Linux creator Linus Torvalds warns the next version of the kernel will likely be “making up” for the smaller release of 5.12.
“Despite the extra week, this was actually a fairly small release overall,” Torvalds wrote in an announcement. “Judging by linux-next, 5.13 will be making up for it.”
Last month, Torvalds warned 5.12 may need a little longer in the oven than usual due to its then-fifth release candidate having a “bigger than average” size. Torvalds’ intuition proved correct and 5.12 ended up having eight release candidates.
“This is the fifth time in the 5.x series we’ve ended up with an rc8, but I have to admit that I prefer it when a release doesn’t end up needing that extra week,” Torvalds wrote in his weekly update last week.
Linux 5.12 finally released today bringing with it:
- Increased support for IoT-focused lightweight hypervisor ACRN
- IDMAPPED mounts
- PS5 controller driver support
- Radeon RX 6000 series OverDrive overclocking
- AMDGPU FreeSync HDMI support for versions prior to HDMI 2.1
- Support for Nintendo 64
- Driver for reporting Intel laptop hinge/keyboard angles
- VRR / Adaptive-Sync for Intel Tiger Lake / Xe Graphics (Gen12)
- Nouveau DRM driver continues to prep for NVIDIA Ampere support
- Further work arising from the iGPU Leak
- Voltage/temperature reporting for some ASRock motherboards
- MSM supports more Adreno GPUs and Speedbin functionality
- Lenovo laptop platform profile support
- IO_uring speed improvements
- exFAT can delete files faster in dirsync mode.
- F2FS configurable compression level support
- AES-NI XTS speed improvements
- Broadcom Valkyrie/Viper VK Accelerators support
- Software-based audio jack injection support
- Battery reporting improvements for certain Logitech devices
- Atomics support for eBPF
- Phasing out of Intel MID support
- USB4 Security Level 5 support
- Support for deauthorising Thunderbolt devices
- Pioneer DJM-750 DJ Mixer support
- Improved support for Microsoft’s Surface laptop
“Thanks to everybody who made last week very calm indeed, which just makes me feel much happier about the final 5.12 release,” Torvalds wrote.
Despite some important additions and fixes in 5.12 (and some less so… like Nintendo 64 support), it’s actually a fairly small release for Linux kernel standards. As Torvalds says, that looks to change with 5.13.
Current known additions coming to Linux 5.13 include support for Apple’s M1 silicon, a wireless WAN subsystem, more RISC-V support, and provisions for Intel’s standalone GPUs.
Torvalds wrapped up his latest announcement by requesting that Linux kernel devs “spend a bit of time running and checking out 5.12” before they begin to send in merge requests for version 5.13.
(Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash)
