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⇱ VMUFAT File-System Driver Proposed For The Linux Kernel - Phoronix

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VMUFAT File-System Driver Proposed For The Linux Kernel

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Storage on 10 April 2026 at 12:57 PM EDT. 24 Comments
The newest Linux file-system driver proposed for the kernel is... VMUFAT.

Before getting too worked up about yet-another-Linux-filesystem, VMUFAT is for the vintage Sega Dreamcast game console. The Visual Memory Unit (VMU) on the Dreamcast has a small slab of flash memory formatted with a FAT-based file-system. With the proposed Linux kernel driver in 2026, that file-system on the Dreamcast can be accessed in a hardware-independent manner.

This VMUFAT driver comes just days after another Linux kernel patch surfaced for the Dreamcast. That earlier work was fixes to the GD-ROM driver for the Dreamcast.

The VMUFAT Linux driver comes in at just 1.8k lines of C code. Those interested can find the VMUFAT driver proposal on the Linux kernel mailing list.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.