14 DAY TRIAL // Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, announced on September 9th the immediate availability of Linux kernel 2.6.31, a version that brings initial support for the upcoming USB 3.0 devices, Kernel Mode Setting support for ATI Radeon, initial support for NFS 4.1, and many other goodies for all Linux users around the world.
"What else? Lots and lots of driver work. Over 70% of all of the 2.6.30 to 2.6.31 patch is under drivers/, and there's another 6%+ in firmware/ and sound/. That's not entirely unusual, but it does seem to be growing. My rough rule of thumb used to be '50% drivers, 50% everything else,' but that's clearly not true any more (and hasn't been for a while – we've been 60%+ since after 2.6.27 – I think the whole 'staging' thing is what moved things up by several percentage points)." - said Linus Torvalds in the official announcement on lkml.org.
Highlights of Linux Kernel 2.6.31:
· Support for USB 3.0; · CUSE and OSS proxy; · The desktop interactivity under memory pressure was improved; · Performance counters; · Support for IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Networks); · Support for Gcov; · Kmemcheck; · Kmemleak; · Fsnotify; · Initial support for the NFS 4.1 client; · mmap readhead improvements; · Btrfs improvements; · Ext4 improvements.
And now, let's have a look at some of the new major drivers and the newly supported devices introduced in this release:
· digigram lx6464es driver; · SB X-Fi driver; · Support for Acer Aspire 8930G; · Support for Acer Inspire 6530G; · MSI GX620 7.1 audio support; · Support for Creative CA0110-IBG; · Support for HP dv4-1222nr laptop; · Support for Macbook 5.1; · Support for Samsung NC10 mini notebook; · Better support for Macbook 3.1; · Macbook Pro 6 channels support; · NVIDIA 8 channel HDMI audio support; · Support for ESI Maya44; · Support for SC-7000 and SC-6600; · Sony Vaio TT support; · Support for Xonar Essence ST.
USB:
· Intel Langwell USB Device Controller driver; · Intellon int51x1 driver; · USB Audio Gadget driver; · Samsung HS/OtG driver.
· dm355evm_keys driver; · Synaptics I2C touchpad driver; · Cirrus EP93xx matrix keypad driver; · GPIO-based matrix keypad support; · W90p910 ARM touchscreen support; · twl4030-pwrbutton driver; · Atmel microprocessor wm97xx accelerated driver; · lm8323 keypad driver; · Intuos4 tablets support.
HWMON:
· F71858F support; · TI's TMP401 and TMP411 sensor chip support; · Support for W83627DHG-P.
WATCHDOG:
· bcm47xx watchdog driver; · twl4030 watchdog driver; · W83627EHF support.
· bnx2i iSCSI driver; · Broadcom CNIC driver; · Support for 10Gb iiDMA.
Graphics:
· Support for Display Port; · IGDNG KMS; · Support for RV740 DRM; · Support for RV790. Network:
· Intel Wireless Multicomm 802.11 driver; · CAN Network device driver; · SJA1000 CAN controller driver; · TI DaVinci EMAC driver; · Xilinx ll_temac device driver; · Micrel KS8842 ethernet switch KS8842 driver.
· Avermedia AVerTV Volar GPS 805 (A805) support; · Conceptronic USB2.0 DVB-T CTVDIGRCU V3.0 support; · KWorld MC810 support; · Genius TVGo DVB-T03 support; · AVerMedia Cardbus Plus support; · AVerTV Studio 507UA support support; · Elgato EyeTV DTT deluxe to dibcom driver; · ADV7343 video encoder driver; · Initial HVR1270 support; · Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1270 ATSC/QAM tuning support; · Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1275 ATSC/QAM tuning support; · Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1255 ATSC/QAM tuning support; · Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1210 DVB-T tuning support; · Philips MK5 tuner support; · EmpireTV board suppor; · K-World 2800d support; · EVGA inDtube (and remote control) support; · Silvercrest Webcam support; · Terratec Grabster AV350 support; · Leadtek Winfast DTV Dongle H support; · Leadtek Winfast DTV-1800H support; · Leadtek Winfast DVR3100 H DVB-T support; · DVBWorld DVB-C USB Cable card support; · mt9v011 sensor driver; · Yuan MPC-718 cards (MT352/ZL10353) DVB-T support.
These are just a few of the new drivers available in the Linux kernel 2.6.31. For a complete list of all the newly supported devices, newly added drivers, etc., please visit the official release notes.
You can download the 2.6.31 Linux kernel sources right now from Softpedia.