Linus Torvalds happy with Linux 6.15-rc5, here's what's new

Linus Torvalds released the fifth release candidate of Linux 6.15 on Sunday, explaining that it was on track with typical metrics, suggesting a stable development process. Driver improvements made up most of the changes (aside from self-tests) in this update, specifically networking drivers. Torvalds said that for once, GPU drivers didn’t constitute many of the changes.

Other improvements in this release include bcachefs and smb client fixes. Many of the improvements to bcachefs were contributed by Kent Overstreet. He made the most contributions in this release with 21 patches to his name.

The biggest set of changes in this update came in the form of self-tests, they made up for about 20% of the changes. Kernel Newbies explains “Kernel self-tests are run in userspace for testing kernel functions. They may be useful for regression testing of new kernels. Since they are run in userspace, the corresponding kernel has to be running for tests.” Their large presence in the fifth release candidate suggests developers are focusing on code reliability and validation, providing users with a better experience.

Beyond drivers and file system improvements, we got minor improvements across the kernel. Here are some technical highlights from the release:

• There were patches to resolve potential NULL pointer dereferences, memory leaks, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
• Fixes related to specific hardware drivers, such as network (bnxt_en, mtk_eth_soc, mlx5), graphics (drm/amd/display, drm/xe), and storage (nvme-tcp, bcachefs).
• Patches addressing build warnings and errors contribute to a cleaner and more robust kernel build process.
• Improvements and fixes in the Audio Subsystem (ASoC and ALSA) that enhance audio functionality and address issues on specific hardware.
• Improvements to the Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) and Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) subsystems for better hardware communication and error handling.
• Fixes in the virtualization components (KVM, IOMMU, HV drivers).
• Network scheduling and traffic control fixes (net_sched).

Overall, Torvalds was optimistic about this update. Each Linux kernel release typically has seven release candidates so in about three weeks, we should see the stable release of Linux 6.15.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of April): 1,811

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend