📚 Open Source Technology DailyExploring the Infinite Possibilities of Open Source2025/6/8⚡Linux 6.16 Introduces New Helper Function to Restrict Symbols to Specific Kernel ModulesLinux 6.16 merge window is about to close, and all updates to the kernel build system “Kbuild” have been merged today, with the release of Linux 6.16-rc1 expected tomorrow. The most notable feature in this Kbuild submission is the introduction of the EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES helper macro.The newly added Linux kernel’s EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES() helper macro can be used to limit the export scope of kernel symbols to a specified list of modules.
The patch notes for this macro provide the following example: EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL_FOR_MODULES(preempt_notifier_inc, “kvm”); It is now easy to restrict GPL symbols to be used only by specific kernel modules. The macro places the exported symbols into the module namespace, preventing other modules from importing them. A comma-separated list can specify multiple modules. It also supports suffix wildcards like “drm_*” to select multiple modules.In addition to introducing this new macro, the Linux 6.16 Kbuild submission also improved ABI handling in gendwarfksyms and brought various other minor fixes and feature enhancements.💾 NumPy 2.3 Introduces OpenMP Parallelization SupportNumPy version 2.3 has been released today, marking the latest iteration of this widely used library for scientific computing. A significant feature of this version is the introduction of parallelization support via OpenMP for the first time.NumPy 2.3 introduces preliminary support for OpenMP parallel compilation. In the current version, OpenMP functionality is disabled by default, but users can easily enable it during the build by adding the “-Denable_openmp=true” parameter. In this milestone version, only the np.sort and np.argsort functions have implemented OpenMP-based multithreaded parallel execution.This OpenMP support was contributed by Intel software engineers. Previously, Intel also pushed for NumPy’s support for x86-simd-sort, achieving faster sorting operations on compatible platforms by utilizing the AVX2 and AVX-512 instruction sets.NumPy 2.3 also adds interactive examples in the documentation, preliminary support for ARM architecture Windows systems, improved thread safety for Python compatibility, and enhanced type annotation features.Users can download the release package and full feature description from GitHub.🔬 Linux 6.16 Prepares for RISC-V’s SBI Firmware Feature ExtensionsRISC-V architecture feature updates were merged into Linux 6.16’s merge window on Friday, which will close with the release of Linux 6.16-rc1 on Sunday.Notable RISC-V updates in Linux 6.16 include support for the Supervisor Binary Interface (SBI) firmware feature (FWFT) extension. This firmware feature extension is part of the SBI 3.0 specification and will provide the necessary foundation for supporting the new SBI and RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) extensions.The SBI firmware feature extension is used to manage and control specific hardware capabilities and SBI implementation functions; specific details can be found in the FWFT extension documentation and the RISC-V SBI specification.In terms of new features, this update also includes support for SiFive RISC-V vendor extensions.Linux 6.16’s RISC-V updates also include support for the MSEAL system call and the implementation of the getrandom function in vDSO. Additionally, new optimized routines for RAID6 checksum and recovery calculations have been added.Main updates include:– Support for FWFT SBI extension (part of SBI 3.0 specification, a prerequisite for several new SBI and ISA extensions)– Implementation of getrandom() support in VDSO– Support for mseal system call– Optimized RAID6 checksum and recovery calculation routines– kexec_file() support for loading Image format kernel binaries– Improved instruction patching framework for atomic-level instruction patching and established behavior rules necessary for system operation– Support for several new ISA extensions: Svinval, Zicbop, Zabha, and some SiFive vendor extensions– Multiple fixes and cleanups, including: handling of unaligned access, performance event symbol reorganization, module loading, PUD transparent huge pages, and improved user space access routinesInterested readers can find more details in this merge submission.🎯 Vulkan 1.4.317 Adds VP9 Video Decoding, ARM Tensor Support, and 8-bit Floating Point OperationsVulkan version 1.4.317 was officially released on Friday, bringing several exciting new extension features, including support for VP9 video decoding in Vulkan Video, support for 8-bit floating point data types, and more.
In addition to regular technical specification corrections and clarifications, the most notable features in Vulkan 1.4.317 include the following extensions: VK_KHR_maintenance9, VK_KHR_present_id2, VK_KHR_present_wait2, VK_KHR_unified_image_layouts, VK_KHR_video_decode_vp9, VK_ARM_tensors, and VK_EXT_shader_float8.Brief descriptions of these new Vulkan API extensions are as follows:VK_KHR_video_decode_vp9 – Vulkan Video finally supports VP9 video decoding! This extension was developed collaboratively by AMD, NVIDIA, Collabora, Intel, and others, enabling Vulkan Video to support the VP9 video format.VK_EXT_shader_float8 – This extension supports 8-bit floating point operations within shaders. The 8-bit floating point functionality of VK_EXT_shader_float8 aims to open up more Vulkan API capabilities for machine learning software/AI applications.VK_KHR_unified_image_layouts – The unified image layouts extension aims to significantly simplify Vulkan’s synchronization mechanisms by eliminating the need for image layout transitions. This extension is expected to alleviate the complexity of Vulkan’s synchronization mechanisms, which have made certain aspects of the API difficult to use.VK_ARM_tensors – A vendor extension provided by Arm, adding support for tensors and related SPIR-V tensor capabilities.VK_KHR_present_id2 – An improved version to replace VK_KHR_present_id, with the main difference being that VK_KHR_present_id2 supports querying behavior by display surface (rather than by device).VK_KHR_present_wait2 – This extension, developed by Valve’s Hans-Kristian Arntzen for projects like VKD3D-Proton, allows applications to use the VK_KHR_swapchain extension to wait for rendering operations to complete. With VK_KHR_present_wait2, applications can manage the number of images to be rendered, thus monitoring and adjusting the application’s running pace.VK_KHR_maintenance9 – Includes several minor improvements, such as support for queue-less VkDevice, new properties to enable sparse support for VK_EXT_image_2d_view_of_3d, and other maintenance updates.For more detailed information about this Vulkan API specification update, please refer to the Vulkan-Docs GitHub repository.🖥️ GNOME’s Papers App Achieves Better Annotation ExperienceFor users of the increasingly popular GNOME Papers document viewer application on the GNOME desktop, a significant restructuring has been merged into the repository to enhance the annotation experience.
For users who frequently annotate documents, GNOME Papers has merged a significant user interface restructuring for creating and editing annotations. This version also simplifies keyboard shortcuts and enhances the annotation experience in multiple ways.More details about the improvements in GNOME Papers can be found in “This Week in GNOME”. This week, the Markdown editor Apostrophe application also added crash recovery support. GIMP version 3.1.2 has also added compatibility support for Linux system color schemes.🎯 Intel Clear Linux Introduces Package Bundle ImprovementsIntel’s Clear Linux distribution has recently made several improvements to package management to better meet user needs.
To address user requests for installing specific applications/libraries without wanting to install other components in the bundle, and to accelerate the package update process, Clear Linux is launching a project-level bundle scheme. Team engineer William Douglas announced this progress on Friday evening: “Starting from version 43580, we have completed significant upgrades, and now all content in the rpm repository can be directly accessed via the swupd bundle-add command.This improvement will bring multiple advantages: developers can now directly install development components that were previously not included in the devpkg bundle, and can freely choose subsets of bundles that could not be installed individually in the past. In the long run, this lays the foundation for accelerating system updates, but please note that the initial process of upgrading to version 43580 may take slightly longer than regular updates due to potential compatibility issues with some components that were not previously released independently. If any anomalies are found, please report issues via GitHub.🔬 KDE Prepares for Plasma 6.4 Release, Bringing Better VRR ExperienceKDE developers are in the final stages of fixes and optimizations before the release of Plasma 6.4, which is set to launch next Thursday. Meanwhile, early development work for Plasma 6.5 has also begun in full swing.KDE developer Nate Graham has released the important changes summary for this week’s Plasma desktop environment. Notable KDE Plasma updates this week include:– Plasma 6.4 significantly improves cursor smoothness and reduces screen flickering around variable refresh rate (VRR) features. This improvement in the KWin compositor incorporates the minimum VRR refresh rate into the cursor update calculations, allowing for smoother cursor movement when the minimum refresh rate is above 30Hz, effectively alleviating VRR flickering issues.– The system settings module “Display and Monitor” in Plasma 6.4 now prohibits dragging screens on top of other screens. Since this operation is unsupported, forcing overlap will only cause various errors in the entire Plasma system.– Plasma 6.4 fixes the issue of accidentally triggering the logout screen when waking a sleeping computer with the power button.– Multiple defect fixes in Plasma 6.4, including at least four crash fixes.– In the developing Plasma 6.5 version, the system settings font page has added a minimum font size limit of 4 points and added warning prompts for font sizes between 5-6 points.More detailed changes for this week’s Plasma can be found on Nate Graham’s KDE blog.🌟 Open Source Changes the World, Let’s Drive Technological Progress Together 🚀