Linus Torvald, the father of Linux: After celebrating the 30th anniversary of Linux, let’s take a look at the new Linux 5.14.

Yes, on August 30, Torvald announced the launch of Linux kernel 5.14.

In the announcement, he also joked, "Maybe you are still busy celebrating the 30th anniversary of Linux, maybe you are a little tired of fireworks, champagne and evening gowns, just in time, we have prepared a new version Originally a test!"

Linux 5.14 supports new hardware and improves existing functionality.

Super multi-function added! IDE no longer supported

There are so many new features added to Linux 5.14! Includes secret memory region support using memfd_secret, core scheduling support, persistent enablement around Intel Alder Lake, Yellow Carp and Beige Goby AMD graphics support, AMD SmartShift laptop support, Raspberry Pi 400 support.

Perhaps the most important are memfd_secret and kernel dispatch, both of which perform cleanup efforts to mitigate Intel's Specter and Meltdown vulnerabilities.

Spectre and Meltdown mean cached data will be accessed. In response to this, memfd_secret is designed to provide a safe place for secrets such as encryption keys or passwords.

That is, an application can create a memory area that only it can access, not even the kernel.

Also, one way to mitigate Specter and Meltdown is to disable Hyper-Threading. Now, Linux can make Hyper-Threading technology more efficient and ensure that trusted and untrusted workloads don't share cores.

This is mainly targeted at hyperscale operators, but as regular Linux users increase, this update will have broad applicability.

Speaking of Intel, Linux 5.14 adds more support for Chipzilla's Alder Lake platform, which can prioritize workloads as needed.

Linux 5.14 also enhances support for the RISC-V architecture, giving it access to more core kernel features, such as the transparent hugepages memory mapping tool.

In addition, Linux 5.14 will also add Dell hardware privacy support. Previously, Dell provided a driver that allowed disabling the webcam and microphone at the hardware level to enable an actual kill switch or key combination that did the same thing in some Dell laptops.

Linux 5.14 brings full mainline kernel support to the Raspberry Pi 400, the all-in-one keyboard PC released last year. Although the device can run the old kernel relatively well, the latest version has fine-tuned various aspects and will be more stable to use.

In addition to the additions, Linux 5.14 also removed old code and will no longer support the IDE storage interface.

Torvalds said, "We removed all legacy IDE code. Tens of thousands of lines of old code are far from enough to balance the usual kernel growth."

Get Linux 5.14

Linux system is a free-to-use and freely disseminated Unix-like operating system. It is a multi-user, multi-task, multi-thread and multi-CPU operating system based on POSIX and Unix. It mainly Runs Unix tool software, applications and network protocols.

Linux 5.14 can be downloaded as source code from the kernel.org website, and then compiled. Alternatively, you can wait for the distribution maintainers to do it.

Rolling distributions like Arch will get updated kernels earlier than time-based distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Zorin OS.

Ubuntu 21.10 may be configured with Linux 5.14, but not necessarily.

Reference materials:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/30/linux_5_14/

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2021/08/linux-kernel-5-14-new-features

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