Linux Action News 49

ZFS' first data loss bug comers to Linux, GameMode could have some serious potential, and Mozilla thinks the Internet is in bad shape.

Plus new research shows Android OEMs are lying about their patch levels, Lineage goes hard on "Play certification" and we have thoughts on all of it.

• GameMode is a new tool to optimize CPU performance — GameMode is an open-source tool intended to deliver the best performance out of their Linux games. GameMode does handy things like tells the CPU to automatically run in the performance governor mode rather than ondemand/powersave modes. GameMode consists of a daemon (gamemoded) and a library (libgamemode) so that games can tell the daemon when they would like to be put into performance mode, etc.GameMode currently relies upon systemd.
• ZFS data loss bug patched — ZFS On Linux 0.7.8 is now available as an emergency release to deal with a possible data loss issue. The past few days there has been a busy bug report about unlistable and disappearing files.
• Mozilla thinks the Internet isn't in a great shape — the Mozilla Foundation released a report that highlights the dangers posed to the entirety of the Internet ecosystem by the increasing concentration of control over how people experience the online world in the hands of companies like his.
• Some Android OEMs lying about patch level — The problem, Nohl points out, is worse than vendors merely neglecting to patch older devices, a common phenomenon. Instead, it's that they tell users they install patches that they in fact don't, creating a false sense of security.
• Lineage on Google Play Certification — Google Play Certification is Google’s way of ensuring that devices running with Google Play Services are in a known-good state. This is implemented via checking of SafetyNet, which you can read more about in our SafetyNet blogpost.