth extended filesystem or ext4 is a journaled filesystem developed for more than two years. Ext4 supports volumes of 1 EB (exbibyte), files of 16 TB, it is more scalable and performs much better than the current ext3 filesystem. For detailed information about Ext4, take a look here. Linux kernel 2.6.28 also brings lots of new drivers, support for many DVB devices and other interesting features listed below.
"It doesn't really matter what day it is, or what holiday (if any) you're celebrating, because even if you sit at home, alone in your dank basement, without any holidays or friends, I bring you a tiding of great cheer: you can now download Linux-2.6.28, and compile it to your hearts [sic] content!" - said Linus Torvalds in the release announcement.
Highlights of Linux kernel 2.6.28:
· Ext4, the Fourth Extended File System · The GEM Memory Manager for GPU memory · "Ultra Wide Band" (UWB), UWB-IP and Wireless USB Support · Memory management Scalability improvements · Container freezer · Boot tracer · Disk Shock Protection · Phonet Network Protocol · Network: Transparent proxying, DSA, new drivers... · Tracepoints · -staging drivers · IO CPU affinity · FIEMAP
"In fact, even _if_ you have friends or family, leave them to their endless toil over that Christmas ham or turkey, and during the night, when they're asleep, you can give them that magical present of a newly updated computer. When they wake up tomorrow morning, tell them how you saw Santa crawl down the chimney with his USB stick in hand, updating the OS of all good boys and girls. Ho, ho, ho!" - added Linus in the release announcement.
And now, let's have a look at some of the new major drivers and the newly supported devices introduced in this release:
USB:
· Delcom USB 7-segment LED Display driver · Freescale QE/CPM USB peripheral controller driver · USB test and measurement class driver · ZTE MF626 USB GSM modem entry
Sound:
· USB Tascam US122L driver · vt1618 7.1 Audio Support · Terrasoniq/MUSONIK TS22 PCI card support · Xonar HDAV1.3 support · Edirol UA-4FX, BOSS GT-10 and E-Mu Tracker Pre support
Network:
· Marvell 8xxx Libertas WLAN driver support with thin firmware · Marvell Libertas 8388 USB 802.11b/g cards with thin firmware · Mesh Point support · AR2417 v2 support · Added support for 3 antennas · 1G fiber support · Aeluros 2005 PHY support · 802.11a 5GHz PHY support · 4-port 1G HP blade card support · SGMII, GPCS and M88E1112 PHY support · i.MX31ADS ARM board support
V4L/DVB:
· af9013 demodulator driver · af9015 chipset driver · AverMedia MR 800 USB FM radio devices driver · Samsung DTOS403IH102A tuner support · Added Anysee DVB-T/C receiver driver · New Terratec Cinergy T2 driver · FMD1216MEX tuner support · The MPEG Encoding API has AC-3 audio support · DViCO FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual Express support · DViCO FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual Digital 4 (rev 2) support · Micron MT9M111 camera support · AME DTV-5100 USB2.0 DVB-T support · Added DVB support for Leadtek Winfast PxDVR3200 H · Activy DVB-T with TDHD1 tuner support · DVB-S2 demodulator support · Hauppauge HVR4000 and HVR4000-LITE (S2) support · TeVii S460 DVB-S/S2 card support · TeVii S650 USB DVB-S2 and DVBWorld 2104 support · SDMC DM1105 PCI chip support · DVBWorld 2004 DVB-S2 PCI adapter support · Silicon Laboratories SI2109/2110 demodulators support · Omicom SS4 DVB-S/S2 card support · TBS 8920 DVB-S/S2 card support · ST STV0288 demodulator support · Asus Tiger 3in1 support · Gigabyte R8000-HT USB DVB-T adapter support · YUAN High-Tech STK7700D support · Asus My Cinema U3000 Hybrid support · Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro 801e (ATSC only) support · Pinnacle PCTV HD USB Stick (Non-Pro only) support · Encore 5.3, Avermedia PCI pure analog (M135A) and Real Audio 220 support · Prolink Pixelview Global Extreme support · ADS Tech Instant HDTV PCI support · Pinnacle Hybrid PCTV Pro (pctv310c) DVB-T support · sonixj webcam support · PAC 207 webcam support · Bison Electronics webcam support · Advent 4211 webcam support · Bison Electronics webcam (Fujitsu Amilo SI263) support · Anysee E30 Combo Plus support · DVBWorld USB card (STV0288 demodulator) support · Prof 7300 DVB-S/S2 card support
Input:
· USB VoIP phones with CM109 chipset driver · OLPC touchpad driver · Elantech touchpad support · Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro v3505 support
These are just a few of the new drivers available in the Linux kernel 2.6.28. For a complete list of all the newly supported devices, newly added drivers, etc., please go here.
You can download the 2.6.28 Linux kernel source right now from Softpedia.