Intel adds AI to Audacity! NVIDIA GSP lands in Linux Kernel 6.7, updates for 22-year-old AMD GPUs, and two weeks with a Raspberry Pi 5 desktop.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Portal 2 Revolution
01:01 CES 2024
01:03 InterfacingLinux.com soft launch
09:44 Kernel 6.7 can NVIDIA
13:22 Update for 22 year old AMD GPUs
15:52 Intel AI for Audacity
20:01 Two weeks of Pi 5 desktop
Linux Kernel 6.7
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/01/linux-kernel-6-7-new-feature
- On Sunday, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux released Linux Kernel 6.7, one of the largest yet, with some major new features.
- Linus states:
- “6.7 is (in number of commits: over 17k non-merge commits, with 1k+ merges) one of the largest kernel releases we’ve ever had”
- We have support for a new file system, Bcachefs, which is a copy-on-write file system which is supposed to be safer than Btrfs, and faster than ZFS, which was developed by Sun Microsystems in 2001.
- In addition to the new file system Bcachefs, there was also work on improving Btrfs, ZFS, EXT4, and even the older ext2 file systems.
- Kernel 6.7 features the newly added NVIDIA GPU System Processor (GSP) firmware support, which includes better power management and performance increases for RTX 20 and RTX 30 series GPUs running the proprietary NVIDIA drivers.
- And one of the huge new features of the new NVIDIA GPU System Processor firmware that all of us Linux users are celebrating, it increases performance of the latest RTX 40 series GPUs using the Nouveau open source graphics device driver for NVIDIA cards.
- And now there is native support for Intel Meteor Lake Graphics, which is wonderful for laptops featuring the first generation Core Ultra processors.
- Also, if you have an ASUS Zenbook laptop circa 2022 and 2023 and had a hard time getting the Cirrus cs35l41 audio amplifier working on Linux, the Cirrus developers made a commit in Linux Kernel 6.7 that offers better sound support for this chipset and you should hear audio now through the speakers.
- Having the (GSP) firmware support for NVIDIA will allow 2/3/40 series cards to adjust their frequency.
- Power efficiency is always better when you’re not running at 100% 24/7.
- Hardware acceleration with Nouveau is still in its infancy so don’t go setting that up unless you’re interested in tinkering with it.
ATI updates
- If you still have an older ATI Radeon video card from the early 2Ks running in a machine, chances are it still works great on Linux, and with recent updates and patches from the open source community coming soon it will work even better!
- And be supported on modern Linux distros.
- In this quarter, the open source Mesa 24.0 graphics library will include the driver updates for ATI’s R300 through R500 series Radeon GPUs.
- By the end of the year you will be able to use the new drivers on your ancient ATI video card.
- There are probably lots of servers and old computers around still running them, including one of mine.
- Do you have a 22 year old GPU laying around the house?
- Cards using R300 through R500 got a little surprise.
- A Patch from Pavel moves most of the remaining backend lowering into NIR.
- (NIR) is the optimizing compiler stack that sits at the core of most Mesa drivers’ shader compilers.
- The card should go brr a little more efficiently.
- Well, as efficient as a 22 year old bit of GPU tech can be.
AI Audacity (RTheren)
https://news.itsfoss.com/audacity-ai-tools/
https://github.com/intel/openvino-plugins-ai-audacity
- Intel has released some AI powered plugins powered by OpenVINO.
- Music separation, style remix, noise suppression, music prompt generation and Whisper transcribing.
- All you need is an Intel CPU or GPU? Possibly a NPU.
- OpenVINO only speaks to Intel so I’m guessing that’s the case.
- Source is available along with Linux build instructions.
- More power to those of you still using Audacity.
- This is exciting news, and honestly, I was waiting for Audacity to have some sort of AI implementation in the future.
- I figured transcription was coming soon, but music generation per genre I wasn’t expecting!
- This could be another good source for music for podcasts and YouTuber videos and vlogs.
- I use Audacity on a weekly basis as a local recording of my mic for podcasts, and I am looking forward to playing with these new AI tools.
Slice of Pi
A month of Pi
- A Pi 5 should be ready for desktop use, right?
- Dude decided to take the Pepsi challenge and picked one up to use for a full two weeks.
- “I couldn’t listen to Spotify while I worked (there is no app, so using a web app is necessary”
- https://snapcraft.io/install/spotify-qt/raspbian
- Ubuntu Snap of all things.
- While the author puts himself in the “advanced beginner” range he’s more in the “can’t be bothered to google and click on the first result” range.
- You can’t be that person and expect to have a good time on Linux.
- The rest of the article is the predictable tragedy of user errors.
- Moral of the story?
- Linux users can get away with using a Pi 5 as a desktop replacement in a pinch.
- We have realistic expectations for an ARM SBC and enjoy a good troubleshooting session.
- Windows users, I suggest picking up an Android tablet or Chromebook if you want to play with Linux on ARM.
- My Raspberry Pi 5 is happily running the Debian based Kali Linux right now using the XFCE desktop, and worked flawlessly with a 2 monitor setup.
