Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 6.15 Release Candidate 7 (RC7), describing the past week as mostly uneventful, despite some activity around CPU bug mitigations, which were handled effectively.
In his Kernel 6.15-rc7 announcement mail, Torvalds pointed out notable fixes in drm/Xe and a larger patch related to sched-ext, while the rest of the changes were relatively minor.
He also noted that the final release of Linux 6.15 is expected next weekend, assuming no unexpected issues arise.
Notable Fixes and Updates in Linux Kernel 6.15 RC7
1. CPU Bug Mitigations:
A significant point of concern and "excitement" during the past week was another round of CPU bug mitigations. Torvalds notes that this "always adds some fun to the workday. Not."
However, he also states that "the fallout seems to have been fairly well contained this time."
The commit list includes several changes related to x86 architecture, many of which appear to be related to these mitigations, including work on Branch History Injection (BHI), Indirect Target Selection (ITS), and Branch Target Identification (IBT).
2. General Stability and Minor Fixes:
Despite the CPU mitigation churn, the overall impression of the release candidate is one of stability. Torvalds describes the majority of the remaining changes as "quite small and harmless".
He also added even with some of the "excitement" from the past week, the kernel is still looking "pretty solid".
3. Specific Subsystem Updates:
While most changes are considered small, some specific areas received notable attention:
- drm/xe: Several fixes are mentioned for
drm/xe, including a specific one forxe2hpg, and work on GPU SVM (Shared Virtual Memory) including timeslicing support. - sched_ext: A "slightly bigger patch for sched-ext" is included, with multiple commits from Andrea Righi addressing issues related to tracking locked run queues, missing locks, duplicate definitions, and hotplug operations. Tejun Heo also contributes a fix for
bpf_iter_scx_dsq_new(). - bcachefs: Several commits address issues within the
bcachefsfile system, including fixes for deadlocks, inode eviction, and fsck errors. - dmaengine: The
dmaenginesubsystem sees numerous fixes, particularly related to memory leaks and error handling in theidxddriver. - Network Stack: Various network drivers and components received updates and fixes, covering areas like
mlx5e,mtk_eth_soc,qlcnic, and the networking timestamping documentation.
Linux Kernel 6.15 Final Will Arrive Next Week
This rc7 version brings the 6.15 kernel closer to its final form, including important security updates for CPUs, improvements for graphics, and tweaks to how tasks are managed.
Unless something unexpected happens, Linus plans to release the final version of 6.15 next weekend.
In the meantime, please do test the Linux Kernel 6.15 RC7 by downloading it from the Kernel.org website or the Linus Torvalds's git tree.
