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Chapter 10. Hardware Enablement

Hardware utility tools now correctly identify recently released hardware

Prior to this update, obsolete ID files caused that recently released hardware connected to a computer was reported as unknown. To fix this bug, PCI, USB, and vendor device identification files have been updated. As a result, hardware utility tools now correctly identify recently released hardware. (BZ#1386133)

New Wacom driver introduced in 7.4 to support upcoming tablets

With this update, a new Wacom driver was introduced to support recently-released and upcoming tablets meanwhile the current driver continues supporting previously-released tablets.
Notable features:
  • Wacom 27QHT (touch) is now supported
  • ExpressKey Remote (BZ#1385026)

Wacom kernel driver now supports ThinkPad X1 Yoga touch screen

With this update, the support for the ThinkPad X1 Yoga touch screen has been added to the Wacom kernel driver. As a result, the touch screen can be properly used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on these machines. (BZ#1388646)

The touch functionality has been added to the Wacom Cintiq 27 QHDT tablets

This update adds support of the touch functionality for the Wacom Cintiq 27 QHDT tablets, which makes it possible to properly use the touch screen when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on these machines. (BZ#1391668)

AMDGPU now supports the Southern Islands, Sea Islands, Volcanic Islands and Arctic Islands chipsets

The support for the Southern Islands, Sea Islands, Volcanic Islands and Arctic Islands chipsets has been added. The AMDGPU graphics driver is the next generation family of open source graphics drivers for the latest AMD/ATI Radeon graphics cards. It is based on the Southern Islands, Sea Islands, Volcanic Islands, and Arctic Islands chipsets. It is necessary to install the proper firmware or microcode for the card provided by the linux-firmware package. (BZ#1385757)

Support added for the AMD mobile graphics

Support for the AMD mobile graphics based on the Polaris architecture has been added. The Polaris architecture is based on the Arctic Islands chipsets. It is necessary to install the proper firmware or microcode for the card provided by the linux-firmware package. (BZ#1339127)

Netronome NFP devices are supported

With this update, the nfp driver has been added to the Linux kernel. As a result, the Netronome Network Flow Processor (Netronome NFP 4000/6000 VF) devices are now supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. (BZ#1377767)

nvme-cli rebased to version 1.3

The nvme-cli utility has been updated to version 1.3, which includes support for Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe). With the support for NVMe, you can find the targets over Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and connect to these targets. (BZ#1382119)

The queued spinlocks have been implemented into the Linux kernel

This update has changed the spinlock implementation in the kernel from ticket spinlocks to queued spinlocks on AMD64 and Intel 64 architectures. The queued spinclocks are more scalable than the ticket spinlocks. As a result, the system performance has been improved especially on Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP) systems with large number of CPUs. The performance now increases more linearly with increasing number of the CPUs. Note that because of this change in the spinlock implementation, kernel modules built on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 might not be loadable on kernels from earlier releases. Kernel modules released in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions earlier than 7.4 are loadable on the kernel released in RHEL 7.4. (BZ#1241990)

rapl now supports Intel Xeon v2 servers

The Intel rapl driver has been updated to support Intel Xeon v2 servers. (BZ#1379590)

Further support for Intel Platform Controller Hub [PCH] devices

The kernel has been updated to enable support for new Intel PCH hardware on the Intel Xeon Processor E3 v6 Family CPUs. (BZ#1391219)

Included genwqe-tools to enable use of hardware accelerated zLib on IBM Power and s390x

The genwqe-tools package allows users of IBM Power and s390x hardware to utilize FPGA based PCIe cards for zLib compression and decompression processes.
These tools enable use of RFC1950, RFC1951 and RFC1952 compliant hardware to increase performance. (BZ#1275663)

librtas rebased to version 2.0.1

The librtas packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.0.1, which provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. Notably, this update changes the soname of the provided libraries: librtas.so.1 changes to librtas.so.2, and librtasevent.so.1 changes to librtasevent.so.2. (BZ#1380656)

The NFP driver

The Network Flow Processor (NFP) driver has been backported from version 4.11 of the Linux kernel. This driver supports Netronome NFP4000 and NFP6000 based cards working as an advanced Ethernet NIC. The driver works with both SR-IOV physical and virtual functions. (BZ#1406197)

Enable latest NVIDIA cards in Nouveau

This update includes enablement code to ensure that higher-end NVIDIA cards based on the Pascal platform work correctly. (BZ#1330457)

Support for Wacom ExpressKey Remote

The Wacom ExpressKey Remote (EKR) is now supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. EKR is an external device that allows you to access shortcuts, menus and commands. (BZ#1346348)

Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD now supports ExpressKey Remote

With this update, Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD tablets support ExpressKey Remote (EKR). EKR is an external device that allows you to access shortcuts, menus and commands. (BZ#1342990)