Linux 5.13 Release Candidate 3 Fixes 37 Patches From Banned University

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It might be time to put away the popcorn. Phoronix today reported that Linux developer Greg Kroah-Hartman reverted 37 patches associated with the University of Minnesota (UMN), which he banned from contributing to the kernel in April. This came via a pull request to Linux 5.13 Release Candidate 3 (5.13-rc3) submitted on Thursday.

"The majority here is the fallout of the umn.edu re-review of all prior submissions," Kroah-Hartman said in the pull request for these changes. "That resulted in a bunch of reverts along with the 'correct' changes made, such that there is no regression of any of the potential fixes that were made by those individuals. I would like to thank the over 80 different developers who helped with the review and fixes for this mess."

UMN was banned from contributing to the Linux kernel in April following two research projects — one into "hypocrite commits" and one the researchers said was meant to "automatically identify bugs introduced by other patches (not from us)"—that drew ire from the Linux developer community. The Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) ended up reviewing 435 contributions associated with UMN.

TAB released the findings of that review two weeks ago. The final tally showed that many of UMN's contributions were made in good faith: 349 contributions were "found to be correct," 39 were "found to be incorrect and in need of fixing" and the remaining 47 were essentially deemed irrelevant. But it still made it clear that UMN would have to make changes if it wanted to regain the Linux community's trust.

Those changes include a more thorough review process for proposed research projects and the addition of an experienced Linux developer who could stop contentious projects from "getting beyond the idea stage." UMN's Department of Computer Science & Engineering acknowledged TAB's report, but it doesn't appear to have clarified its response to these issues beyond that brief statement.

Phoronix said the changes included in Kroah-Hartman's pull request affect the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, networking features and other aspects of the Linux kernel. More information about scope of the changes are in the message accompanying the pull request. 

Linux 5.13-rc3 should be available via The Linux Kernel Archives soon; 5.13 proper is expected to debut this summer.

Nathaniel Mott
Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ginthegit
    Like I said, the university was up to no good.

    Linux is getting to be a serious competitor , and wouldnt be surprised if microsoft or the FBI were throwing some funding at the Uni.
    Reply
  • ginthegit said:
    Like I said, the university was up to no good.

    Linux is getting to be a serious competitor , and wouldnt be surprised if microsoft or the FBI were throwing some funding at the Uni.
    No doubt. Very plausible
    Reply
  • castl3bravo
    ginthegit said:
    Like I said, the university was up to no good.

    Linux is getting to be a serious competitor , and wouldnt be surprised if microsoft or the FBI were throwing some funding at the Uni.

    I have my doubts there.

    Microsoft is actually less hostile towards Linux since the writing has been log since on the wall there.

    Personally I find using WSL v2 with a xrdp session running xfce4 to rdesktop into the X11 display makes for a killer dev environment on my corporate laptop. It's also a fraction of the cost using a Macbookpro for devops. Even running vs code Windows 10 connects to a Linux box to develop and also run Jupyter. Not perfect, but it's also not bad as a dev environment.
    Reply
  • ginthegit
    castl3bravo said:
    I have my doubts there.

    Microsoft is actually less hostile towards Linux since the writing has been log since on the wall there.

    Personally I find using WSL v2 with a xrdp session running xfce4 to rdesktop into the X11 display makes for a killer dev environment on my corporate laptop. It's also a fraction of the cost using a Macbookpro for devops. Even running vs code Windows 10 connects to a Linux box to develop and also run Jupyter. Not perfect, but it's also not bad as a dev environment.

    Though I understand what you have doubts over, Microdoft since its inception has been a company of corruption, apart frp, the shell all its software was stolen and rebranded. However it cannot look hostile towards the view points of the Public or computer users of Linux like yourself and me, that would prove suicide, but it can act in an anti competitive way.

    Wine for example can downlaod and install Directx9 and run it as a compatibility layer, faster than Windows with windows programs, and the Drivers are less buggy and a fraction of the size. But Microsoft in its anti competitive and monopolistic way, found away to stop DX10 to Dx12 to be installed directly to it from Windows based files. The Geniuses in the Comunity of Linux, spend time and energy to create work arounds to make their dreams come true and catch up with Microsoft, but microsoft continue to make the work arounds more and more difficult by monopolistic practices, and they can get away with it as most of Linux is freeware.

    Like I said , I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is funding it, not I Know theyare, and even more likely is Agencies like Mossad, MI6, CIA and FBI, who seem to think that spying on us is their right for "national Security!", And these are likely candidates. But I find it strange that a University would do this to linux on its own, for dubious reasons like "We were doing it as a test... Honest!" it is dangerous, unethical, and even Illegal, as Greg himself speculated.

    We live in a world that thrives on obfuscation and corruption, and for a university to do something like this on its own seems absurd!
    Reply
  • jkflipflop98
    Linux is never going to penetrate the desktop segment. It's garbage for home use. There's nothing Linux does that Windows doesn't do faster and better. Even in the industrial setting, the only machines I have issues with on a recurring basis are the linux and unix based systems. Even my one old OS/2 WARP image machine is more reliable than any of my modern linux nodes.
    Reply