Linux Kernel 6.18-rc6 released
Linus Torvalds has released the sixth release candidate for Linux Kernel 6.18 for everyone to test and provide feedback on. The RC might feel a bit large compared to recent ones; however, this could simply be down to the timing of pull requests rather than indicating any major underlying issues needing patching.
This release features numerous fixes spread across many areas, but nothing seems particularly concentrated or game-changing. The self-tests section actually accounts for over a quarter of the changes found here in RC6 alone. Similarly, driver and architecture updates form another significant chunk, making up roughly one-quarter, too.
The rest are scattered more generally through networking improvements, work on Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF), core kernel tweaks, filesystems, and virtual memory management.
Now, on to some of these contributions:
Adrian Barnaś has focused on ARM64 improvements, specifically regarding module loading and rejecting modules with certain internal alternative callbacks. Akiva Goldberger addressed a small issue in mlx5 related to default values when creating CQs (Completion Queues). Also for the network stack, Aksh Garg contributed fixes dealing with IET verify/response timeouts and retry mechanisms within the drivers.
Aleksei Nikiforov tackled an obscure kmsan kmalloc hook problem involving stack depots. Alex Mastro threw in four patches related to IOVA: adding range query helpers, fixing map limit tests for VFIO self-tests, implementing a new IOVA allocator, and replacing how IOVAs were assigned from VADDR.
Alexander Sverdlin worked on waiting properly for interfaces during local termination self-tests. Closer to the hardware, Anvaro Gamez Machado fixed an SPI issue by increasing retry attempts before declaring it stalled. Andrew Donnellan provided a fix related to arch_xfer_to_guest_mode_handle_work() stubs in KVM (specifically vmx.h). André Draszik handled a Samsung-related pmdomain matter.
Moving on, Ankit Khushwaha fixed a type cast problem within perf_test selftests.
Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo contributed two patches: one for KVM's vmx headers regarding build features and UAPI sync, the other improving how perf detects certain CPU capabilities. Dave Jiang addressed CXL-related matters, including poison injection calculations and an ACPI/HMAT lockdep warning during resource registration. These are quite specific fixes.
On a different note, Bibo Mao fixed several things on the LoongArch architecture: setting page write attributes correctly when dirty tracking is disabled, adding delays for timer interrupts, restoring guest PMU state, skipping unnecessary PMU checks during vCPU context switches, and correcting max supported vCPUs settings.
Bjorn Helgaas focused again on PCI/ASPM (Advanced Serial Peripheral Interface Memory), handling quirks related to caching L0s/L1 support information, allowing the overriding of advertised link states via a function, avoiding specific issues with certain Root Ports, and bypassing L0s/L1 states for the Hi1105 Wi-Fi device.
Boris Brezillon worked on flushing shmem writes before mapping buffers in the drm/panthor driver. Carlo Mastroianni found and fixed a potential memory leak issue within CIFS (Common Internet File System) related to smb3_fs_context_parse_param function calls.
Linux kernel 6.18-rc6 released
Linux kernel version 6.18-rc6 is now available:
Full source: https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/t/linux-6.18-rc6.tar.gz
Patch: https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/p/v6.18-rc6/v6.17
You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/ds/v6.18-rc6/v6.18-rc5
