593: Zen and the Art of Kernel Preempting

A special guest joins us for the news, then we dive headfirst into our RT Linux kernel adventures—where speed seduced, but stability ghosted us.

Sponsored By:

• Tailscale: Tailscale is a programmable networking software that is private and secure by default - get it free on up to 100 devices!


• 1Password Extended Access Management: 1Password Extended Access Management is a device trust solution for companies with Okta, and they ensure that if a device isn't trusted and secure, it can't log into your cloud apps.

Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

• 💥 Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
• 📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
• Xfce 4.20 Desktop Released With Wayland Improvements & New Features
• Xfce 4.20 Release Notes
• The Last Tuxies
• Plan your meetup: Colony Events
• LUP 600 Pacific Northwest Party · Colony Events
• Introducing CentOS Stream 10 — CentOS Stream serves as a development branch for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), providing a continuous preview of features before they are incorporated into RHEL.
• EPEL 10 is now available — The Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) 10 has been officially released, offering users access to over 10,000 packages built from 3,600 source packages, thanks to the efforts of over 150 Fedora package maintainers.
• Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller: A change of hats! — Matthew Miller, the Fedora Project Leader for over a decade, has announced his decision to step down from the role. Initially aiming for a five-year term, he extended his tenure after feeling there was more to accomplish. Now, after ten years, Miller believes it is the right time for a leadership change to bring fresh energy and ideas to Fedora.
• Fedora COSMIC Desktop Spin Proposed For Fedora 42 — The Fedora Project is considering a new "Fedora COSMIC" spin for Fedora 42, featuring the Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment developed by System76.
• Changes/FedoraCOSMIC - Fedora Project Wiki
• Ptyxis Becomes Ubuntu's Recommended Replacement To GNOME Terminal — Ptyxis was introduced as an option in Ubuntu 24.10, though it was not the default terminal. While GNOME Console remains the default in Ubuntu 25.04 daily builds, there is growing support for Ptyxis within the Ubuntu community. Canonical Desktop Software Engineer Jeremy Bicha confirmed this shift, stating that Ptyxis is now the "recommended replacement for GNOME Terminal."
• Zen Kernel FAQ — Result of a collaborative effort of kernel hackers to provide the best Linux kernel possible for everyday systems
• The MuQSS CPU scheduler
• Linux Audio System Configuration Guide
• I've turned preempt=full on and it solved most of my problems : r/Fedora
• How to 'test' if kernel is truly PREEMPT=FULL and threadirqs? - Fedora Discussion
• Revisiting the kernel's preemption models (part 1) [LWN.net]
• config_preempt_dynamic - kernelconfig.io
• Kernel preemption - Wikipedia
• Dynamic Preemption Support Sent In For The Linux 5.12 Kernel - Phoronix
• Annual Membership — Put your support on automatic with our annual plan, and get one month of membership for free!
• kb6nu study guide
• ARISS SSTV Gallery
• Libro.fm, Your Independent Bookstore for Digital Audiobooks
• Fountain 1.1.10 - Payment UX Improvements and Faster Boosts
• Ports-info — Simple utility to show open ports on linux systems