Kernel Space: DKMS vs kmod, DRM Panic, LKML, and Compiling Linux
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Klara ☛ DKMS vs kmod: The Essential Guide for ZFS on Linux
There are two components to ZFS – the utilities such as zpool, zfs and zdb and the the kernel modules which are required to mount ZFS filesystems. Kernel modules typically need to be compiled against the exact kernel that is in use to ensure the components are compatible. The deep integration of ZFS with FreeBSD – or indeed Solaris or NetBSD – can be a significant advantage when deploying ZFS. As the code lives in the same tree, all of the components are updated together. However, rather infamously, license incompatibilities preclude ZFS from being included directly in the upstream Linux kernel. There are many good reasons to use Linux, and we’ll cover options for deployment of ZFS on Linux as an external kernel module.
Your choice of Linux distribution will affect many of the details. Ubuntu, in particular, makes a compatible version of ZFS available in their package repositories. However, the version of ZFS tends to be older and you may want access to newer features. So, Ubuntu could be a good choice if you don’t have other constraints. In this article we will primarily consider Redhat and variants of it like AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, but the fundamentals apply to all Linux distributions more widely.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Linux's true BSOD equivalent, DRM Panic, is now supported by the current AMD GPUs
Recent AMD GPUs now support Linux's BSOD equivalent.
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Adam Young: Preparing to send a patch to LKML
It took me a couple months to get back to my patch, and in the interim, I forgot everything about formatting a patch series to LKML. Here’s what I have remembered.
There are a handful of tools I need to run to check my code before submitting a patch to the Linux Kernel.
First is the standard format checker included in the kernel itself. I run it this way:
./scripts/checkpatch.pl –max-line-length=80 <file>
It can also be run on a patch, but since my patch is pretty much a file, I used to run it against the file. However, passing in the patch file also works, and will check the commit message.
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HowTo Geek ☛ You Probably Don't Need to Compile a Linux Kernel Anymore
Compiling a kernel used to be a rite of passage for many Linux users back in the '90s and early '00s. These days, it seems that hardly anyone does so anymore. Why is that?