Some Of The Other Changes Slated For Linux 4.16

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 10 January 2018 at 03:16 PM EST. Add A Comment
LINUX KERNEL
There's still a week and a half to go until the Linux 4.15.0 stable kernel release is expected and that rings in the Linux 4.16 merge window. On top of various Linux 4.16 changes already talked about, here's a look at some of the other kernel features/additions expected for this next release cycle.

Beyond the work already discussed in other articles on Phoronix, when digging through the recently updated Git "-next" trees for other subsystems, here is some of what can be expected for Linux 4.16:

- Input updates queued currently for Linux 4.16 include the Year 2038 input driver workaround, support for capacitive home buttons found on some x86 tablets, support for the Samsung S6SY761 touchscreen, and HiDeep touchscreen support.

- Over on the HID front is some new hardware support too. HID for Linux 4.16 should have support for Jabra USB HID devices, Wacom driver processing improvements, some multi-touchfixes, and various quirk additions.

- DM code so far dm-mpath NVMe bio-based support and other improvements/fixes.

- In the next tree on KVM is support for the Intel Processor Trace virtualization mode and support for emulating UMIP (User Mode Instruction Prevention).

- Over in the ARM space, there should be ARMv8.4 additions just as we've seen recently with ARMv8.4 upbringing in GCC and other components.

- It looks like the SoundWire subsystem could be added. SoundWire has yet to be merged to mainline but there is now a sdw_v4.16 branch making it look like a pull request will be sent in. SoundWire is the Intel-led audio effort that's been going on for a while and by the end of last year got into shape. So now it looks like SoundWire is ready for upstream if Linus is happy with it.

Stay tuned for more details on the Linux 4.16 changes as the merge window opens later this month followed certainly by our benchmarks.
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About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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