Timur Kristóf of Valve's Linux graphics driver team has spent the past year reworking AMDGPU kernel support for decade-old GCN 1.0/1.1 AMD GPUs and APUs, moving them off the legacy Radeon driver and onto the modern AMDGPU stack. That transition unlocks use of the RADV Vulkan driver, improves performance and functionality, and addresses long-standing display and power-management defects that prevented reliable gaming and general use on newer kernels. Kristóf's work began as a kernel-driver development exercise after years contributing to Mesa user-space drivers and has since grown into a suite of targeted fixes and enhancements.
Concrete changes include display-code bug fixes, improved power management, soft reset support, and other kernel-level improvements that revive aging cards for Linux gaming through 2026 and beyond. The impact is measurable: Linux 6.19 delivered an approximate 30% performance uplift for older Radeon hardware after migration to AMDGPU. With AMD allocating limited resources to legacy hardware, Valve’s contributions filled a critical gap. Kristóf presented these efforts at XDC2026 and provided slides and a recorded talk detailing the technical fixes, development process, and guidance for contributors interested in upstream AMD Linux kernel driver work.
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A researcher at a Russian plague laboratory in Siberia died from an unknown infection following a laboratory accident. Russian authorities have implemented special measures, but the exact nature of the released pathogen remains unclear. (scrippsnews.com)
European Commission staff dislike the EU's 'sovereign' backup platform Element Pro, calling it ineffective and poorly designed. The EC implemented it to reduce reliance on US tech, but staff skepticism remains high due to usability issues and concerns over data security. (gizmodo.com)
A researcher at a Russian plague laboratory has died from an unidentified infection. Authorities have not disclosed details about the cause of death or the infection. (cnn.com)
AI systems can trigger nuclear conflicts by amplifying human cognitive blind spots and overwhelming decision-makers during crises. Superintelligence is not necessary for AI to escalate nuclear risks, as current systems influence human judgment and actions. (thebulletin.org)
Site-blocking bills like the DEFEND IP Act aim to protect intellectual property but instead promote censorship and overblocking. These laws threaten the open web by creating systems that can be misused to restrict access to websites indiscriminately. (eff.org)
Google has suspended part of its open-source bug bounty program due to an influx of invalid AI-related submissions. The program's vulnerability reporting ended on October 1. (tomshardware.com)
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