Linus Torvalds announced the third release candidate (RC3) for Linux kernel 6.15, noting it mainly includes minor fixes across various areas, with the most substantial changes addressing ublk driver issues and related tests.
Despite a significant merge window, initial signs indicated a smooth process. However, a subsequent email from Torvalds revealed that last-minute build fixes for gcc-15 inadvertently broke builds with gcc-14, necessitating a further patch.
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What’s New in Linux Kernel 6.15 RC3?
As Linus stated in the release announcement, Kernel 6.15 RC3 is “nothing of huge note” — and that’s a good thing. It means we’re not seeing major regressions or chaos following the merge window, which was apparently quite large.
Still, here are the highlights worth noting:
This release is a mix of targeted patches for several subsystems:
- Networking drivers got memory leak fixes for
cxgb4,txgbe, andngbe. - Wi-Fi drivers like
brcmfmac,wl1251, andat76c50xwere patched to fix use-after-free bugs and leaks. - BCacheFS, the new experimental filesystem, had multiple cleanup and metadata fixes.
- Ublk driver (used for user-space block devices) saw further stress test enhancements and a few important behavioral fixes.
- Various subsystems, including
mm,fs,perf,x86, andASoC(Audio), received one-liner fixes — mostly cleanup or addressing build warnings.
Humorous Closing Remark
Linus signed off his release note with a casual nod to Easter — and even joked about “odd traditional Finnish foods.”
Also, Linus did quietly push a follow-up fix for GCC 14 builds that broke after a patch meant for GCC 15.
Torvalds ends his follow-up message with a humorous observation, "Hopefully everybody is too busy eating strange Easter desserts(*) that nobody else even noticed."
Try Linux Kernel 6.15 RC3
Linux kernel 6.15-rc3 is a relatively stable release candidate primarily focused on minor bug fixes and driver improvements.
If you’re curious or run bleeding-edge systems, you can test Linux Kernel 6.15 RC3 by downloading it from the Kernel.org website or the Linus Torvalds's git tree.
I somehow missed to publish Kernel 6.15 RC2 release notes. Please accept my apologies. I will try my best to publish important Kernel related news in the future.
