Linux Kernel 6.18-rc5 released
Linus Torvalds just dropped news about the fifth release candidate for Linux Kernel 6.18, and it was reassuringly quiet. He noted that things remained "calm," emphasized this point, and described most changes as drivers or driver-related components, including architecture tweaks for x86, RISC-V, and network fixes.
However, a few surprises emerged, primarily related to the io_uring module, where a new ABI was not yet included. That's notable, but other than that, everyone seemed pretty pleased with how things looked—small changes indeed. The feeling was one of cautious progress; "boring" is putting it nicely for what might actually be just steady.
Digging deeper revealed an impressive showing from developers worldwide. People like Aaron Lu and Abdun Nihaal were busy patching up issues in cfs_rq runtimes or fixing memory leaks in specific drivers (zd1211rw, btrtl, mISDN). Adrian Hunter tackled problems with Universal Flash Storage controllers across several platforms.
Alex Deucher focused on the AMDGPU graphics driver and tweaked resets and handling sleep states. Others fixed things like HDMI black screens or potential pointer mishaps in device nodes. Ben Dooks even went into assembly for RISC-V. The list of contributors was long, spanning diverse hardware and subsystems. Crucially, the majority of these fixes concentrated on resolving bugs instead of introducing significant new features.
The kernel team prioritized stability over the usual feature rush, as evidenced by the "small and boring" description. It's welcome news for those who prefer things just to work reliably. Here's hoping that continued focus holds until release day keeps everything stable.
Linux kernel 6.18-rc5 released
Linux kernel version 6.18-rc5 is now available:
Full source: https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/t/linux-6.18-rc5.tar.gz
Patch: https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/p/v6.18-rc5/v6.17
You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/ds/v6.18-rc5/v6.18-rc4
