Dear all, here comes the usual update on Linux/ia64: The reason for the userland regression we mentioned last time (in [1]) was found and fixed shortly after the release of v6.8. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/145da253-b3bc-43da-a262-a3ebdfbea5a2@xxxxxx/ Furthermore there were no new hard regressions detected in addition to what was reported in [2] already. If you have an ia64 machine with more than 64 hardware threads and want to run Linux on it, get in touch with us. :-) [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ia64/CAHtyXDdy5Lub_UeMQRgr8O_G-XK0_XRD3J7wVB9t9rRD5x6d4g@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ Again all ia64 machines (see [3] for a list) and platforms (HP Sim on Ski) we have available for testing continue to work, no system support was lost during this cycle. [3]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/fe5f6e9b-02a2-42e9-8151-ae4b6fdba7e3@xxxxxx/ In the meantime gcc-14 was released, meaning that the regular compilation and testing of Linux mainline release (candidates) switched to gcc-15 snapshots now (starting with v6.9-rc6). Enabling LRA for the cross-compiler continues to make **no problems** for ia64 kernels. The same is true with the switch to binutils 2.42 since v6.9-rc2. **** Last time ([1]) we had to report about an approaching decrease in the number of available Linux distributions with support for ia64. This was sad to report, also because options are important. But don't worry, the distro options for your ia64 gear just have increased again: Enter **EPIC Slack** ([4]) - an unofficial "port" of Slackware for ia64 that was started recently and - though still work in progress - is already network booting on all test machines available to us. If you're too young to know what Slackware is, head over to [5] and learn more about it (-;. [4]: http://epic-slack.org/ [5]: http://www.slackware.com/ **** Thank you all for your hard work on Linux! Cheers, Frank et al
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