linux kernel 2.6.30, 31, 32 change list

Linux 2 6 30

Linux 2.6.30 was released on the 9th of June, 2009.

Summary: This version adds the log-structured NILFS2 filesystem, a filesystem for object-based storage devices, a caching layer for local caching of NFS data, the RDS protocol which delivers high-performance reliable connections between the servers of a cluster, a distributed networking filesystem (POHMELFS), automatic flushing of files on renames/truncates in ext3, ext4 and btrfs, preliminary support for the 802.11w drafts, support for the Microblaze architecture, the Tomoyo security module, DRM support for the Radeon R6xx/R7xx graphic cards, asynchronous scanning of devices and partitions for faster bootup, MD support for switching between raid5/6 modes, the preadv/pwritev syscalls, several new drivers and many other small improvements.

1. Prominent features (the cool stuff)
1. NILFS2, a log-structured filesystem
2. POHMELFS and DST
3. Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol support
4. Fastboot
1. Booting 시 Sync로 느린 부분들을 Async 하게 진행할 수 있도록 함.
5. IEEE 802.11w (wireless management frame protection support)
6. preadv()/pwritev() system calls
7. EXOFS, a filesystem for Object-Based Storage Devices
8. NFS 4.1 preliminary support
9. FS-Cache, a caching filesystem
10. Tomoyo, an alternative Mandatory Access Control
11. Filesystems performance improvements
12. LZMA/BZIP2 kernel image compression
13. Microblaze CPU architecture
14. Integrity Management Architecture

 

 

Linux 2 6 31

Linux 2.6.31 kernel released on 9 September, 2009

Spam: Valerie Aurora has publised on LWN a great article explaining some parts of the deep internals of btrfs. Since btrfs is expected to replace Ext4 at some point, it's an interesting read.

Summary: This version adds USB 3.0 support, a equivalent of FUSE for character devices used for proxying OSS sound to ALSA, some memory management changes that improve interactivity in desktops, readahead improvements, ATI Radeon Modesetting support, support for Intel's Wireless Multicomm 3200 Wifi devices, kernel support and a userspace tool for performance counters, gcov support, a memory checker for unitialized memory, a memory leak detector, a reimplementation of inotify and dnotify on top of a new filesystem notification infrastructure, btrfs improvements, support for the IEEE 802.15.4 network standard, IPv4 over Firewire, many new drivers, small improvements and fixes.

1. Prominent features (the cool stuff)
1. USB 3 support
2. CUSE (character devices in userspace) and OSS Proxy
3. Improve desktop interactivity under memory pressure
4. ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Setting support
5. Performance Counters
1. performance counters, ksplice, and fsnotify 가 추가 되어 system 정보를 좀 더 쉽게 수집할 수 있습니다.
6. IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks support
7. Gcov support
8. Kmemcheck
1. 초기화 하지 않는 kernel 메모리 사용에 대한 detect 와 warning 을 발생시켜 줍니다.
9. Kmemleak
1. Tracing garbage collector 와 유사한 방법으로 kernel memory leak 을 detect 해 줍니다.
10. Fsnotify
1. Fsnotify is a backend for filesystem notification
11. Preliminary NFS 4.1 client support
12. Context Readahead algorithm and mmap readhead improvements

 

 

Linux 2 6 32

Linux 2.6.32 has been released on December 3rd 2009.

Summary: This version adds virtualization memory de-duplication, a rewrite of the writeback code which provides noticeable performance speedups, many important Btrfs improvements and speedups, ATI R600/R700 3D and KMS support and other graphic improvements, a CFQ low latency mode, tracing improvements including a "perf timechart" tool that tries to be a better bootchart, soft limits in the memory controller, support for the S+Core architecture, support for Intel Moorestown and its new firmware interface, run time power management support, and many other improvements and new drivers.

1. Prominent features (the cool stuff)
1. Per-backing-device based writeback
1. Witeback 환경에서 pdfflush가 multiple storage devices 에 커다란 chunk 를 write 할 때 성능을 향상시켰습니다.
2. Btrfs improvements
3. Kernel Samepage Merging (memory deduplication)
1. 메모리 중복 제거
4. Improvements in the graphic stack
5. CFQ low latency mode
6. Tracing improvements: perf tracepoints, perf timechart and perf sched
1. 2.6.31 에서 추가되었던 “perf tool”의 기능이 향상 되었습니다.
7. Soft limits in the memory controller
1. Control group에 memory soft limit 을 줄 수 있습니다. 이는 free memory 가 필요할 때 기준치보다 초과된 group에서 메모리를 회수 합니다.
8. Easy local kernel configuration
1. Kernel config 를 쉽게 도와주는 Tool 입니다.
9. Virtualization improvements
10. Run-time Power Management
11. S+core architecture support
12. Intel Moorestown and SFI (Simple Firmware Interface) and ACPI 4.0 support
13. NAPI-like approach for block devices