Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 6.10, codenamed "Baby Opossum Posse". This latest stable version comes after seven release candidates and brings a host of improvements and bug fixes across various subsystems.
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Release Highlights
The final week of development saw some unexpected activity, particularly in the filesystem area. About a third of the patches were filesystem-related, with bcachefs and netfs receiving significant attention. While this late surge was unusual, Torvalds noted that none of the changes appeared particularly concerning.
Another third of the patches focused on drivers, with the remaining changes spread across various areas of the kernel. Despite the late flurry of activity, Torvalds deemed it unnecessary to extend the release cycle with an additional release candidate.
Linux Kernel 6.10: A Summary of Changes
The Linux Kernel 6.10 release includes numerous updates and fixes. Some notable changes include:
- Improvements to the bcachefs filesystem, including fixes for fragmentation issues and journal handling.
- Enhancements to the USB subsystem, including support for new devices and bug fixes for various USB drivers.
- Updates to network drivers and protocols, including improvements to TCP handling and fixes for the bnxt driver.
- Various ARM64 device tree updates, particularly for Qualcomm platforms.
- Improvements to the scheduler, including fixes for deadline scheduling and updates to the PSI (Pressure Stall Information) accounting.
- Enhancements to memory management, including updates to huge page handling and fixes for page cache issues.
Linux Kernel 6.10 Development: Key Updates from RC1 to RC7
Here's a summary of the important key points and updates for each release candidate of Linux Kernel 6.10:
RC1:
- Assigned a new Codename: "Baby Opossum Posse"
- XFS online repair capabilities improved
- Performance optimizations for AMD and Intel CPUs
- Better AMDKFD compute driver support for "small" Ryzen APUs
- Expanded USB-to-parallel port adapter support
- Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips enablement work
- Default disabling of outdated NFS v2 client support
- IO_uring zero-copy performance enhancements
- Steam Deck IMU support added
- Removal of legacy DEC Alpha hardware support
RC2:
- One-third of changes focused on driver fixes
- One-third of changes dedicated to filesystem fixes, mostly bcachefs
- Significant bcachefs improvements and bug fixes
- Refactoring and splitting of various format files in bcachefs
RC3:
- Fixes and enhancements for Ethernet drivers
- SMB client issues addressed and improvements introduced
- BPF self-tests updated
- Miscellaneous filesystem improvements
- Majority of changes focused on KVM-related fixes
RC4:
- vfio pci memory mapping code fix
- FireWire subsystem tracepoint implementation update
- More bcachefs filesystem fixes
- Cachefiles subsystem issues addressed
- Focus on stabilizing the upcoming 6.10 kernel release
RC5:
- Device driver changes account for one-third of modifications
- Specific driver updates for Hyper-V balloon, Broadcom's bnxt network, and Qualcomm PHY
- Numerous bcachefs filesystem fixes and improvements
- Networking self-tests improvements
- Virtual Memory (VM) enhancements
RC6:
- Majority of changes focused on various device drivers
- Architecture-specific tweaks for compatibility system calls
- Further refinements to bcachefs filesystem
- BPF subsystem updates and self-test improvements
- Series of reverts in the TTY/Serial subsystem
RC7:
- TCP metrics validation strengthened for security
- Bonding driver ARP IP targets setting function fixed
- Btrfs and EROFS filesystem updates
- DRM subsystem improvements for AMD and NVIDIA drivers
- Intel Wi-Fi driver enhancements
- ARM64 and RISC-V architecture-specific updates
- Bluetooth HCI event handling and L2CAP functionality improved
These release candidates show a progression of fixes, improvements, and optimizations across various subsystems, with a particular focus on drivers, filesystems (especially bcachefs), and architecture-specific enhancements.
Looking Ahead
With the release of 6.10, the merge window for Linux Kernel 6.11 is now open. Torvalds noted that the timing coincides with the beginning of summer vacations in Europe, which may affect the pace of contributions for the next development cycle.
As always, users and developers are encouraged to test the new kernel and report any issues they encounter. The Linux kernel community continues its relentless work to improve the stability, security, and performance of the world's most widely used open-source operating system.
Installing Linux Kernel 6.10
Linux Kernel 6.10 has just been released! It is not yet available in the official repositories. I recommend waiting a few days for Linux distributions to package Kernel 6.10 and include it in their repositories.
For the impatient, you can install Linux Kernel 6.10 from source, but this is not recommended for production systems as it might break your system and you won't receive future updates.
Ubuntu and its derivative users can install the latest mainline kernels using the Ubuntu Mainline PPA. For more details, refer the following link:
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