First release candidate of Linux kernel 6.9 looks 'fairly normal,' says Torvalds

Linus Torvalds just announced the first RC of 6.9 on the Linux Kernel mailing list, saying it "looks to be fairly normal", although it's a recordbreaker in size. He did call out a few changes in RC-1 of kernel 6.9, which should be ready in roughly mid-May, as especially noteworthy. One is a very old feature that's being shown …

[hayzoos]

NTFS/Linux permissions

Does root map to administrator? What could map to Windows system account? Many possible ways around the problem and make a complete mess of the ACLs when handed back to Windows.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: NTFS/Linux permissions

Perhaps use the suid mount option, so root maps to nobody unless mounted suid, when it could map to administrator?

I've not used NTFS on Linux, so may be way off base, of course.

[abend0c4]

Re: NTFS/Linux permissions

The kernel driver has no knowledge of Windows accounts: existing files are owned by root unless a uid/gid is specified when mounting the device, new files are owned by the creator. None of this is persistent as there's nowhere to record it on an NTFS volume and the (NTFS) ACLs are not changed.

If you use ntfs-3g, there is a utility, "ntfsusermap", which can be used to create mappings between Windows and Linux accounts within limits.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Bitlocker

> Microsoft's on-by-default BitLocker and Fast Startup features will prevent you mounting NTFS volumes from Linux, unless you manually disable them in Windows.

Isn't that rather the behavior you would want from a full disk encryption ?

[Liam Proven]

Re: Bitlocker

[Author here]

> Isn't that rather the behavior you would want from a full disk encryption ?

It absolutely is... unless you want to dual boot. TBH this caught me by surprise: not being a habitual Windows user since the start of the century, I had no idea this was on by default. You never get asked, you never see a password prompt, you don't know what it is, but it's there.

Also, many Intel laptops, even if they only support a single SSD, ship with Intel Matrix RAID enabled. It's totally futile but it's on, and it stops Linux seeing the disk controller. If you turn it off, Windows won't boot, and even if you want to nuke and reload Linux as the single OS, for an easy life you want that EFI partition.

Being cynical and a little paranoid, I suspect these are 100% intentional anti-Linux measures from A Prominent North Western USA OS Vendor.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Bitlocker

It is possible to boot into windows recovery and fix it after turning it to AHCI mode but it's a pain.

Yes I would believe it's a deliberate Linux block, Balmer is back and just a bit more subtle

[captain veg]

fourk

"Some of the other, smaller changes in 6.9 will be more visible, such as larger console fonts on 4K monitors."

Or you could just get a bigger screen.

-A.

[David 132]

Re: fourk

Or sit closer to your existing screen.

[Kev99]

One thing that confuse me. If Linux is so good, why does the kernel need to be updated continually? Can't Torvalds get it right?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Same reason people keep having children when perfection was obviously reached with YAANONC

[Androgynous Cupboard]

Obvious troll is obvious.

[Liam Proven]

[Author here]

> why does the kernel need to be updated continually?

Because the hardware won't sit still and keeps changing?

Over 50% of the changes each release are the thousands of embedded device drivers.

Now, one could certainly argue that a clean kernel shouldn't have any device drivers in it, and indeed not have dozens of filesystems and so on, but that is a different argument that the trolls usually are not smart enough to make.

[Zolko]

a clean kernel shouldn't have any device drivers in it

speaking of which: what is the status of user-space device drivers in Linux ?

[Liam Proven]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a picture is worth 1000 words.

https://www.theregister.com/2012/06/18/torvalds_curses_nvidia/