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Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

btaroli
Prodigy

Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

Interesting new changes among a ton of things coming in 4.12 kernel. Not sure how quickly they might be coming our way, but could be handy!

MD: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.12-MD

Btrfs: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Btrfs-Linux-4.12
Model: RN528X|ReadyNAS 528X - Premium Performance Business Data Storage 8-Bay
Message 1 of 6
mangrove
Apprentice

Re: Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

The BTRFS fixes don't apply, they are for the internal BTRFS RAID (which is in even worse shape, meaning alpha quality, than BTRFS itself) and OS6 doesn't use that. They use BTRFS on top of MD arrays.

Message 2 of 6
btaroli
Prodigy

Re: Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

Yep. I'm well aware of the current setup. I'm rather looking forward to when we can enjoy the full benefit of btrfs directly without the intermediate layer. And of course we won't see 4.12 in ROS6 anywhere near when it releases, nor do I fully expect that the new changes will be battle tested enough for such a transition anytime very soon. But it's movement in the right direction after a long time with no apparent progress.
Message 3 of 6
StephenB
Guru

Re: Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

FWIW, OS 6.8.0-T66 runs 4.4.76

Message 4 of 6
btaroli
Prodigy

Re: Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

It also happens to be running btrfs-progs 4.9.1 (from January 2017). So perhaps they're taking up btrfs changes more recent that the kernel would suggest?

 

# uname -r
4.4.68.x86_64.1

# btrfs --version
btrfs-progs v4.9.1

# cat /etc/*release
PRETTY_NAME="ReadyNASOS 6.7.5"
...

 

https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Changelog#btrfs-progs_4.9_.28Dec_2016.29

 

I don't know that btrfs versions exactly follow kernel versions, but the 4.9 kernel first released in December 2016. But if Netgear are uptaking btrfs changes ahead of the Debian kernel release used, then perhaps we might see 4.12 enhancements before long. At least they're worthy of testing with. I've not managed to break them yet in the lab, and I've tossed a multi-disk group between "single" all the way through "raid6", back and forth and inbetween, several times now. It's true that this isn't "stable" yet, but it's no longer officially "unstable" either. 😉

Message 5 of 6
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Interesting new changes coming in 4.12 kernel

The 4.4 kernel series is a LTS kernel series, so it's a logical choice. It's much better to stick on a LTS kernel series for a while with backported kernel patches than to update to a newer series too regularly, though there comes a point when it's a good idea to move to a newer kernel series as it's less work than continuing to backport to the old series.

Message 6 of 6
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