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A Steam Frame user posted in Valve's forums asking for external optical drive support so they could watch movies and install older disc-based games. A Valve developer, gaberowe, responded the next day and pushed a kernel commit enabling the feature in under 10 minutes, adding it to the SteamOS ARM Linux kernel repository used for the device.
A new open-source Linux kernel module called GPU-unlock removes Nvidia's artificial cap on FP16/BF16 instruction issue rates for GeForce RTX 3000-series cards based on the GA102, GA103, GA104 and GA106 chips, bringing them up to the rate normally reserved for professional cards. It works by writing specific speed-selector registers and performing a function-level reset before the stock Nvidia driver loads, avoiding the need for manual driver patching after each update. Community-reported benchmarks on cards like the RTX 3090 Ti, 3090, 3080 and 3070 show BF16 GEMM throughput gains ranging roughly from 25% to over 80%.
A developer writing a personal container runtime project shared findings about how Docker actually works under the hood. They note that containers are not a distinct Linux feature but a combination of namespaces, cgroups and networking tricks, that container images are simply folders used with chroot or pivot_root, and that Docker's runc runtime (written in Go) needs workarounds because Go lacks fork and runs multi-threaded by default.
Anthropic, working with Theorem, reports using its Claude models to generate formal mathematical proofs of security properties for more than 100 real-world open-source software libraries at the RISC-V assembly level. The company says this is the first large-scale attempt to apply AI-driven formal verification to production software at that level, and that Claude uncovered previously undetected bugs in the process.
Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative appears to have mistakenly posted several unpatched Linux kernel vulnerability reports to the public Linux Kernel Mailing List rather than the private security list. The disclosures include two CVSS 9.0-rated bugs enabling remote code execution via SMB Direct and KSMBD, plus other flaws affecting VMware's graphics driver, NVMET, and network code. Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman reportedly responded to each report questioning why they were submitted publicly.
The Crystal language team shipped version 1.22.0, which includes 251 changes from 33 contributors since the 1.21.1 release. Notable updates include a breaking change that makes processes exit immediately on EPIPE write failures, support for type declarations on constants, promotion of aarch64-linux targets to Tier 1 support, removal of the long-deprecated Process.fork, and several new compile-time macros.
Atari announced it will shut down the official software store for its 2021 VCS console-PC hybrid on February 1, 2027, with purchases allowed until January 31, 2027. The company plans to release an OS update letting owners migrate functionality to local storage, removing dependence on Atari's servers for authentication and software, and will roll out an Atari Homebrew App so users can keep building and installing games afterward.
Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative mistakenly sent several Linux kernel vulnerability reports to the public Linux kernel mailing list instead of the private security list. The disclosed issues include two CVSS 9.0-rated bugs in SMB Direct and KSMBD that could enable remote code execution, plus additional flaws in networking code, VMware's graphics driver, and NVMe target code. Kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman responded to each report questioning why they were posted publicly, and most of the flaws remain unpatched in mainline, though some fixes are in testing or queued branches.
Atari announced it will close the official online store for its VCS mini PC in early 2027, ending the ability to download new apps and games through that platform. Previously downloaded software will remain usable, and Atari plans an OS update to remove dependencies on its servers for authentication and software access. The company also plans an Atari Home Brew app to let third-party developers keep adding games after the store closes.
ArtCraft, the team behind PhotoCraft, WordCraft and other reverse-engineered productivity apps, has launched GridCraft, a free and open-source spreadsheet application built in Rust. It runs natively across Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows, supports native XLSX files, over 500 calculation functions, pivot tables, and handles large spreadsheets without performance issues, though it currently lacks a strong template feature.
A solo developer has released ZacOS 9, a free and open-source Linux distribution that recreates the Mac OS 8/9 Platinum interface from scratch, including a custom window manager, file browser and menu bar. It runs standard Debian and Flathub apps within that retro look, includes a SheepShaver emulator for running classic Mac OS with a user-supplied ROM, and supports AppleTalk/AFP file sharing with old Macs. It can be tried live from USB or installed afterward.
AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K submitted Linux kernel patches for an 'AOD' WMI driver that exposes Ryzen overclocking controls through sysfs. The initial driver lets users set Package Power Tracking, Thermal Design Current, and Electrical Design Current limits, toggle SMT at the platform level, and read supported ranges and memory clocks, with changes taking effect after a reboot rather than in real time.