The Linux kernel has been updated with a number of hardware, performance, and security enhancements.
Here we are, exactly on time, with the 6.3 release out and ready for your enjoyment, Linus Torvalds said on announcing the release of Linux 6.3 on the Linux kernel mailing list (LKML).
What else is new? Let’s take a windy (and I do mean windy) tour of the recent and noteworthy.
Linux 6.3: New Features
As would be expected, the Linux kernel 6.3 includes a ton of support and enabling for forthcoming and unreleased AMD and Intel CPUs and graphics devices. Even if these are thrilling (and important), it might be challenging to be hyped up when, say, just a small number of people would immediately benefit.
Thankfully, there are several improvements that do affect our daily consumption more directly.
Linux 6.2 now supports AMD’s automated IBRS functionality Spectre mitigation, which is a significant AMD-related upgrade. Compared to the currently popular retpoline speculative execution, this delivers a less performance hit.
In other architectural news, Linux 6.3 includes new power management drivers for ARM and RISC-V. The Zbb bit manipulation extension adds functionality for accelerated string functions to the latter, while the scalable matrix extension 2 instructions are added to the former.
AES-SHA2-based encryption, improvements to EXT4 direct I/O performance, low-latency decompression for EROFS, and a faster Brtfs file-system driver are now supported by the NFS filesystem (both the client and server sides).
Hardware support provides sensor monitoring for a variety of ASUS Ryzen motherboards, enables the Logitech G923 Xbox edition racing wheel to function on Linux, offers a native Steam Deck controller interface in HID, and enhances the behavior of 8BitDo Pro 2 wired controllers.
Other highlights:
- User-mode Linux supports Rust code
- Realtek RTL8188EU Wi-Fi adapter
- Support for Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 wireless chipset
- Ethernet support for NVIDIA BlueField 3 DPU
- Multi-path TCP can handle mixed flows using IPv4 and IPv6
- New hardware noise tool
- KVM support for Hyper-V extended hypercalls
The Orange Pi R1 Plus (sometimes referred to as a genuine Raspberry Pi 4 alternative) and the BannaPi R3 and BPI-M2 Pro are among the several single-board devices that profit from upgraded drivers. Additionally, this update deleted more than 150,000 lines of code that supported (outdated and inactive) ARM devices.
As always, I wholeheartedly advise reading through LWN’s thorough merge window roundups for more information (and frequently links to more information on what certain changes represent). Part 1 and Part 2 are both available here. The blow-by-blow feature roundup from Phoronix is also interesting to read.
Getting Linux 6.3
Linux kernel 6.3 is available for download from the kernel.org website, but before you can use it for anything, you’ll need to manually assemble it. Not excited? I’m also grateful that people are prepared to carry out the difficult tasks for us!
Some fixed-release distributions, like Pop!_OS, will package up this version and make it accessible to their customers via the standard software update channels. customers of rolling-release distributions may anticipate receiving this kernel as an update in the near future.
Ubuntu users who need this upgrade urgently may want to think again before using Canonical’s mainline releases. Although created by Ubuntu engineers, these mainline builds have no performance guarantees, testing, or support. At your own peril, use them.
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