Skip to content

Kernel kernel-7.2.6-skillfishos

Latest

Choose a tag to compare

@MTSistemi MTSistemi released this 17 Sep 13:38
· 27 commits to main since this release

SkillFishOS kernel — linux-tkg 7.2.6-skillfishos

Two builds, from the same tree and the same patches:

uname -r for
BC-250 7.2.6-skillfishos the board, tuned -march=znver2
x64 7.2.6-skillfishos-x64 any other x86-64 machine, generic -march=x86-64

Installing the wrong one on the wrong machine gives a GRUB entry that loads and
then stops. The skillfishos-kernel package in our APT archive picks the right
one by looking at the hardware, and is the recommended way in.

What changed since 7.2.5 — the upstream release, and nothing else. 7.2.6
carries 1816 fixes over 7.2.5, seventeen of them in the AMD graphics driver and
none of those touching gfx1013. All forty-three of our patches apply unchanged
and the configuration is the same. This is a maintenance build: there is nothing
new to try, and that is the point.

What linux-tkg gives

  • BORE scheduler · 1000 Hz timer · tickless-idle · PREEMPT
  • GCC -O3, NTsync and fsync for Proton and Wine

What we add on top

  • the SMU messages the BC-250 firmware understands, so the voltage/frequency
    governor can set a clock and a voltage and read back what the chip really did
  • the 40 compute units turned on at runtime, no kernel parameter, no reboot
  • sched_ext, for the game scheduler
  • the fixes that keep this board alive: KIQ bypass on a dead GPU, TTM guards,
    the KFD SDMA skip, GFXOFF off on gfx1013

On GFXOFF being off — that one is now measured rather than assumed. Two
kernels built at this same 7.2.6, differing only by the patch that disables
GFXOFF, idle at the same 350 MHz, 29 W and 47 °C on a BC-250, and eight
idle-to-load cycles woke cleanly on both. Turning GFXOFF on buys nothing here
because the voltage/frequency governor already parks the GPU, so shipping it off
costs nothing. The ROCm/HSA hang reported upstream was not reproduced either
way: ROCm was not installed on the test board.

Secure Boot — both images are signed with the SkillFishOS key. Register it
once with MokManager (secureboot/SkillFishOS-SB.cer in the repository) and
they boot with Secure Boot on; with it off the signature is simply ignored.