All articles tagged with #kernel
A macOS XNU kernel timer wraps after 49 days, causing TCP connection cleanup to fail and effectively halting networking on affected Macs until they are restarted. Most users won’t hit the 49‑day window, but servers and long‑running Mac workflows can, so a restart restores connectivity and is recommended until Apple releases a fix. Photon documented the bug and says Apple is working on a remediation.
Linux 7.1 will retire UDP-Lite, removing long-unused code to clean the networking stack and potentially boost UDP performance, with deprecation notices dating back to 2023 and tests showing modest gains (roughly 3–10% in some UDP workloads) as the change moves toward net-next for the 7.1 release.
Linux 7.0-rc3 is out as the latest weekly test candidate ahead of the mid-April 7.0 stable release, delivering bug and regression fixes plus notable changes: a slab performance fix for a severe regression, broader hardware support via x86 platform drivers (Dell/ASUS/OneXPlayer/Lenovo), a ~1.5% network performance improvement on AMD Zen 2 with scoped user access, a battery reporting fix for the Apple Magic Trackpad 2, and security/topology updates including IBPB-On-Entry for SEV-SNP guest VMs and Sub-NUMA Clustering fixes for newer Intel CPUs. Linus Torvalds notes rc3 is big but not scary, helped by selftests making up a sizable portion of the patch, and he urges continued testing as the release cycle proceeds and Ubuntu 26.04 LTS timing factors in.
The second weekly release candidate for Linux 7.0, 7.0-rc2, is out with an initial batch of fixes after rc1, including numerous AMD XDNA Ryzen AI accelerator driver updates and various graphics-driver tweaks. Linus Torvalds notes the patch set is large, with most changes not in drivers (filesystems, tests, core kernel, bpf, arch, and networking also contributing), and dropped an old Kconfig option to reduce log spam. The release aims for a mid-April stable target, with a Linux 7.0 feature overview available for details on upcoming capabilities.
Linux 7.0-rc1 closes the merge window with a feature-rich kernel that’s likely to become the default for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Fedora 44, adding enablement for Intel Nova Lake and Diamond Rapids and AMD Zen 6, broader driver support (including Qualcomm Snapdragon X2), new AMD graphics support, extensive filesystem and performance improvements, memory management tweaks, exFAT read enhancements, and official Rust language support, with Linus noting the major version bump and upcoming benchmarking.
Linux 6.19 is the final update of its current kernel cycle, adding AMDGPU support for older GCN 1.0/1.1 GPUs (HD 7000 series), Vulkan via RADV, improved power management, and HDR through the DRM Color Pipeline, among other driver updates. Linus Torvalds also teased the next kernel as 7.0, which could bring further AMD GPU and hardware-support improvements. Rolling-release distros should receive the update soon via their update channels, while non-rolling distributions may take longer.
Linus Torvalds officially names the next kernel Linux 7.0 after 6.19; the 7.0 merge window will last about two weeks with a mid-April stable release, and the update is set to coincide with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and bring a slate of changes.
Phoronix previews the Linux 6.20 (likely 7.0) merge window, outlining a broad slate of changes—from AMD graphics and Intel TSX defaults to security/container hardening (OPEN_TREE_NAMESPACE), revocable resource management, IO_uring and batch I/O improvements, and various driver and build enhancements—plus Canonical aiming to ship the new kernel with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
KDE Linux is moving toward its beta milestone by enabling delta updates by default, improving hardware support, and boosting performance with kernel optimizations (including the Zen kernel and low-latency tweaks) and other enhancements like rar support and a command-not-found handler, drawing on ideas from Arch-based CachyOS.
Linux 6.19-rc7 adds a kernel continuity plan in case the main repo becomes unavailable, and includes several notable fixes: an AMDGPU revert, disabling the NEXT_BUDDY scheduler due to performance regressions, a long-standing page-fault handling correction, an ATA power-management regression fix, and expanded ASUS Armoury driver support, with Linus noting rc8 will follow the holiday period and the 6.19 stable release is expected around February 8 after a feature overview.
A long-gestating feature, the Linux Time Slice Extension based on Restartable Sequences could finally merge in the upcoming kernel cycle, letting user-space opportunistically extend CPU time slices to avoid preemption during critical sections. Patches have advanced to the tip/sched/core branch and may ride the next merge window alongside other scheduler changes, with Linus Torvalds set to decide whether the release will be labeled 6.20 or 7.0.
Linux 6.19-rc5 patches breakage for newer NVIDIA GPUs on the Nouveau driver, fixes a RISC-V attack surface, resolves a Rust Binder issue, and adds HID++ support for the Logitech MX Anywhere 3S (high‑resolution scrolling) along with ELECOM M‑XT3DRBK, as part of ongoing driver and kernel updates ahead of a February stable release.
A new series of Linux patches by Vincent Mailhol makes it easier for users to customize the kernel boot logo through kernel configuration options, supporting various formats and colors, while maintaining a build-time approach for simplicity.
It took over six years for the Linux kernel's new, more flexible mount API to be properly documented in man pages, which may have hindered its adoption. The documentation finally appeared in October 2022 with the release of manpages 6.16, after multiple stalled attempts, and highlights the challenges of maintaining technical documentation in traditional formats like Groff versus modern Markdown.
The upcoming Linux 7.0 kernel is expected to include improvements to IO_uring's IOPOLL polling mechanism, specifically moving to a doubly linked list to enhance request completion efficiency, which could lead to better asynchronous I/O performance.