Torvalds is Not Happy with Intel's Patch, Calls it Garbage
Intel is asking users to stop deploying the patches
Intels' woes are not going away. After releasing the patches for Spectre/Meltdown, the company is asking users to stop installing these patches until a better version is out.
“We recommend that OEMs, cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors, and end users stop deployment of current versions on specific platforms,” Navin Shenoy, executive vice president of Intel wrote in an announcement, “as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior.”
Red Hat has already reverted the patches that the companies earlier released for the RHEL family of products, after reports of rebooting problems.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, reserves the harshest words for Intel. “... I really don't want to see these garbage patches just mindlessly sent around," wrote Torvalds on the LKML mailing list.
Though not everyone on the mailing list thought it was such a bad thing. One maintainer said, "Certainly it's a nasty hack, but hey -- the world was on fire and in the end we didn't have to just turn the data centres off and go back to goat farming, so it's not all bad."
Another maintainer chimed in and said, "As a hack for existing CPUs, it's just about tolerable — as long as it can die entirely by the next generation."
Torvalds didn't buy either arguments. "That's part of the big problem here. The speculation control cpuid stuff shows that Intel actually seems to plan on doing the right thing for meltdown (the main question being _when_). Which is not a huge surprise, since it should be easy to fix, and it's a really honking big hole to drive through. Not doing the right thing for meltdown would be completely unacceptable," said Torvalds. "So the IBRS garbage implies that Intel is _not_ planning on doing the right thing for the indirect branch speculation. Honestly, that's completely unacceptable too."
Issue 261/2022
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Manjaro 21.3.0 Is Now Available
Manjaro “Ruah” has been released and includes the latest Calamares installer, GNOME 42, and much more.
-
SpiralLinux is a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity
A new Linux distribution, from the creator of GeckoLinux, is a Debian-based operating system with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.
-
HP Dev One Linux Laptop is Now Available for Pre-Order
The System76/HP collaboration Dev One laptop, geared toward developers, is now available for pre-order.
-
NixOS 22.5 Is Now Available
The latest release of NixOS with a much-improved package manager and a user-friendly graphical installer.
-
System76 Teams up with HP to Create the Dev One Laptop
HP and System76 have come together to develop a new laptop, powered by Pop!_OS and aimed toward developers.
-
Titan Linux is a New KDE Linux Based on Debian Stable
Titan Linux is a new Debian-based Linux distribution that features the KDE Plasma desktop with a focus on usability and performance.
-
Danielle Foré Has an Update for elementary OS 7
Now that Ubuntu 22.04 has been released, the team behind elementary OS is preparing for the upcoming 7.0 release.
-
Linux New Media Launches Open Source JobHub
New job website focuses on connecting technical and non-technical professionals with organizations in open source.
-
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 Now Available
Ubuntu Cinnamon 22.04 has been released with all the additions from upstream as well as other features and improvements.
-
Pop!_OS 22.04 Has Officially Been Released
From the makers of some of the finest Linux-powered desktop and laptop computers on the market comes the latest version of their Ubuntu-based distribution, Pop!_OS 22.04.