Linux Kernel Update Released

And what the heck! Now is as good a time for a kernel update as any other time I suppose. Still, before I rush to any preconceived judgments, I think that I would like to try it first.

The next stable update of the Linux kernel has been released. It was announced by an e-mail from Linux creator Linus Torvalds to the Linux kernel mailing list.

The 2.6.13 release comes after a series of release candidates were being tested, a process that uncovered several problems.

The release updates the kernel’s file system event monitoring — a set of system calls that lets users load another kernel from a current kernel — and advances in the Xtensa instruction set architecture designed for embedded applications.

March of the Penguin

“The most painful part of 2.6.13 is likely to be the fact that we made x86 use the generic PCI bus setup code for assigning unassigned resources,” Torvalds wrote in the e-mail.

“That uncovered rather a lot of nasty small details, but should also mean that a lot of laptops in particular should be able to discover PCI devices behind bridges that the BIOS hasn’t set up,” he added. [Read the rest]