KernelNewbies:

• Linux_4.18

Last updated at 2018-11-25 21:40:35

Linux 4.18 has been released on 12 August, 2018.

Summary: This release includes the new "Restartable sequences" system call, which makes easier to write scalable userspace code; support for unprivileged mounts; the beginning of bpfilter project that aims to provide netfilter functionality using BPF; a zero-copy TCP receive API; a new AF_XDP address family for high performance networking; support for the future AMD ATI Vega20; support for the qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC; and many new drivers and other improvements.

1. Prominent features

1.1. Restartable sequences for easier lockless concurrency in user space

Synchronizing per-cpu operations from user-space is hard, because processes are liable to be pre-empted or change cpus at any time. Adding safety to the user-space code (atomic operations) is expensive, and disabling preemption in user space is not an option.

Restartables sequences allow user-space to perform update operations on per-cpu data without requiring heavy-weight atomic operations. Each thread is allowed to register one userspace memory area that should be run by the same CPU; if the thread is preempted the thread can restart the operation. Using rseq with per-cpu memory pools in jemalloc at Facebook improved the production workload response-time 1-2% gain avg. latency, and the P99 overall latency drops by 2-3%.

Recommended LWN article: Restartable sequences

Slides: LPC - PerCpu Atomics.pdf

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.2. Support for unprivileged mounts

In this release, root users inside a private namespace (eg. container) are allowed to mount file systems.

Recommended LWN article: Unprivileged file system mounts

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.3. bpfilter, BPF based networking filtering

The bpfilter project aims to implement netfilter compatible functionality using the BPF machinery. This release adds the first skeleton of kernel code.

Recommended LWN article: BPF comes to firewalls

Code: commit, commit

1.4. Zero-copy TCP receive API

Linux 4.14 added support for zero-copy of data when sending to the network, this release adds a zero-copy API for the receiving side.

Recommended LWN article: Zero-copy TCP receive, A reworked TCP zero-copy receive API

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.5. AF_XDP for high performance networking

Introduce AF_XDP support, a new address family that is optimized for high performance packet processing and zero-copy semantics. Programs using AF_XDP sockets will now receive RX packets without any copies and can also transmit packets without incurring any copies.

Recommended LWN article: Accelerating networking with AF_XDP

Code: commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit zero-copy commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

1.6. Support for the future AMD ATI Vega20

This release includes support for the future Vega 20.

Code: commit, commit, merge

1.7. Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 support

The convergence between vendor Android kernel code and the mainline kernel is improving; as proof of that this release adds support for Qualcomm SDM845, a.k.a Snapdragon 845, an 4+4-core Kryo 385/845 (Cortex-A75/A55 derivative) SoC that's one of the current high-end mobile SoCs. A lot of peripherals are not yet in the DTs but driver support for USB, GPU and other pieces are starting to trickle in. It also adds support for the MTP development board

Code: commit

2. Core (various)

• (FEATURED) Add support for restartable sequences commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• (FEATURED) Asynchronous I/O: add workqueue based fsync offload commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• (FEATURED) Add support for unprivileged mounts commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• task scheduler: Stagger NUMA balancing scan periods for new threads commit

• scripts: Add SPDX checker script commit

• Align the seccomp logging behavior for both audited and unaudited processes. It also emits an audit record, if auditing is enabled, when the kernel.seccomp.actions_logged sysctl is written to so that there's a paper trail when entire actions are quieted commit, commit, commit

• Add support to collect hardware logs in crash recovery kernel commit, commit, commit

• signalfd: Add support for SIGSYS commit

• connector: add parent pid and tgid to coredump and exit events commit

• Don't schedule threads on pre-empted vCPUs commit, commit

3. File systems

• BTRFS

  • Add support for the FS_IOC_FSGETXATTR ioctl commit

  • Allow users to enumerate subvolumes with 3 new unprivileged ioctls commit, commit, commit

  • Allow empty subvol= again commit

  • dedupe_file_range ioctl: remove 16MiB restriction commit

  • Allow rmdir(2) to delete an empty subvolume commit

  • send: improved speed when dealing with a large removed directory, measurements show decrease from 2000 minutes to 2 minutes on a directory with 2 million entries commit

  • Pre-commit check of superblock to detect a mysterious in-memory corruption commit

  • sysfs: Add entry which shows if rmdir can work on subvolumes commit

• XFS

  • Add mount delay debug option, similar to log_recovery_delay, this delay occurs between the VFS superblock being initialised and the xfs_mount being fully initialised commit

  • Support fallocated swapfiles commit

  • Ability to relabel mounted filesystems commit

  • Implement the metadata repair ioctl flag commit

  • Use FUA for pure data O_DSYNC DIO writes commit

• CIFS

  • Add support for POSIX negotiate context with mount option posix commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Allow disabling less secure legacy dialects with module parameter disable_legacy_dialects commit

• AFS

  • Enable IPv6 DNS lookups commit

  • Implement network namespacing commit

  • Show all of a server's addresses in /proc/fs/afs/servers commit

• UDF

  • Add support for UTF-16 characters commit, commit

• FSCRYPT

  • Add Speck128/256 support commit

• F2FS

  • Add fsync_mode=nobarrier for non-atomic files commit

4. Memory management

• Restructuration of struct page, to give more contiguous usable space to users who have allocated a struct page for their own purposes. Recommended LWN article: Willy's memory-management to-do list. commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• memcg: introduce the memory.min interface. It works very similarly to memory.low (sharing the same hierarchical behavior), except that it's not disabled if there is no more reclaimable memory in the system commit

• memcg: allow lowering memory.swap.max below the current usage commit

• memcg: implement memory.swap.events. Add swap max and fail events so that userland can monitor and respond to running out of swap commit, commit

• shmem: make stat.st_blksize return huge page size if THP is on commit

• Reduce the number of TLB shootdowns commit

• Take better advantage of general huge page clearing optimization commit

5. Block layer

• Add sysfs entry for fua support commit

• dm: add writecache target. The writecache target caches writes on persistent memory or SSD. It is intended for databases or other programs that need extremely low commit latency commit

• loop: Add LOOP_SET_BLOCK_SIZE in compat ioctl commit

• zram: zram memory tracking. It provides a debugfs /sys/kernel/debug/zram/zram0/block_state to represent each block's state so admin can investigate what memory is cold|incompressible|same page with using pagemap once the pages are swapped out commit, commit, commit, commit

6. Tracing and perf

• Support perf annotate --group for non-explicit recorded event "groups", showing multiple columns, one for each event, just like when dealing with explicit event groups commit

• perf buildid-cache: Support --list option option to list all valid cached files commit

• perf buildid-cache: Support --purge-all option to remove all files from cache commit

• perf script: Show symbol offsets by default commit

• perf script: Show virtual addresses instead of offsets commit

• perf stat: Add --interval-clear option to clear the screen before next interval commit

• perf stat: Add --table option to display time of each run commit

• perf stat: Display user and system time commit

• Add infrastructure to help in writing eBPF C programs to be used with '-e name.c' type events in tools such as 'record' and 'trace', with headers for common constructs and an examples directory that will get populated as we add more such helpers and the 'perf bpf' commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• tracing: Allow writing to the trace_markers file initiate triggers defined in tracefs/ftrace/print/trigger file. This will allow of user space to trigger the same type of triggers (including histograms) that the trace events use commit

7. Virtualization

• Enable virtio_net to act as a standby for a passthru device. The main motivation for this patch is to enable cloud service providers to provide an accelerated datapath to virtio-net enabled VMs in a transparent manner with no/minimal guest userspace changes. This also enables hypervisor controlled live migration to be supported with VMs that have direct attached SR-IOV VF devices commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• xen-front: Add support for Xen para-virtualized frontend display driver commit

• virtio_pci: support enabling VFs commit

• xen: add IOCTL_PRIVCMD_MMAP_RESOURCE, a new HYPERVISOR_memory_op to support direct priv-mapping of certain guest resources (such as ioreq pages, used by emulators) by a tools domain, rather than having to access such resources via the guest P2M commit

• xen-front: Add Xen sound para-virtualized frontend driver commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

8. Cryptography

• zstd: Add zstd support commit

• aegis: Add the AEGIS family of AEAD algorithms (AEGIS-128, AEGIS-128L, and AEGIS-256) commit

• morus: Add MORUS-640 AEAD algorithm commit, commit

9. Security

• apparmor: add support for mapping between the secid and the label, and along with it a basic ability to provide secctx conversion commit

• apparmor: add the ability to get a task's secid commit

• EVM: Allow runtime modification of the set of verified xattrs commit

• integrity: Add an integrity directory in securityfs commit

• allocation overflow detection helpers commit

• Remove open-coded multiplication from memory allocation arguments commit, commit

10. Networking

• TCP

  • (FEATURED) Add zero copy receive commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Implement SACK compression commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Default RACK loss recovery (implements the features correspond to the draft-ietf-tcpm-rack-03 version of the RACK draft) commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Tracking TCP data delivery and ECN stats commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Add the TCP_INQ socket option to TCP. When this socket option is set, recvmsg() relays the number of bytes available on the socket for reading to the application via the TCP_CM_INQ control message. This way applications with many concurrent connections, high variance in receive queue length and tight memory bounds can allocate worst-case buffer size to drain sockets. Knowing the size of receive queue length, applications can optimize how they allocate buffers to read from the socket commit

  • Extend tcp_tw_reuse sysctl to enable loopback only optimization commit

• UDP:

  • Generic Segmentation Offload support. Segmentation offload reduces cycles/byte for large packets by amortizing the cost of protocol stack traversal. A process can concatenate and submit multiple datagrams to the same destination in one send call by setting socket option SOL_UDP/UDP_SEGMENT with the segment size, or passing an analogous cmsg at send time commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Enable UDP checksum offload for ESP commit

• BPF

  • (FEATURED) Add skeleton of bpfilter kernel module: it builds experimental bpfilter framework that is aiming to provide netfilter compatible functionality via BPF commit, commit

  • Introduce BTF: BPF Type Format. It is the meta data format which describes the data types of BPF program/map. Hence, it basically focus on the C programming language which the modern BPF is primary using. The first use case is to provide a generic pretty print capability for a BPF map commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Introduce BTF ID - an ID for each loaded BTF program commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Enhancements for multi-function programs commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Introduce seg6local End.BPF action with the corresponding new BPF program type BPF_PROG_TYPE_LWT_SEG6LOCAL commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Hooks for sys_sendmsg similar to existing hooks for sys_bind and sys_connect commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Allows the BPF loader to figure out the btf_key_id and btf_value_id from a map's name by using BPF_ANNOTATE_KV_PAIR commit, commit

  • Allow map helpers access to map values directly commit

  • Hash support for sock commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Introduce bpf subcommand BPF_TASK_FD_QUERY to show which bpf program is attached to which tracepoint/kprobe/uprobe commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Support offload of bpf_event_output() commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• (FEATURED) Introducing AF_XDP support, a new address family that is optimized for high performance packet processing and zero-copy semantics. Programs using AF_XDP sockets will now receive RX packets without any copies and can also transmit packets without incurring any copies commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit zero-copy commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• Wireless (802.11)

  • Export TXQ parameters and statistics via nl80211 commit, commit

  • Introduces the average ack rssi for data frames commit, commit

  • nl80211: support offloading FILS-SK roaming scenarios commit, commit, commit

  • Add wmm rule attribute to NL80211_CMD_GET_WIPHY dump command commit

• packet scheduler

  • cls_flower: Support multiple masks per priority commit

• ipconfig: NTP server support commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• IPv4/v6: extends ip route get to match on sport and dport commit, commit

• IPv6: send netlink notifications for manually configured addresses commit

• ipvs: Add IPv6 support to IPVS FTP-NAT commit, commit

• Introduce adaptive TX interrupt moderation to net Dynamic Interrupt Moderation library commit, commit

• routing: Add address attribute (IFA_RT_PRIORITYto control metric of prefix route. For use cases such as VRR (Virtual Router Redundancy) interface managers want efficient control over the order of prefix routes when multiple interfaces have addresses with overlapping/duplicate subnets commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• Add a generic infrastructure to offload TLS crypto to a network devices. It enables the kernel TLS socket to skip encryption and authentication operations on the transmit side of the data path. Leaving those computationally expensive operations to the NIC commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• IPv6 GRE tunnel: Add GRO support, significantly improves performance in case GRO in native interface is disabled commit

• netfilter

  • Add NAT support for shifted portmap ranges commit

  • ipvs: Implement the Google's Maglev hashing algorithm as a IPVS scheduler. Basically it provides consistent hashing but offers some special features about disruption and load balancing commit, commit, commit

  • nf_tables: add support for native socket matching commit

  • nf_tables: Add audit support to log statement commit

  • nf_tables: add connlimit support commit

  • nf_tables: initial support for extended ACK reporting commit

  • Add support for map lookups to numgen, random and hash expressions commit, commit, commit

• Extend availability of PHY statistics commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• bridge: add support for port isolation. Isolated ports cannot communicate between each other, but they can still communicate with non-isolated ports commit

• Distributed Switch Architecture: adds PHYLINK support to DSA which is necessary to support more complex PHY and pluggable modules setups commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• virtual routing and forwarding: add CRC32c offload to device features commit

• tun: allow ethtool to change tun link settings commit

• qrtr: Expose tunneling endpoint to user space commit

• openvswitch: Support conntrack zone limit commit, commit

• SCTP: allow unsetting sockopt MAXSEG commit

• TIPC: Confifuration of MTU for media UDP commit, commit, commit

• TIPC: introduce ioctl for fetching node identity commit

• rfkill: Create rfkill-none LED trigger commit

• Infiniband

  • Add verbs flow counters support. It allows user space applications to monitor real time traffic activity and events of the verbs objects it manages, e.g.: ibv_qp, ibv_wq, ibv_flow commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • MPLS and GRE flow specifications commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• SMC

  • Handle ioctls SIOCINQ, SIOCOUTQ, and SIOCOUTQNSD commit

  • Handle sockopts forcing fallback commit

  • Handle sockopt TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT commit

  • sockopts TCP_NODELAY and TCP_CORK commit

  • IPv6 support for smc_diag.c commit

  • Periodic testlink support commit

  • Aadd support for splice() commit

11. Architectures

• ARM
  • Device Tree Sources

    • SoC: Amlogic Meson 8M2 SoC, a.k.a. S812. A quad Cortex-A9 SoC used in some set top boxes and other products commit

    • SoC: Mediatek MT7623A, which is a flavor of the MT7623 family with other on-chip ethernet options commit

    • (FEATURED) SoC: Qualcomm SDM845, a.k.a Snapdragon 845, an 4+4-core Kryo 385/845 (Cortex-A75/A55 derivative) SoC that's one of the current high-end mobile SoCs. A lot of peripherals are not yet in the DTs but driver support for USB, GPU and other pieces are starting to trickle in. Add also support for the MTP development board commit

    • SoC: Renesas R8A77990, a.k.a R-Car E3, a new automotive entertainment-targeted SoC commit

    • SoC: Renesas R8A77470, a.k.a. RZ/G1C, a new dual Cortex-A7 SoC with PowerVR GPU commit

    • Allwinner A20: Olimex A20-SOM-EVB-eMMC variant commit

    • Allwinner H2+: Libre Computer ALL-H3-CC (h2+ version) commit

    • Allwinner A33: Nintendo NES/SuperNES Classic Edition commit

    • Aspeed: S2600WF, Inventec Lanyang BMC, Portwell Neptune commit

    • Berlin2CD: Valve Steam Link commit

    • Broadcom BCM5301X: Luxul XAP-1610 and XWR-3150 V1 commit

    • Broadcom: Raspberry Pi 3 B+ commit

    • Meson 8M2: Tronsmart MXIII Plus commit

    • NXP i.MX: Engicam i.CoreM6, DHCOM iMX6 SOM, BTicino i.MX6DL Mamoj commit

    • Mediatek MT7623N and MT7623A: reference boards commit, commit

    • Qualcomm MSM8974: Sony Xperia Z1 Compact support commit

    • Renesas: Ebisu R8A77990 board commit

    • Renesas RZ/G1C: iwg23s: iWave G235-SDB commit

    • TI am335x: Pocketbeagle support commit

    • aspeed: Add Inventec Lanyang BMC commit

    • aspeed: Add Portwell Neptune machine commit

    • i.MX6: Add BTicino i.MX6DL Mamoj initial support commit

    • imx6q: Add support for the DHCOM iMX6 SoM and PDK2 commit

    • ipq4019: Add qcom-ipq4019-ap.dk07.1-c2 board file commit

    • tpc: Device tree description of the iMX6Q TPC board commit

    • allwinner: Add dts file for Libre Computer Board ALL-H3-CC H5 ver commit

    • renesas: initial V3HSK board device tree commit

    • renesas: salvator-common: Add ADV7482 support commit

  • sun8i: smp: Add support for A83T commit

  • KVM: Add KVM_VGIC_V3_ADDR_TYPE_REDIST_REGION commit

  • Port KCOV to arm commit

  • NOMMU: Support PMSAv8 MPU commit

  • B15: Update to support Brahma-B53 commit

  • exynos: Remove support for Exynos5440 commit, commit

• ARM64

  • arm64: Add SSBD (aka Spectre-v4) mitigation commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • crypto: arm64: add support for SM4 encryption using special instructions commit

• POWERPC

  • Support for split PMD page table lock on 64-bit Book3S (Power8/9) commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • livepatch: Implement reliable stack tracing for the consistency model commit

  • Add support for patching barrier_nospec in copy_from_user() and syscall entry commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Implement csum_ipv6_magic in assembly commit

  • perf script powerpc: Python script for hypervisor call statistics commit

  • KVM: Book3S HV: Add 'online' register to ONE_REG interface commit

  • misc: IBM Virtual Management Channel Driver (VMC) commit

  • Removal of support for two old machines, "SBC834xE" and "C2K" commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• X86

  • Introduce the no5lvl kernel parameter to disable 5-level page tables at boot time commit

  • bpf: add eBPF JIT compiler for ia32 commit

  • crypto: Add optimized AEGIS implementations commit, MORUS implementations commit, remove salsa20 implementations commit

  • intel_rdt: Memory bandwidth allocation software controller commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • pci-dma: remove the experimental forcesac boot option commit

  • pci-dma: remove the explicit nodac and allowdac option commit

  • platform/UV: Add kernel parameter to set memory block size commit

  • platform

    • ideapad-laptop: Add fn-lock setting commit

    • mlx-platform: Add LED platform driver activation commit

    • silead_dmi: Add entry for Chuwi Hi8 tablet touchscreen commit

    • silead_dmi: Add info for the PoV mobii TAB-P800W (v2.0) commit

    • silead_dmi: Add touchscreen info for the Jumper EZpad 6 Pro commit

    • silead_dmi: Add touchscreen info for the Onda V891w tablet commit

    • chrome: Add Tablet Switch ACPI driver commit

  • Hyper-V: APIC enlightenments commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• RISCV

  • Add swiotlb support commit

  • perf: preliminary support commit

• S390

  • add pnetid support commit

  • qeth: add IPv6 RX and TX checksum offload support commit, commit, commit

• sparc64

  • char: Add privileged ADI driver commit

• MIPS

  • BCM47XX: Add support for Netgear WNR1000 V3 commit

12. Drivers

12.1. Graphics

• New v3d driver for broadcom V3D V3.x+ hardware commit

• Aspect ratio support for 64:27 and 256:135 commit, commit, commit, commit

• blend: Add a generic alpha property commit

• Intel

  • Initial Icelake enabling commit, commit

  • NV12 format enabling commit, commit, commit, commit

  • guc: Allow user to control default GuC logging commit

  • Add KBL GT2 sku commit

  • perf: enable perf support on ICL commit

  • Add debugfs file to clear FIFO underruns commit

  • Add support for specifying DMC firmware override by module param commit

• amdgpu

  • (FEATURED) Vega 20 support commit, commit, merge

  • Experimental VEGAM support (Kabylake-G) commit

  • Initial power management gfxoff support for raven

  • Vega10 power profiles and clock voltage control commit, commit, commit

• amdkfd

  • GFX9 dGPU support and userptr memory mapping commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • GFXv9/Vega10 support for KFD commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• nouveau

  • Initial Volta GV100 support commit

  • gk104-: add support for [XA]2R10G10B10 formats commit

  • gk104-: support additional cursor sizes commit

  • nv50-: initial overlay support commit

• tda998x

  • HDMI i2c CEC support commit

• tegra

  • IOMMU support in gr2d/gr3d drivers commit, commit

  • Implement zpos plane property for older Tegras commit

  • Enable plane scaling filters commit

• vc4

  • syncobj support commit, commit, commit

  • CTM, plane alpha and async cursor support commit, commit, commit, commit

• sun4i

  • Add Allwinner A31 MIPI-DSI controller support commit

• rcar-du

  • R8A77965 support commit

• exynos

  • S5PV210 FIMD variant support commit

  • IPP v2 framework commit

  • Add driver for Exynos Scaler module commit

• backlight: Add RAVE SP backlight driver commit

• backlight: otm3225a: Add support for ORISE OTM3225A LCD SoC commit

• pl111: Support the Versatile Express commit

• bridge: Add Cadence DSI driver commit

• bridge: Add thc63lvd1024 LVDS decoder driver commit

• video: fbdev: remove unused auo_k190xfb drivers commit

• video: fbdev: remove unused sh_mobile_meram driver commit

• video: fbdev: sh_mobile_lcdcfb: remove unused MERAM support commit

12.2. Storage

• ahci: Add Intel Ice Lake LP PCI ID commit

• lightnvm: pblk: add possibility to set write buffer size manually commit

• nvme-loop: add support for multiple ports commit

• nvmem: Add RAVE SP EEPROM driver commit

• nvmet: add AEN configuration support commit

• nvmet: simple file backed namespace support for NVMeOF target commit

• scsi

  • hisi_sas: Add LED feature for v3 hw commit

  • libsas: Add transport class for the ata devices attached with sas controller. The /sys/class directory will show the infomation of the ata devices commit

  • mpt3sas: Added support for SAS Device Discovery Error Event commit

  • target: target/file: Add support of direct and async I/O commit

  • zorro_esp: New driver for Amiga Zorro NCR53C9x boards commit

12.3. Drivers in the Staging area

• Android: Add 'vsoc' driver for cuttlefish commit

• fsl-dpaa2/rtc: add rtc driver commit

• iio: tsl2x7x/tsl2772: move out of staging commit

• ipx: delete it from the tree commit

• ncpfs: delete it commit

• typec: rt1711h typec chip driver commit

• iio:meter: Drop ADE7753 driver commit, ADE7754 driver commit, ADE7758 driver commit, ADE7759 driver commit

• imx: add 16-bit grayscale support commit

• zoran: move to staging in preparation for removal commit

• atomisp: Remove driver commit

• Delete the goldfish_nand driver commit

12.4. Networking

• Bluetooth

  • Add a new 13d3:3496 QCA_ROME device commit

  • btmrvl: support sysfs initiated firmware coredump commit

  • btqca: Add AR3002 rampatch support commit

  • btusb: Add a new Realtek 8723DE ID 2ff8:b011 commit

  • btusb: Add additional device ID for RTL8822BE commit

  • btusb: add ID for LiteOn 04ca:301a commit

  • hci_qca: Add serdev support commit

• Infiniband

  • Management of 16B commit, commit, commit

  • {hfi1, rdmavt, qib}: Implement CQ completion vector; it helps improve performance in things like IPoIB commit

• amd-xgbe: Add ethtool: show/set channels support commit, show/set ring parameter support commit, support to retrieve SFP module info commit

• ath10k

  • Support MAC address randomization in scan commit

  • Support for STA idle mode power save(IMPS) commit, commit, commit, commit

  • DFS Host Confirmation commit

  • Add WMI_SERVICE_AVAILABLE_EVENT support commit

  • Add memory dump support for QCA9888 and QCA99X0 commit

  • Add quiet mode support for QCA6174/QCA9377 commit

  • Add support to configure channel dwell time (NL80211_EXT_FEATURE_SET_SCAN_DWELL) commit

  • Add support of WCN3990 bus layer support commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• bnxt_en: add debugfs support for DIM commit

• brcmfmac

  • Add support for bcm43364 wireless chipset commit

  • Add support for BCM4366E chipset commit

  • Add support for sysfs initiated coredump commit

  • Add debugfs entry for reading firmware capabilities commit

• cxgb4

  • Add new T5 device id commit

  • Add new T6 device ids commit

  • Add new T5 device id's commit

  • Add tc flower match support for tunnel VNI commit

• hv_netvsc: Add handlers for ethtool get/set msg level commit

• i40e

  • Add advertising 10G LR mode commit

  • Add tx_busy to ethtool stats commit

• ibmvnic: Introduce hard reset recovery commit

• igb

  • Offloading of receive filters commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• iwlwifi

• Add more card IDs for 9000 series commit

  • mvm: add traffic condition monitoring (TCM) commit

  • mvm: support offload of AMSDU rate control commit

  • Support api ver2 of NVM_GET_INFO resp commit

• lan78xx

  • Add support to dump lan78xx registers commit

  • Lan7801 Support for Fixed PHY commit

• liquidio

  • Added ethtool ndo_get_vf_stats support commit

  • Enhanced ethtool stats commit

  • Enhanced ethtool --set-channels feature commit

  • Spport use of ethtool to set link speed of CN23XX-225 cards commit

• microchip_t1: Add driver for Microchip LAN87XX T1 PHYs commit

• mlxsw: Support VLAN devices in mirroring offloads commit, commit, commit, commit

• hinic: add pci device ids for 25ge and 100ge card commit

• New ax88796 platform driver for Amiga X-Surf 100 Zorro board (m68k) commit

• mlx4: Use msi_x module param to limit num of MSI-X irqs commit

• mlx5: basic XDP_REDIRECT forward support commit

• mlx5: PPTB and PBMC register firmware command support commit

• mlx5e: Enable adaptive-TX moderation commit

• mlx5e: Support configurable MTU for vport representors commit

• mlx5e: Support offloaded TC flows with no matches on headers commit

• dsa: mv88e6xxx: 88E6141/6341 SERDES support commit

• dsa: qca8k: Add support for QCA8334 switch commit

• hns3

  • Add support for IFF_ALLMULTI (receive all multicast packets) flag commit

  • Add support of hardware rx-vlan-offload to HNS3 VF driver commit

  • Add support to enable TX/RX promisc mode for H/W rev(0x21) commit

• lan78xx

  • Add support for VLAN filtering commit

  • Add support for VLAN tag stripping commit

• mscc: Add initial Ocelot switch support commit

• mvpp2

  • 1000baseX support commit

  • 2500baseX support commit

  • phylink support commit

• netcp

  • ethss: add support for handling rgmii link interface commit

  • ethss: k2g: add promiscuous mode support commit

• phy

  • DP83TC811: Introduce support for the DP83TC811 phy commit

  • mscc-miim: Add MDIO driver commit

  • New Asix Electronics PHY driver commit

• qualcomm: rmnet: Add support for ethtool private stats commit

• stmmac

  • Add Flexible PPS support commit

  • Add support for U32 TC filter using Flexible RX Parser commit

• nfp

  • abm: add basic support for advanced buffering NIC commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit ,commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • abm: RED/MQ qdisc offload commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • bpf: complete shift supports on NFP JIT commit, commit, commit

  • bpf: add programmable RSS support commit, commit

  • Offload LAG for tc flower egress commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • flower tc block support commit, commit

• qed*

  • ethtool rx flow classification enhancements commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Add support for management firmware TLV request commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Add support for new multi partitioning modes commit, commit, commit, commit

• qed: Add configuration information to register dump and debug data commit, commit

• qed: Add srq core support for RoCE and iWARP commit

• qmi_wwan: add support for Quectel EG91 commit

• qtnfmac: add DFS offload support commit

• sh_eth: add R8A77980 support commit

• sh_eth: add RGMII support commit

• stmmac: added support for 802.1ad vlan stripping commit

• wcn36xx: Add support for Factory Test Mode (FTM) commit

12.5. Audio

• dice

  • Add 'firewire' directory for proc nodes commit

  • Add proc node for stream formation commit

  • Add stream format parameters for Mytek devices commit

  • Add stream format parameters for TC Electronic Digital Konnekt x32 commit

• hda/ca0132

  • Add DSP Volume set and New mixers for SBZ + R3Di commit

  • Add new control changes for SBZ + R3Di commit

  • Add pincfg for SBZ + R3Di, add fp hp auto-detect commit

• usb-audio

  • Add "Keep Interface" control commit

  • Add native DSD support for Mytek DACs commit

  • UAC3 Add support for connector insertion commit

  • UAC3. Add support for mixer unit commit

  • Add UAC3 BADD profiles support commit

• ASoC

  • AMD: Support headset button on Stoney DA7219 commit

  • Intel: bytcr_rt5640: Enable jack detection commit

  • TSCS454: Add Support commit

  • atmel-i2s: add driver for the new Atmel I2S controller commit

  • mediatek: add MT7622 AFE support commit

  • Add support for mt6797 SoC commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • pcm512x: Add ACPI support commit

  • qcom: Add support to QDSP based Audio commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • rsnd: Enable IPMMU v2 commit

  • rt1305: Add RT1305/RT1306 amplifier driver commit

  • rt5640: Add button press support commit

  • rt5640: Add jack-detect support commit

  • rt5668: add rt5668B codec driver commit

  • ssm2305: Add amplifier driver commit

  • uniphier: add digital output volume for UniPhier sound system commit

• Support for SoundWire Streaming commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

12.6. Tablets, touch screens, keyboards, mouses

• HID

  • Add driver for Valve Steam Controller commit

  • google: Add support for whiskers commit

  • multitouch: implement precision touchpad latency and switches commit

  • redragon: Fix modifier keys for Redragon Asura Keyboard commit

  • steam: add battery device commit

  • wacom: Support "in range" for Intuos/Bamboo tablets where possible commit

• Add Spreadtrum vibrator driver commit

• Add support for ChipOne icn8505 based touchscreens commit

• elan_i2c

  • Add ACPI ID for lenovo ideapad 330 commit

  • Add ELAN0612 (Lenovo v330 14IKB) ACPI ID commit

  • Add ELAN0618 (Lenovo v330 15IKB) ACPI ID commit

  • Add another ACPI ID for Lenovo Ideapad 330-15AST commit

  • Add trackstick report commit

• elantech: add support for SMBus devices commit

• goodix: add new ACPI id for GPD Win 2 touch screen commit

• silead: add MSSL0002 ACPI HID commit

• usbtouchscreen: add sysfs attribute for 3M MTouch firmware rev commit

• xpad: add GPD Win 2 Controller USB IDs commit

• Add MediaTek PMIC keys support commit

12.7. TV tuners, webcams, video capturers

• video-i2c: add video-i2c driver commit

• Add a driver for the ov7251 camera sensor commit

• cx231xx: Add support for AverMedia DVD EZMaker 7 commit

• cx88: enable IR transmitter on HVR-1300 commit

• ddbridge: support for the new MCI card types, and namely the new MaxSX8 cards commit, commit

• ddbridge: support dummy tuners with 125MByte/s dummy data stream commit

• dvb-frontends/dvb-pll: add i2c driver support commit

• dvb: add alternative USB PID for Hauppauge WinTV-soloHD commit

• em28xx: Add new dvb-t board ":Zolid Hybrid Tv Stick" commit

• imx258: Add imx258 camera sensor driver commit

• rc: IR decoding using BPF commit, commit

• rc: add ioctl to get the current timeout commit

• rc: imon decoder: support the stick commit

• rcar-csi2: add Renesas R-Car MIPI CSI-2 receiver driver commit

• rcar-vin: enable support for r8a7795 commit, support for r8a7796 commit, support for r8a77970 commit

• tuners: add new i2c driver for Sharp qm1d1b0004 ISDB-S tuner commit

• usbtv: Add SECAM support commit

• uvcvideo: Support realtek's UVC 1.5 device commit

• cadence: Add Cadence MIPI-CSI2 RX driver commit, TX driver commit

• vsp1: Add support for the DISCOM entity commit

12.8. Universal Serial Bus

• USB 3.2: Add sysfs entries for a usb device rx_lanes and tx_lanes commit, commit, commit

• typec: adds sink side support for the PPS feature introduced in the USB PD 3.0 specification commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• gadget: Add driver for Aspeed SoC virtual hub commit

• serial

  • cp210x: add Silicon Labs IDs for Windows Update commit

  • cp210x: add another USB ID for Qivicon ZigBee stick commit

  • pl2303: add support for tx xon/xoff flow control commit

• dwc2: Add Interpacket Gap(IPG) feature support commit

• dwc3: Add Qualcomm DWC3 glue driver commit

• dwc3: pci: add support for Intel IceLake commit

• xhci

  • hisilicon: support HiSilicon STB xHCI host controller commit

  • Add usb ports to xhci debugfs commit

  • Add debugfs interface to enable compliance mode for a port commit

12.9. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)

• Extend the core to ease integration of SPI memory controllers commit

• s3c64xx: samsung: Remove support for Exynos5440 commit

• spi-s3c64xx: Allow higher transfer lengths in polling IO mode commit

12.10. ACPI, EFI, cpufreq, thermal, Power Management

• ACPI

  • Add support for CPPC v3 commit

  • PPTT: Add Processor Properties Topology Table parsing commit

  • Add PPTT to injectable table list commit

  • Enable PPTT support on ARM64 commit

  • IORT: Add PMCG node supprt commit

• tools: pm-graph: upgrade to v5.1 commit

• cpufreq

  • Intel_pstate: HWP Dynamic performance boost commit, commit, commit, commit

  • Support for CPPC v3 commit

  • Add Kryo CPU scaling driver commit

• EFI: Add decoding for the IA32/X64 Common Platform Error Record commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• thermal

  • int340x: processor_thermal: Add GeminiLake support commit

  • mediatek: add support for MT7622 SoC commit

  • qcom-spmi-temp-alarm: add support for GEN2 PMIC peripherals commit

  • rcar_thermal: add r8a77995 support commit

  • samsung: Remove support for Exynos5440 commit

  • uniphier: add UniPhier PXs3 support commit

• tools/power turbostat

  • Add Cannon Lake support commit

  • Build-in "Low Power Idle" counters support commit

  • Add --enable Time_Of_Day_Seconds commit

12.11. Real Time Clock (RTC)

• stm32: add stm32mp1 rtc support commit

• test: remove irq sysfs file commit

12.12. Voltage, current regulators, power capping, power supply

• power

  • supply: axp288_charger: Support 3500 and 4000 mA input current limit commit

  • supply: bq27xxx: Add support for BQ27426 commit

• regulator

  • ab8500: Drop AB8540/9540 support commit

  • Add support for SY8106A regulator commit

  • bd71837: BD71837 PMIC regulator driver commit

  • bd9571mwv: Add support for backup mode commit

  • qcom_spmi: Add support for SAW commit

12.13. Pin Controllers (pinctrl)

• actions: Add Actions S900 pinctrl driver commit

• actions: Add gpio support for Actions S900 SoC commit

• qcom: qdf2xxx: add support for new ACPI HID QCOM8002 commit

• rockchip: Add pinctrl support for PX30 commit

• samsung: Remove support for Exynos5440 commit

• sh-pfc: Add r8a77470 PFC support commit

• sh-pfc: Initial R8A77990 PFC support commit

• sunxi: add support for H6 R_PIO pin controller commit

12.14. Multi Media Card (MMC)

• renesas_sdhi: Add r8a77965 support commit

• jz4740: Add support for the JZ4780 commit

• meson-axg: add support for the Meson-AXG platform commit

12.15. Memory Technology Devices (MTD)

• Add sysfs attribute for mtd OOB available size commit

• spi-nor: Add Micron MT25QU02 support commit

• spi-nor: Add support for XM25QH64A and XM25QH128A commit

• spi-nor: Add support for is25wp series chips commit

• spi-nor: fsl-quadspi: add support for ls2080a/ls1080a commit

12.16. Industrial I/O (iio)

• Move adis16201 driver out of staging commit

• Move adis16209 driver out of staging commit

• accel: st_accel: Add support for the SMO8840 ACPI id commit

• adc: stm32-adc: add support for STM32MP1 commit

• dac: add TI DAC5571 family support commit

• imu: st_lsm6dsx: add support to ism330dlc commit

• dac:ad5686: Add AD5671R/75R/94/94R/95R/96/96R support commit, AD5672R/76/76R/84R/86R support commit, AD5681R/AD5682R/AD5683/AD5683R support commit, AD5691R/AD5692R/AD5693/AD5693R support commit

• staging: iio: ad2s1200: Move driver out of staging commit

12.17. Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM)

• stm32: Add capture support commit

12.18. Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C)

• i2c-stm32f7: Add initial SMBus protocols support commit

• i2c-stm32f7: Add slave support commit

• xlp9xx: Add support for SMBAlert commit

• qup: Add support for Fast Mode Plus commit

• tda9950: add CEC driver commit

12.19. Hardware monitoring (hwmon)

• ibmpowernv: Add energy sensors commit

• k10temp: Add support for Stoney Ridge and Bristol Ridge CPUs commit

• k10temp: Display both Tctl and Tdie commit

• ltc2990: support all measurement modes commit

• MC13783: Add uid and die temperature sensor inputs commit

12.20. Leds

• Add Spreadtrum SC27xx breathing light controller driver commit

• add LED driver for CR0014114 board commit

• lm3601x: Introduce the lm3601x LED driver commit

12.21. Cryptography hardware acceleration

• ccree: enable support for hardware keys commit

• crypto4xx: add aes-ctr support commit

• inside-secure: authenc(hmac(sha224), cbc(aes)) support commit, authenc(hmac(sha256), cbc(aes)) support commit, authenc(hmac(sha1), cbc(aes)) support commit

• ccp: Add new SEV commands commit, commit

12.22. PCI

• Add pci=noats boot parameter. When supplied, all ATS related functions fail immediately and the IOMMU is configured to not use device-IOTLB commit

• PCI/IOV: Add pci-pf-stub driver for PFs that only enable VFs commit

• dwc: Add support for EP mode commit

• mobiveil: Add MSI support commit

• mobiveil: Add Mobiveil PCIe Host Bridge IP driver commit

• rcar: Add R-Car gen3 PHY support commit

• Add Intel VMD devices to pci ids commit

• rockchip: Add EP driver for Rockchip PCIe controller commit

12.23. Clock

• actions: Add clock driver for Actions S900 SoC commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• imx6: add EPIT clock support commit

• meson-axg: Add AO Clock and Reset controller driver commit

• npcm7xx: add clock controller commit

• qcom: Add Global Clock controller (GCC) driver for SDM845 commit

• qcom: Add support for controlling Fabia PLL commit

• renesas: cpg-mssr: Add r8a77470 support commit

• renesas: cpg-mssr: Add support for R-Car E3 commit

• sunxi-ng: add support for H6 PRCM CCU commit

12.24. Various

• EDAC, altera: Add support for Stratix10 SDRAM EDAC commit

• EDAC, ghes: Add DDR4 and NVDIMM memory types commit

• HISI LPC: Add ACPI UART support commit

• Remove jsflash driver commit

• qcom: add command DB driver commit

• firmware: coreboot: Add coreboot framebuffer driver commit

• fpga: lattice machxo2: Add Lattice MachXO2 support commit

• ipmi: Add a maintenance mode for IPMB messages commit

• ipmi: Add a way to tune some timeouts commit

• ipmi: Remove the proc interface commit

• ipmi: add an NPCM7xx KCS BMC driver commit

• irqchip

  • Level-triggered MSI support commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

  • meson-gpio: Add support for Meson-AXG SoCs commit

  • stm32: stm32: add exti support for stm32mp157c commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit, commit

• mailbox: add STMicroelectronics STM32 IPCC driver commit

• ocxl: Add an IOCTL so userspace knows what OCXL features are available commit, commit

• phy: Add a driver for the ATH79 USB phy commit

• phy: cp110-comphy: 2.5G SGMII mode commit

• phy: mediatek: add XS-PHY driver commit

• phy: qcom-qmp: Add QMP V3 USB3 UNI PHY support for sdm845 commit

• phy: qcom-qusb2: Add QUSB2 PHYs support for sdm845 commit

• regulator: tps6586x: Add support for TPS658624 commit

• remoteproc: q6v5: Add support for mss remoteproc on SDM845 commit

• soc: qcom: Add APR bus driver commit

• soc: qcom: Add GENI based QUP Wrapper driver commit

• soc: renesas: rcar-sysc: Add r8a77470 support commit

• soc: renesas: rcar-sysc: Add support for R-Car E3 power areas commit

• soc: ti: K2G: enhancement to support QMSS in K2G NAVSS commit

• serial: qcom_geni_serial: Add early console support commit

13. List of merges

• Pull block updates

• Pull dcache updates

• Pull rmdir update

• Pull procfs updates

• Pull misc vfs updates

• Pull dma-mapping updates

• Pull hwmon updates

• Pull chrome platform updates

• Pull spi updates

• Pull regmap updates

• Pull documentation updates

• Pull dcache lookup cleanups

• Pull aio updates

• Pull btrfs updates

• Pull dlm updates

• Pull gfs2 updates

• Pull cifs updates

• Pull userns updates

• Pull siginfo updates

• Pull m68k updates

• Pull RCU updates

• Pull EFI updates

• Pull locking updates

• Pull perf tooling fixes

• Pull perf updates

• Pull scheduler updates

• Pull x86 boot updates

• Pull x86 asm updates

• Pull x86 build updates

• Pull x86 cleanups

• Pull x86 debug updates

• Pull x86 dax updates

• Pull irq updates

• Pull x86 RAS updates

• Pull timers and timekeeping updates

• Pull time/Y2038 updates

• Pull x86 cache resource controller updates

• Pull x86 hyperv updates

• Merge faddr2line updates

• Pull power management updates

• Pull ACPI updates

• Pull device properties framework update

• Pull reed-salomon library updates

• Pull m68knommu updates

• Pull s390 updates

• Pull ext4 updates

• Pull xfs updates

• Pull fscrypt updates

• Pull crypto updates

• Pull input updates

• Pull LED updates

• Pull MMC updates

• Pull USB and PHY updates

• Pull char/misc driver updates

• Pull driver core updates

• Pull tty/serial updates

• Pull libata updates

• Pull cgroup updates

• Pull workqueue updates

• Pull drm updates

• Pull sound updates

• Pull Kbuild updates

• Pull Kconfig updates

• Pull Kselftest update

• Pull ARM updates

• Pull EDAC updates

• Pull IPMI updates

• Pull printk updates

• Pull security system updates

• Pull SELinux updates

• Pull audit updates

• Pull tracing updates

• Pull overflow updates

• Pull networking updates

• Pull fuse updates

• Pull overlayfs fixes

• Pull orangefs updates

• Pull udf updates

• Pull microblaze updates

• Pull powerpc updates

• Pull media updates

• Pull PCI updates

• Pull rdma updates

• Pull mailbox updates

• Pull pin control updates

• Pull auxdisplay updates

• Pull DeviceTree updates

• Pull integrity updates

• Pull TPM updates

• Pull smack update

• Merge memory management/ocfs2/v9fs/procfs/autofs updates from akpm

• Pull xen updates

• Pull aio iopriority support

• Pull HID updates

• Pull GPIO updates

• Pull MTD updates

• Pull IOMMU updates

• Pull dmaengine updates

• Pull arm64 updates

• Pull regulator updates

• Pull libnvdimm updates

• Pull staging/IIO updates

• Pull IDE updates

• Pull sparc updates

• Pull MD updates

• Pull clk updates

• Pull power supply and reset updates

• Merge proc_cmdline simplifications.

• Pull more perf tooling updates

• Pull x86 pti updates

• Pull x86 updates and fixes

• Pull restartable sequence support

• Pull SCSI updates

• Pull UBI and UBIFS updates

• Pull RTC updates

• Pull MFD updates

• Pull backlight updates

• Pull f2fs updates

• Pull hwspinlock updates

• Pull remoteproc updates

• Pull rpmsg updates

• Pull watchdog updates

• Pull ARM SoC platform updates

• Pull ARM SoC device tree updates

• Pull ARM SoC driver updates

• Pull ARM SoC late updates

• Pull nfsd updates

• Pull NFS client updates

• Pull KVM updates

• Pull MIPS updates

• Pull VFIO updates

• Pull NTB updates

• Pull thermal updates

• Pull thermal SoC updates

• Pull more PCI updates

• Pull more xfs updates

• Pull device mapper updates

• Pull more overflow updates

• Pull more power management updates

• Pull additional ACPI updates

• Pull more Kbuild updates

• Pull AppArmor updates

• Pull i2c updates

• Pull pwm updates

• Pull x86 platform driver updates

• Pull ceph updates

• Pull inode timestamps conversion to timespec64

• Merge more memory management and kcov updates from akpm

• Pull virtio updates

• Pull more kvm updates

• Pull RISC-V updates

• Pull uml updates

• Pull module updates

• Pull compat updates

• Pull AFS updates

• Pull fbdev updates

• Pull fsnotify updates

14. Other news sites

• LWN's merge window part 1, part 2, Statistics from the 4.18 development cycle

• Phoronix The Changes & New Features For Linux 4.18, Benchmarks Are Incoming

• In German: Die Neuerungen von Linux 4.18