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hß · Linux & UnixCurated

First release candidate of Linux kernel 3.1 released

Summary

In August 2011 Linus Torvalds published the first release candidate of Linux 3.1, whose release was planned for early October. The focus was on improvements to virtualisation, including basic nested virtualisation with KVM on Intel processors. Also new were drivers for Realtek’s RTL8192DE and RTL8188DE PCIe Wi-Fi chips.

Ideas

  • Nested virtualisation starts a guest system from within another guest system.
  • KVM now gained this capability on Intel processors as well.
  • New Wi-Fi drivers were added for widely used Realtek chips.

Insights

  • Nested virtualisation makes test environments for hypervisors possible without dedicated hardware.
  • Driver support for cheap Wi-Fi chips decides whether Linux runs on entry-level devices.

Facts

  • The Realtek RTL8192DE and RTL8188DE chips were supported.

References

Critique

  • The report is very brief and refers to the Kernel-Log for the actual new features.

Remarks

  • After the break-in at kernel.org, Linux 3.1 only appeared at the end of October 2011.

Recommendations

  • Use nested virtualisation for testing and training, not for performance-critical production systems.
  • Before buying Wi-Fi hardware, check whether a driver exists in the mainline kernel.

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