ADATA has unveiled the ADATA SE920, a compact and high-speed external solid-state drive (SSD) that claims to be the first to support 40 Gbps USB4 connections. The SE920 offers read/write speeds of up to 3,800MB/s and 3,700MB/s respectively. However, due to its high speeds, the SSD generates more heat than most, necessitating active cooling. To address this, ADATA has incorporated a proprietary patented active dissipation design and a built-in micro fan. The SSD also features a telescoping case that expands when in use, allowing for better airflow circulation when the fan is active. By pressing down on the case, users can activate the fan, and retract it when not needed to save space.

Measuring 105 x 64.2 x 15.9mm when closed, or 122.56 x 64.2 x 15.9mm when extended, the portable SSD weighs 182 grams. The ADATA SE920 is backward-compatible with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, although slower speeds should be expected when using these ports. ADATA will offer 1TB and 2TB versions of the SSD, and it is expected to be compatible with devices running Windows 10 or later, macOS 13 or later, Linux kernel 6 or later, or Android 13 or later. Pricing details have not been announced yet. See the press release for more information.

Source: Liliputing.

XCP-ng has released Xen Orchestra 5.88, packed with new features and improvements. In the backup area, there have been code improvements and bug fixes, as well as an optimization for full backups using S3. The Terraform provider has also seen updates, including support for XenServer/XCP-ng bonded networks and improvements to the XO internal API. XO Lite now allows for cloning and snapshotting of VMs, and a “Ctrl Alt Del” button has been added to the console view. Xen Orchestra 6 is also in the works, with a focus on backup management and a revamped user interface. Mockups of the new UI have been shared, showcasing a more streamlined and efficient backup view. XOSTOR, the hyperconverged storage solution, now has a simple UI for creating new storage. XCP-ng 8.3 features have been added to Xen Orchestra, including vTPM management in the web UI and a new optional argument for the host.evacuate method. Overall, Xen Orchestra 5.88 brings a range of enhancements and improvements to the platform.

Bcachefs, an open-source file system, has been surprisingly merged into Linux 6.7, less than 24 hours after its submission. This quick approval by Linus Torvalds comes as a surprise, considering the previous challenges in getting Bcachefs integrated. The file system spent the entire 6.6 cycle within Linux-Next before being merged. It was developed by Kent Overstreet and is initially regarded as an experimental file system.

Source: Phoronix.

Phoronix reports that Btrfs, the file system for Linux, will be introducing three new features in version 6.7. These features include a RAID stripe tree, simple quota accounting, and temporary file-system ID (FSID) support. The FSID support is particularly notable as it was a feature requested by Valve for their Steam Deck. The Btrfs feature work was carried out by Igalia on behalf of Valve.

The Btrfs pull request for Linux 6.7 provides more details on these features:

• RAID stripe tree: This new tree is used for logical file extent mapping, especially in zoned mode to implement RAID0 and RAID1 profiles. It can also be used in non-zoned mode. Support for RAID56 is currently being developed. Enabling this feature requires configuring it at the time of creating the file system.
• Simple quota accounting (squota): This feature provides a simplified mode of qgroup that accounts for all space on the initial extent owners (subvolumes). It makes creating and deleting snapshots more efficient, particularly for container use cases. Enabling this feature is backward incompatible but can be done on an existing file system.
• Temporary filesystem FSID (temp_fsid): The FSID is a unique identifier for a filesystem and is hard-coded in the structures, which prevents mounting the same FSID on different devices. With this feature, a new temporary FSID can be generated on mount, allowing for root partition A/B testing or for use with VM root images.

The article also mentions performance improvements in Btrfs for Linux 6.7. One improvement is the reduction of reservations for checksum deletions, resulting in a 12% decrease in deletion time for files with many extents. Additionally, work has been done to make extent state merges more efficient during insertions, reducing the runtime of critical functions by 5%.

It is worth noting that Btrfs in Linux 6.7 removes its integrity check functionality and includes various other low-level code improvements.

Source: Phoronix.

The Linux 6.6 release has just been announced by Linus Torvalds on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. This release comes about two months after the release of Linux 6.5, and it brings several notable changes and updates to the kernel.

One of the highlights of Linux 6.6 is the addition of Intel’s shadow stack hardware support. This feature helps prevent exploits by maintaining a secondary (shadow) stack that cannot be directly modified. The processor pushes the return address to both the normal stack and the shadow stack, and upon return, it compares the two copies. If they differ, the processor raises a control protection fault, which can prevent stack modification exploits. It’s important to note that this implementation only supports shadow stack on 64-bit kernels and offers support for 32-bit via IA32 emulation only for userspace.

Another significant change in Linux 6.6 is the introduction of the EEVDF task scheduler. This scheduler replaces the CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) that was merged in Linux 2.6.23. The EEVDF scheduler is designed to ensure that processes that are not getting the attention they deserve are automatically picked the next time, while processes that have been given more attention than necessary are “punished.” This algorithmic approach improves the latency of tasks that would be left behind by the CFS scheduler.

Additionally, Linux 6.6 brings faster asynchronous Direct I/O using io_uring, resulting in up to a 37% improvement in throughput/latency for low queue depth IO.

In terms of Arm architecture changes, Linux 6.6 introduces various updates and additions for Allwinner, Rockchip, Amlogic, Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and other Arm platforms. These changes include support for new boards, improvements to clock drivers, additions to device trees, and various driver updates.

The RISC-V architecture also sees some updates in Linux 6.6, including support for new device tree interfaces, userspace access to performance counters, more instructions in kprobes, crash kernels allocated above 4GiB, support for KCFI, and more. The MIPS architecture receives some cleanups and fixes in this release.

Overall, the Linux 6.6 release brings important updates and improvements to the kernel, enhancing security, task scheduling, and I/O performance. It also expands support for various architectures, including Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS. Linux enthusiasts and developers will find these updates valuable for their servers, Linux-based home labs, and DevOps environments.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

BookStack has released version 23.10 of its software, introducing several new features and improvements. The update includes a new “My Account” area, which provides users with a centralized location to manage their account settings and preferences. Additionally, the release adds support for the Uzbek language, thanks to the contribution from the user @mrmuminov.

Other notable changes include the addition of basic Progressive Web App (PWA) support, making it easier for users to access BookStack from their mobile devices. The update also includes new header bar partials for easier customization, as well as a “View Tags” button on non-default homepage views.

The page editor interface has been updated with a new design, providing a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. The app’s caching behavior has also been improved to avoid expiry scenarios, ensuring a smoother performance.

Several bug fixes have been implemented in this release, addressing issues such as an awkward sidebar scroll behavior at mid-level screen sizes, a buggy dark/light mode button, and the incorrect clearing of the tag input field when pressing the enter key.

BookStack v23.10 also includes various updates to improve the codebase and optimize the software’s performance, such as updating the HTTP calling, language handling, and icon handling. The release also enables new translations for Albanian, Finnish, and Norwegian Nynorsk languages on Crowdin.

Users should be aware that this update includes changes to the URLs, paths, and interfaces for user-self management. Documentation and user guidance may need to be updated accordingly.

For more information about the release, including a video overview and update instructions, please refer to the provided links.

Source: BookStack