Running Fedora 28 on the test system, I have encountered the following issues with various applications, and found substitute rpm workarounds.. Usually, these can be installed by downloading them ,and then using # rpm -Uvh……… –force.. Grub-customizer still crashes, but the F27 version works ( grub-customizer-5.0.6-6.fc27.x86_64 ) Wine crashes with some windows apps, and the workaround is … Continue reading →
There are now patches available to deal with the host of ‘objtool‘ warnings when compiling the kernel with GCC8: …………………………….. drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.o: warning: objtool: fb_set_var()+0x209: sibling call from callable instruction with modified stack frame drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.o: warning: objtool: do_remove_conflicting_framebuffers()+0xa6: sibling call from callable instruction with modified stack frame drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbmem.o: warning: objtool: register_framebuffer()+0x14b: sibling call from callable instruction with modified … Continue reading →
Fedora 28 has GCC 8.1.1 available (currently in ‘updates-testing‘ repo), and I tested this with Kernel 4.17-rc4, to see if there was any improvement in the horde of warnings generated with 8.0.1. In short, there is no real difference: ……………………………… CC security/keys/request_key.o arch/x86/kvm/lapic.o: warning: objtool: kvm_lapic_reg_read()+0x126: sibling call from callable instruction with modified stack frame arch/x86/kvm/lapic.o: warning: … Continue reading →
Fedora 28 has been released, but this includes GCC 8 (8.0.1) which – currently – is not capable of compiling Kernel 4.16 as-is (tested with 4.16.6): ……………………………. CC /usr/src/linux-4.16.6/tools/objtool/objtool.o CC /usr/src/linux-4.16.6/tools/objtool/libstring.o CC /usr/src/linux-4.16.6/tools/objtool/str_error_r.o ../lib/str_error_r.c: In function ‘str_error_r’: ../lib/str_error_r.c:25:3: error: passing argument 1 to restrict-qualified parameter aliases with argument 5 [-Werror=restrict] snprintf(buf, buflen, “INTERNAL ERROR: strerror_r(%d, %p, %zd)=%d”, … Continue reading →
Kernel version 4.16 is out, and brief details of changes since -rc7 are here: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1804.0/00174.html $ uname -a Linux rglx 4.16.0 #1 SMP Sun Apr 1 15:20:00 PDT 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux This release is OK with VMware 14.1.1, and with NVIDIA 384.130/390.48 with the swiotlb-removing patch.. ( see http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=2227 ). Hopefully NVIDIA will get round … Continue reading →
NVIDIA have released driver 384.130, and details are here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132524/en-us The ‘Release Highlights’ clearly specify ”Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.”, and yet it still fails with Kernel 4.16 (tested with 4.16-rc7): ……………… ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules WARNING: “swiotlb_map_sg_attrs” [/home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia.ko] undefined! CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o LD … Continue reading →
NVIDIA have released driver 384.130, and details are here: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132524/en-us The ‘Release Highlights’ clearly specify ”Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.”, and yet it still fails with Kernel 4.16 (tested with 4.16-rc7): ……………… ld -r -o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nv-modeset-interface.o /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset/nvidia-modeset-linux.o Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules WARNING: “swiotlb_map_sg_attrs” [/home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia.ko] undefined! CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-drm.mod.o LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-drm.ko CC /home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.130/kernel/nvidia-modeset.mod.o LD … Continue reading →
NVIDIA have released another new driver – 390.48, and details are here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/132530/en-us Surprisingly, this version is still not able to function with Kernel 4.16 (tested with 4.16-rc7): ……………….. Building modules, stage 2. MODPOST 4 modules WARNING: “swiotlb_map_sg_attrs” [/home/rgadsdon/kernel/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.48/kernel/nvidia.ko] undefined! ……………… I am still using the patched version of 384.111 (see http://rglinuxtech.com/?p=2227 ), and I should mention … Continue reading →
The recent summary of Kernel 4.15 mentioned the test for ‘compliant’ versions of GCC which fully support the retpoline mitigation, but only gave an example of non-compliance: With GCC 7.2: ~]$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spectre_v2 Vulnerable: Minimal generic ASM retpoline I re-created Fedora (Rawhide) GCC 7.3.1 for Fedora 27, and it gives the following, after Kernel 4.15 compilation/boot: ~]$ … Continue reading →
Apparently, there has been a major security defect discovered in Intel CPUs, and full details have been embargoed until early-January, but there is a comprehensive article in The Register, here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/ The Linux Kernel devs have been working to provide a workaround, as – apparently – there is no other practical solution: https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/12/4/709 The article does hint … Continue reading →