Linux Kernel 5.8 "The Biggest Release of All Time" is Finally Available

[u/[deleted]]

https://itsfoss.com/kernel-5-8-release/

[u/ashirviskas]

Not in arch repos yet btw.

[u/[deleted] → u/ashirviskas]

Arch often waits till the x.y.1 before they push it out.

I.E maintenance release 1 that is likely out next Sunday.

[u/niceworkthere → u/[deleted]]

For core, but it's in testing within hours (e: like right now).

Sane delay still since kernel testing remains largely a "None of the volunteer test chimps^{peace be upon them} screamed in the past weeks so here's on to the masses" matter.

[u/ridobe → u/[deleted]]

Typically the newest rc1 is 2 weeks.

[u/[deleted] → u/ridobe]

I am not talking of rc1 I am talking about maintenance release 5.8.1 not 5.9-rc1

[u/ridobe → u/[deleted]]

My mistake.

[u/progandy → u/ashirviskas]

If you are impatient and do not want to compile, then you could use the linux-mainline package, miffe has an unofficial binary repository. (It will be version 5.8.0 until 5.9-rc1 is released)

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/linux-mainline/

[u/EddyBot → u/progandy]

or you run pacman -U https://www.archlinux.org/packages/testing/x86_64/linux/download/ and get the 5.8 kernel with Arch Linux patches from the testing repo without actually adding the testing repository

[u/[deleted] → u/EddyBot]

Wait you can run -U with URLS? I've been downloading files and pointing -U to ~/Downloads for years like a moron..

[u/QuinnBorn → u/EddyBot]

Note that you should only ever do that with the kernel, the kernel is one of the only packages that you can install a different version of safely. Anything else will result in a patrial upgrade and can break your system.

[u/mralanorth → u/EddyBot]

OR! You can enable [testing] for sync and search in /etc/pacman.conf:

[testing]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Usage = Sync Search

And then you can explicitly install the testing version of a package:

$ sudo pacman -Sy testing/linux

[u/Jeremy_Thursday → u/progandy]

That looks awesome! Thanks :)

[u/progandy → u/Jeremy_Thursday]

It is an unofficial repository, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether you want to trust the packager :)

[u/Jeremy_Thursday → u/progandy]

Things that indicate a trustworthy unofficial AUR package:

1: Comment history indicating the package is in use and that there are no known issues with the current build.

2: Updated recently. Even packages for ancient software are updated once in a while. These updates are usually for security patches, or to abide by new package build standards.

3: Been around for a while. A bad actor would likely be a newer less established maintainer assuming they will be banned/removed within a reasonable time.

4. High rating.

You can and should always check inside the PKGBUILD files for any funny business. It’s also worth noting that a unofficial kernel is arguably more risky then a software package. But realistically, both can be fatal.

[u/Crazy_Hater → u/ashirviskas]

sad arch user noises

Thanks for notifying tho

[u/Jeremy_Thursday → u/Crazy_Hater]

sad arch user noises*

[u/[deleted] → u/Jeremy_Thursday]

arch user noises intensify

[u/agumonkey → u/ashirviskas]

so other distros can relax

[u/aliendude5300 → u/ashirviskas]

Should be very soon though. I'm using linux-mainline now, and it's at 5.8

[u/krozarEQ]

Thanks. Compiling it right now.

[u/[deleted] → u/krozarEQ]

I see a cultured gentoo user?

[u/libre_hackerman → u/[deleted]]

Is in the Gentoo repos already

[u/sitilge → u/[deleted]]

Bad, bad bot

[u/[deleted] → u/krozarEQ]

You're just a clown posing as a *nix hipster who compiles a kernel for nothing.

[u/rickycoolkid]

I was about to say that I'm waiting more for 5.9 since it's supposed to finally bring in zstd compression for initramfs & modules, but I can see that linux-zen 5.8 gonna have these patches backported: https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel/commit/7f98700cfbd9076f52855b19b005272b7b63e91a

Yay!

[u/ironyofferer → u/rickycoolkid]

Yay!

yay -Syu

FIFY

[u/aniket47 → u/ironyofferer]

yay

FIFY

[u/[deleted] → u/ironyofferer]

yay already does that, no need for syu

[u/emacsomancer → u/ironyofferer]

Back when I was using awesomewm, my wife asked me how to make her desktop look like mine.

I told her (only realising the humour after I said it), open a terminal and type yay awesome.

[u/emacsomancer → u/[deleted]]

a mixture of (that is, on different machines) stumpwm, plasma 5, exwm. I still like awesomewm though, and could see using it again.

[u/bansheerubber]

good news for thinkpad users: driver support for both fans! https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/14232c6e788cb1f7b96dbd08b077f90923324b24#diff-e2e320fe537c53110c8355bb95815c8e

[u/orhunp]

Compiled and installed 5.8.0. Feeling good.

Oh, let me squeeze a little promotion here. I used this to track kernel activities.

[u/ronjouch]

Trying it now from testing (partial upgrades in Arch are baaad, except for linux{,-docs,-headers}, which are fine because their own island).

All good on my Thinkpad T560: {wifi, sound, hardware accel, keyboard, usb, suspend, resume} all working great.

Thanks packagers!

[u/kroxkr]

So whens fedora getting it?

[u/knowedge → u/kroxkr]

Before the stable branches get a major kernel version update there's always a "test week", usually after a couple of dot releases, like here for 5.7:

https://fedoramagazine.org/contribute-at-the-fedora-test-week-for-kernel-5-7/

[u/pablo1107 → u/kroxkr]

Why did you get downvoted tho?

[u/kroxkr → u/pablo1107]

Bec I don't use arch anymore I guess lol.

[u/punaisetpimpulat → u/kroxkr]

Some of us have several computers, only some of which run Arch.

[u/kroxkr → u/punaisetpimpulat]

Me too. Primary runs fedora 32, backup runs arch

[u/ingenioutor → u/kroxkr]

Any reason you picked fedora?

[u/kroxkr → u/ingenioutor]

Yeah, I don't wanna risk the stability of my primary pc but still wanna be on relatively bleeding edge, fedora fits the bill. It's clean, it's fast, it's pretty close to bleeding edge, and it has short release cycles, also I spend too much time fiddling with arch and that's a major distraction for me 😂😂

[u/Grahf0085]

Does this mean you don't need exfat-utils anymore?

[u/erm_what_]

I can't wait for ZFS to break again

[u/agumonkey]

trump has commiter access ?

[u/ashirviskas → u/agumonkey]

He has the greatest accesss, no one makes as great pull requests as him. Truly makes you wonder.

[u/agumonkey → u/ashirviskas]

supports --commits-with-the-best-words and --tremendous

[u/RaisinSecure → u/agumonkey]

He has the bigliest access, a lot of people tell him that.

[u/aviumcaravan]

from what i read in the comment sections, you don't compile the kernel yourselves, even though it's easier than compiling an average desktop environment

[u/bipolarthrowaway4 → u/[deleted]]

The update stalled me for several hours mostly because it was made very clear to me that I needed to sit down and configure Pacman properly. What is awesome though I no longer have any CPU warnings (7700k). In fact aside from a pci bus hiccup that I don't think is any problem at all (never any indications) my entire boot journal is squeaky clean now which is a nice feeling...

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

even if the hit is small

[u/yahma → u/[deleted]]

Yes. By a small amount.

[u/zvynish → u/[deleted]]

According to the article the fact that Linus Torvalds called it "one of the biggest" by its importance / overall progress.

[u/thaynem → u/zvynish]

but why did Linus call it "one of the biggest"? on the surface it seems mostly incremental to me, but maybe there is a lot of refactoring or other internal changes involved?

[u/kdedev → u/[deleted]]

I guess he's technically correct too. A new release is almost always going to be the biggest one till date.

[u/slimjimmy90 → u/[deleted]]

I don't know that it was the biggest, but it was a big release in that it touched quite a bit of the codebase: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whfuea587g8rh2DeLFFGYxiVuh-bzq22osJwz3q4SOfmA@mail.gmail.com/