New FUTEX Syscalls Back To Being Worked On For Helping Valve's ARM64 Gaming Ambitions

Going back to last year the Igalia open-source consulting firm has been working on enhancing the Linux kernel to help Steam Play gaming on ARM64 and ensuring the FEX emulator is operating efficiently for x86/x86_64 games running on the likes of the Steam Frame. After other kernel work in recent months, there's finally an updated round of the FUTEX get_robust_list2 and set_robust_list2 system call patches. Igalia has been working to address shortcomings of the existing get_robust_list2 / set_robust_list2 with these new versions to better align with the needs of FEX-Emu and other emulation layers. As the first update to the patches since late November, André Almeida of Igalia today posted a new version that is rebased against the latest mainline kernel, adapting to VDSO changes, and other code improvements. Updating these patches was held up by addressing a race condition. Those interested can find these new FUTEX set_robust_list2 / get_robust_list2 patches via this kernel patch series.