Linus Torvalds announced today the general availability for public testing of the first Release Candidate (RC) development milestone of the upcoming Linux 6.11 kernel series.
It’s been two weeks since the merge window for Linux kernel 6.11 opened, on the same day Linux kernel 6.10 was released, so it’s time to test drive the RC (Release Candidate) versions, the first being available for download right now from Linus Torvalds’ git tree here or the kernel.org website.
Linux kernel 6.11 is expected to bring things like a new driver subsystem to enable support upstream for Bluetooth/WLAN chips on Qualcomm platforms, getrandom() support to vDSO on x86 systems adding a new kind of mapping to mmap(2) that lets the kernel zero out pages anytime under memory pressure, virtual CPU hotplug support for AArch64 (ARM64) ACPI systems, and a new mechanism to create interrupt domains.
On top of that, Linux kernel 6.11 updates KVM support for the LoongArch architecture with ParaVirt steal time support, perf kvm-stat support, and some VM migration enhancements, enables KVM halt poll shrinking by default, rewrites the disk accounting scheme for the bcachefs file system to store accounting as normal btree keys, and implements NFS server-side support for the new pNFS NVMe layout type.
Also new is a dmaengine_prep_peripheral_dma_vec() to support transfers using dma vectors and documentation and user in AXI dma, along with STMicro STM32 DMA3 support, a minimum version for the Rust toolchain, support for the Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPU platforms, Loongson-3 CPUFreq driver support, fast CPPC support in the amd-pstate cpufreq driver, and hwmon interface support to the ACPI fan driver.
Linux kernel 6.11 also promises a unified VMware hypercall API layer to provide for adding API support for confidential computing solutions, a new logic behind the background block group reclaim, automatic removal of cgroup after removing a subvolume, and new ‘rescue=’ mount options for the Btrfs file system, NUMA support for RISC-V ACPI-based systems, as well as many updated and new drivers for better hardware support.
The final release of Linux kernel 6.11 is expected in mid or end of September 2024, which depends on how many Release Candidate (RC) milestones Linus Torvalds will announce until then. As such, it will be out on September 15th if there will be only seven RCs or on September 22nd if eight RCs are to be announced.
What are the key details of Linux 6.11 RC1?
- Release Date: RC1 announced two weeks after Linux Kernel 6.10.
- Final Release Expected: Mid to late September 2024 (September 15th if 7 RCs, September 22nd if 8 RCs).
- Availability: Downloadable from kernel.org or Linus Torvalds’ git tree.
What’s New in Linux Kernel 6.11?
- Enhanced Hardware and Platform Support:
- Qualcomm Support: New driver subsystem for Bluetooth/WLAN chips on Qualcomm platforms.
- Intel Arrow Lake & Lunar Lake Support: Better compatibility with next-gen Intel CPUs.
- Loongson-3 CPUFreq Driver: Enhanced support for Loongson CPU power management.
- Core Improvements:
- getrandom() in vDSO (x86): Improved random number generation support.
- AArch64 Virtual CPU Hotplug: Support for virtual CPU hotplug on ARM64 ACPI systems.
- Interrupt Domains: A new mechanism for creating interrupt domains for better resource management.
- File System Enhancements:
- bcachefs Rewrite: Disk accounting scheme rewritten for better performance.
- NFS pNFS NVMe Layout: Support for NFS server-side pNFS NVMe layout.
- Btrfs Improvements: New
rescue=mount options and improved subvolume management.
- Performance Enhancements:
- amd-pstate Fast CPPC Support: Improved CPU frequency scaling on AMD platforms.
- KVM Enhancements: Virtualization improvements for LoongArch, including VM migration support.
- NUMA Support: NUMA support for RISC-V ACPI-based systems.
- Security and Stability:
- Rust Toolchain Minimum Version: Ensures consistency and security across Rust kernel components.
- VMware Hypercall API: Unified API layer to improve confidential computing support.
- Driver Updates:
- STMicro STM32 DMA3 Support: Improved DMA support for STMicro devices.
- DMA Enhancements: Introduction of
dmaengine_prep_peripheral_dma_vec()for efficient DMA transfers.
How to Get Linux Kernel 6.11 RC1?
- Official Kernel Website: kernel.org
- Linus Torvalds’ Git Tree: Accessible for developers and testers.
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