Linus Torvalds released the third release candidate (RC3) for Linux Kernel version 6.19 on 28 December 2025. Because this update arrived during the peak of the holiday season, the overall size of the release is noticeably small. Torvalds describes this week as a "sluggish" period where many contributors took time off for the break.
Table of Contents
A Small and Focused Release
As Linus Torvalds expected, the holiday week resulted in a short log of changes. In the Linux 6.19-rc3 announcement mail, Linus noted that the release is "pretty small", which is typical for this time of year. Most of the work involved small refinements rather than major new features.
Where the Changes Happened
Despite the slower pace, the 6.19-rc3 update still includes several important fixes across different areas. The work is mostly concentrated in three specific sectors:
- Driver Updates: Drivers make up the bulk of this release. Specifically, the team focused on GPU and sound drivers.
- USB Refinements: Interestingly, many of the USB updates in this version are reverts. This means developers undid previous changes to fix issues that appeared in earlier release candidates.
- Architecture Support: The update includes specific improvements for PowerPC and RISC-V. For instance, the PowerPC team enabled cpuidle state detection for POWER11 processors.
Other Notable Fixes
In addition to drivers, the "random collection of fixes" covers several other parts of the kernel.
- Filesystems: There is some minor activity regarding filesystems, specifically for SMB and NFSD.
- Tooling: The release includes virtio tooling updates and various small, random commits.
- Rust Support: Small fixes continue for the Rust infrastructure, including fixing an endianness issue in a sample Rust PCI driver.
Looking Ahead to the New Year
Linus Torvalds expects the next week to remain somewhat slow as people slowly return to their normal routines after the holidays.
But, the release of rc3 ensures that the development cycle stays on track for a stable final launch in the coming weeks. He concluded the announcement by wishing the community a happy new year.
Download and Test Linux Kernel 6.19 RC3
As with every release, Linus encourages the enthusiasts and developers to test this new 6.19-rc3. You can download the Kernel 6.19 RC3 from the Kernel.org website or the Linus Torvalds's git tree.
