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Linux 3.12 Changes, Kernel Feature Overview

Posted by Ridcully on · 7 comments
Phoronix; By Michael Larabel
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With the Linux 3.12 kernel likely being officially released this evening if there are no last-minute delays, here is a look again at some of the top features and changes for this major open-source Linux upgrade.

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Comments (7)

Ok. So I built both the 3.11.7 and 3.12.0 kernels this morning, and there turns out to be a substantial difference.

The 3.11 gave me the usual "image", "headers", "libc", and "firmware" .deb packages.

3.12 provided an additional .deb package:

=== 33055406 Nov 4 09:52 linux-image-3.12.0_1.bob_i386.deb 517423674 Nov 4 09:58 linux-image-3.12.0-dbg_1.bob_i386.deb ===

Interesting! A "dbg" image, in addition to the kernel image. The kernel image packages I build by hand are huge, some 450MB, but they seem to contain lots that is not bothered with on install because the actual files in /boot aren't out of line.

So what's up here? Anyone else adventurous this morning and know what's going on?
Quoting:So what's up here? Anyone else adventurous this morning and know what's going on?


A matter tangentially related to this 3.12 Kernel Build question is discovering when the 14.1 release of the renown Slackware distro -- with its 3.10.17 kernel -- will be readily available for download. According to the 14.1 'ANNOUNCE' description at one of Slackware's major mirrors http://mirrors1.kernel.org/slackware/slackware-current/ANNOUNCE.14_1 :
Quoting:Here are some of the advanced features of Slackware 14.1:

- Runs the 3.10.17 version of the Linux kernel from http://ftp.kernel.org. The 3.10.x series is well-tested, offers good performance, and will be getting long term support from kernel.org. For people interested in running the previous long term support kernel series, we've provided sample configuration files for Linux 3.4.66 under the /testing directory.

- System binaries are linked with the GNU C Library, version 2.17. This version of glibc also has excellent compatibility with existing binaries.

- X11 based on the X.Org Foundation's modular X Window System. This is X11R7.7, a new release, with many improvements in terms of performance and hardware support.

- Installs gcc-4.8.2 as the default C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran-77/95/2003/2008, and Ada 95/2005/2012 compiler.

- Also includes LLVM and Clang, an alternate compiler for C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++.

- The x86_64 version of Slackware 14.1 supports installation and booting on machines using UEFI firmware.


While this announcement came out this past weekend, the actual Slackware 14.1 ISO downloads have not yet been fully rolled out.

In past releases, distro maintainer Volkerding has made current kernels available soon after major releases. A possible 3.11.x or 3.12.x kernel for Slackware 14.1 ??



> A possible 3.11.x or 3.12.x kernel for Slackware 14.1 ??

Current (pre-release) ChangeLog for x86 (32-bit)

Mon Nov 4 02:38:43 UTC 2013 testing/source/config-testing-3.12/*: Added. +-------------------------------------------------+
See what happens when I'm traveling over the weekend. Someone should post it to the queue, btw. No reason to let Ubuntu have all the press.
Well, the announcement is in there, but the file tree still has no slackware*-14.1 directories. So, it isn't official yet.
Quoting:Well, the announcement is in there, but the file tree still has no slackware*-14.1 directories. So, it isn't official yet.


Additionally, the Slackware Linux Store still specifies the impending 14.1 release as a Pre-Order as of this writing.

Geez, I wondered where the heck I posted that. ;)

Jes a guess, but it might be that's why it's announced as "pre-release"

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