Dragon Linux Kernel 5.0.7 For Ubuntu Cosmic/Disco
Dragon is a distro kernel replacement built using the best configuration and
kernel sources for desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads.
These kernels are not supported and are not appropriate for production use.
You assume all risks associated with the use of this kernel.
Maximum support for devices operation only if the system is installed
from the (Dragon Live disk).
Dragon Kernel semantic versioning and give your version numbers meaning:
Dragon Kernel no longer uses the stable version of the Linux kernel,
all builds are based only on the mainline version.
major.minor[.maintenance-build] (Example: 5.0.7-dragon)
major.minor is mainline kernel version, maintenance build
is Dragon kernel version.
INTRODUCTION
By default, Ubuntu systems run with the Ubuntu kernels provided by the Ubuntu repositories. However it is handy to be able to test with modified upstream kernels to help locate problems in th
e Ubuntu kernel patches, or to confirm that upstream has fixed a specific issue. To this end i now offer select upstream kernel builds. These kernels are made from modified kernel source but u
sing the Ubuntu kernel configuration files. These are then packaged as Ubuntu .deb files for simple installation.
Ubuntu’s stock Linux kernel is fine for most users, but because Ubuntu follows a six-month release cycle, their kernels are always a release or three behind upstream. This can cause problems
for users attempting to install Ubuntu on brand new hardware, or worse, force ultra-nerds to wait to play with the latest and greatest new kernel features!
All workstations that I use today — a MSI GT80-2QE-Titan-SLI (Broadwell), Dell Inspiron N5010 (Westmere) and Acer Aspire SW5-012/Fendi2 Z3537F (Atom) - boots Dragon kernels instead. Dragon’s
kernels mirror the upstream development cycle, and as a bonus, include a number of exciting optimizations and patches to improve performance and expose up-and-coming features.
One recent patch pulls in the ability to utilize architecture-specific GCC optimizations when compiling a kernel. In general, compiler optimizations may not have much effect on runtime perfor
mance, however with something as foundational as a kernel, tiny improvements might add up quickly.
The Linux kernel is a very large piece of software. It contains drivers and special handling for all sorts of disparate hardware combinations. By and large, this is a good thing, it allows al
l sorts of different machines to boot a Linux kernel without undo fiddling. Pre-compiled kernels — like Ubuntu stock or Dragon — keep most of this code around because they cannot anticipate th
e kind of hardware their users might be using.
Main Features:
* Experience a whole new way to interact with your PC like never before.
* Full kernel adaptation to version Ubuntu Cosmic/Disco.
* Full kernel adaptation to build GCC 8.3
* Optimized to take full advantage of high-performance.
* Supports all recent 64-bit versions of Debian and Ubuntu-based systems.
* Tuned CPU for Intel i5/i7/i9/Atom and AMD platform.
* BMQ CPU Scheduler Multi-Queue I/O Block Layer w/ BFQ-MQ for smoothness and responsiveness.
* UKSM - Ultra Kernel Samepage Merging.
* Caching, Virtual Memory Manager and CPU Governor Improvements.
* General-purpose Multitasking Kernel.
* Built on the latest GCC 8.3
* DRM Optimized Performance.
* Intel CPUFreq (P-State passive mode).
* OpenZFS, AUFS, APFS, exFAT, BFQ and Ureadahead support available.
New features Dragon kernel distribution with custom settings:
AVL Interactive Tuning: Tunes the kernel for responsiveness at the cost of throughput and power usage.
BMQ CPU Scheduler: Fair process scheduler for gaming, multimedia, and real-time loads.
Preemptible tree-based hierarchical RCU: RCU implementation for real-time systems.
Hard Kernel Preemption: Most aggressive kernel preemption before requiring real-time patches.
Guarantees responsive system under high intensity mixed workload scenarios.
Budget Fair Queue: Proper disk scheduler optimized for desktop usage, high throughput / low latency.
TCP BBR Congestion Control: Fast congestion control, maximizes throughput, guaranteeing higher speeds than Cubic.
Smaller TX Net Queues: Reduced queue size on network devices to combat buffer bloat.
Ubuntu ureadahead Support: Compatible with Ubuntu’s readahead.
Binary Compatibility Cross Distro: Compatible with Debian Testing and newer as well as latest Ubuntu. Worst case, a package rebuild will be required on older distributions.
Distribution Kernel Drop-in Replacement: Proper distribution style configuration supporting broadest selection of hardware. Paravirtualization options enabled to reduce overhead under virt
ualization.
Minimal Debugging: Minimum number of debug options enabled to increase kernel throughput.
Full security support:
Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation (IBRS)
Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier (IBPB)
L1TF/Foreshadow Mitigations
The Ultra Kernel Samepage Merging feature (UKSM)
This is an improvement upon (KSM). Some basic data structures and routines are borrowed from KSM.
OpenZFS (ZFS)
OpenZFS is an outstanding storage platform that encompasses the functionality of traditional filesystems, volume managers, and more, with consistent reliability, functionality and performance.
- The module ZFS is integrated into the kernel.
Warning! This kernel implement ZFS version 0.7.y.
Packages for this version strictly install from my repository!
To install ZFS, head to a terminal and run the following command:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/openzfsv5
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install zfsutils-linux
$ sudo apt purge zfs-dkms
$ sudo reboot
Advanced multi layered Unification File System (AUFS)
AUFS (short for advanced multi-layered unification filesystem) implements a union mount for Linux file systems. The name originally stood for AnotherUnionFS until version 2.
- The module AUFS is integrated into the kernel.
Apple File System (APFS)
Apple File System APFS - is a proprietary file system for macOS High Sierra and later version.
- The module APFS (read only) is integrated into the kernel.
exFAT - Extended File Allocation Table
Linux read/write kernel driver for the exFAT(FAT64), FAT12, FAT16 and vfat (FAT32) file systems
exFAT can be used where NTFS is not a feasible solution (due to data-structure overhead), but a greater file-size limit than the standard FAT32 file system (i.e. 4 GiB) is required.
exFAT has been adopted by the SD Card Association as the default file system for SDXC cards larger than 32 GiB.
-
The module exFAT v1.2.24-dragon is integrated into the kernel
-
Full adaptation to Kernel v5.
-
Support exFat capacity more than 2TB
Enable exFAT module and install exfat-utils:
Add to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules:
exfat_core
exfat_fs
For filesystem creation and manipulation beyond that of the mount command it is necessary to install the exfat-utils package:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/exfat-utils
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install exfat-utils
$ sudo apt purge exfat-fuse
Usage, formatting:
To create an exFAT file system, use mkfs.exfat (or the mkexfatfs command, which is synonymous):
root# mkfs.exfat
mkexfatfs 1.3.0
Usage: mkfs.exfat [-i volume-id] [-n label] [-p partition-first-sector] [-s sectors-per-cluster] [-V]
For instance, to create it on a removable device present at /dev/sde1 while assigning "Flash" as the file system label:
root# mkfs.exfat -n Flash /dev/sde1
Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG)
Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) is a loadable kernel module that performs runtime integrity checking of the Linux kernel and detection of security vulnerability exploits against the kernel.
- The module LKRG v0.6a is integrated into the kernel.
Kernel tested by - Linux Test Project
Linux Test Project is a joint project started by SGI, developed and maintained by IBM, Cisco, Fujitsu, SUSE, Red Hat and others, that has a goal to deliver test suites to the open source commu
nity that validate the reliability, robustness, and stability of Linux. The LTP testsuite contains a collection of tools for testing the Linux kernel and related features.
Quick install this kernel:
For Dragon GENERIC kernel:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/genv5
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon-generic linux-image-unsigned-5.0.7-dragon-generic linux-modules-5.0.7-dragon-generic linux-modules-extra-5.0.7-dragon-g
eneric
$ sudo reboot
For Dragon Lowlatency kernel:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/genv5
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon-lowlatency linux-image-unsigned-5.0.7-dragon-lowlatency linux-modules-5.0.7-dragon-lowlatency linux-modules-extra-5.0.7
-dragon-lowlatency
$ sudo reboot
For Dragon Westmere (Only Westmere CPU) kernel:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/wav5pax
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon-westmere linux-image-unsigned-5.0.7-dragon-westmere linux-modules-5.0.7-dragon-westmere linux-modules-extra-5.0.7-drago
n-westmere
$ sudo reboot
For Dragon Atom (Only Atom CPU) kernel:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wip-kernel/wav5pax
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt install linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon linux-headers-5.0.7-dragon-atom linux-image-unsigned-5.0.7-dragon-atom linux-modules-5.0.7-dragon-atom linux-modules-extra-5.0.7-dragon-atom
$ sudo reboot
Sources are on Launchpad. You can see and check them. From these sources, buildbox Launchpad builds packages in a clean environment. Everything is officially and verified by Launchpad and Ca
nonical.
Project page (in the project menu, click Code)
Source code (direct link)
Best regards, Andy Lavr.