Tag: Linux kernel
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Scale of the task
I have had a frustrating few days trying to get to grips with two new pieces of the technology: the OVP simulator and the Microblaze processor. Finally I think the fog is beginning to clear. But that also reveals just what a task I have in front of me: namely to write some kernel code…
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Thrash reduction no longer a priority for Linux kernel devs?
Version 3.5 of the Linux kernel has been released. One of the changes it includes is the removal of the “swap token” code – one of the very few ‘local’ memory management policies grafted on to the ‘global’ page replacement mechanisms in the kernel. There are various technical reasons offered for the removal of the code…
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No (well, not much) kernel hacking on a Sunday
These days it is possible to host the Linux kernel on GitHub and their tools reveal some interesting things about the pattern of kernel hacking (or at least of kernel committing.) The “punchcard” tool shows what times commits are made. And here it is for the Linux kernel: It seems that kernel hacking is pretty…
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Spoke too soon (of course)
It’s like the curse of the software demonstration: it doesn’t break until then. I discovered as soon as I posted that I was ready to (try to) push the VMUFAT stuff up to main line that there was a bug in the software. Very large VMUFAT volumes were not being properly handled. But I think…
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VMUFAT: almost done (I hope)
About a decade ago I first wrote some Linux kernel code that would handle the filesystem on the little slab of flash storage that came with a SEGA Dreamcast Visual Memory Unit (VMU). A few attempts to get this in the kernel mainline then followed. It was a bruising experience and unsuccessful. But I am…
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Microsoft are not the enemy
For the last six years my job situation has made me wary of commenting on the politics of the free software movement and its enemies, but I have just changed jobs (been a busy week round here) and now I feel I comment freely on what every free software advocate has always known as Public…
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