Linux 4.18 released: Raspberry Pi 3 support and harbingers of new firewall technology
Summary
Linux 4.18 appeared in August 2018 with support for USB 3.2 and improved support for the Raspberry Pi 3. Also new were the beginnings of a firewall approach based on eBPF, new graphics drivers and improvements to the live migration of virtual machines. The heise report itself is a short teaser; the details were provided by the Kernel-Log.
Ideas
- USB 3.2 doubles the data rate compared with USB 3.1 by using two lanes.
- Packet filtering via eBPF was meant to speed up iptables rules in the kernel.
- Better support for popular single-board computers strengthens the mainline kernel against vendor kernels.
- Live migration moves running VMs between hosts without interruption.
Insights
- Mainline support for the Raspberry Pi makes distributions less dependent on special kernels.
- New firewall approaches in the kernel often appear as a framework long before they are of practical use.
Facts
- The eBPF-based firewall framework was called bpfilter.
- Linux 4.18 was released on 12 August 2018.
References
Critique
- The report consists almost entirely of a headline and teaser and refers to other articles for every statement.
Remarks
- bpfilter did not catch on; nftables established itself as the successor to iptables.
Recommendations
- Move firewall rules to nftables instead of relying on experimental kernel approaches.
- On the Raspberry Pi, prefer distributions with a mainline kernel and regular updates.
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