Software update: Linux kernel 5.11

Linus Torvalds has version 5.11 of the Linux Kernel released. The kernel is the heart of the operating system and, simply put, it sits as a layer between the hardware and the applications. Version 5.11 includes improvements for AMD’s ZEN 2 and 3, in both the desktop, laptop and server versions. More information about the improvements in this release can be found at Phoronix. Below is an overview of the main improvements in Linux Kernel 5.11:

The 11 Most Interesting Features For Linux 5.11

• Intel Integer Scaling (IS) graphics support most notable for pixel art type games. The Intel Windows driver has supported it for a while but now the Linux driver has finally enabled it after having a user-space user of it (Kodi with its retro gaming support).
• Intel async page flipping support as another open-source graphics performance optimization albeit long overdue for it getting flipped on.
• Initial support for AMD Green Sardine and Van Gogh APUs as forthcoming products. There is also support for Dimgrey Cavefish as another Radeon RX 6000 series GPU that is yet to be released. For current Radeon RX 6800/6900 “Sienna Cichlid” hardware there are performance improvements.
• Better AMD performance with Schedutil… After the frequency invariance performance regression was fixed, the regression is not only addressed but for many workloads now better off than where it was on Linux 5.10 or prior.
• Nouveau KMS for NVIDIA GA100 / GeForce RTX 3000 series “Ampere”. This is just the kernel mode-setting / display support and no 3D acceleration. So at least the display should be lighting up well to allow you to continue to NVIDIA’s website to install the proprietary driver until the open-source Nouveau driver has complete Ampere support in a later kernel version.
• New ARM hardware support including OUYA game console support for that once popular NVIDIA Tegra powered console.
• Btrfs performance improvements.
• Intel WiFi 6GHz band support for WiFi 6E within the common IWLWIFI driver. (Meanwhile Intel’s WiMAX support was finally demoted with Linux 5.11.)
• USB4 and Thunderbolt support improvements including support for Intel Maple Ridge as the company’s first discrete Thunderbolt 4 controller.
• Sound support for Intel Alder Lake along with other Alder Lake device IDs and additions for that interesting Intel platform debuting later this year.
• Syscall User Dispatch as important for Wine / Windows gaming on Linux with Steam Play (Proton / Wine). The initial motivation is about intercepting system calls made by some Windows programs under Wine so they can be easily intercepted with low overhead. This stems from some newer Windows games trying to bypass the Windows API in the name of copy protection schemes.