Summary
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Linux 7.0-rc5 has fewer changes; the increase in fixes is decreasing and the commits are mostly small adjustments.
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Drivers, networks, and file systems receive minor updates; The differences generally seem harmless.
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Testers were encouraged to test rc5 and report issues to help ensure a smooth release of Linux 7.0.
Well, that was close. Previously, we reported on how some Linux 7.0 release candidates saw a larger number of changes and additions than usual. It’s usually better to add more things to an operating system, but because release candidate is about testing and making sure things don’t break, a large number of changes means that things are unfortunately breaking.
Fortunately, the initial increase in fixes, while still high, has decreased significantly for release candidate 5. Things are looking pretty good for a stable Linux 7.0 release, and that’s always a good sign.
Linux 7.0 Release Candidate 5 Shows Bugs Are Calming Down
We hope it continues to improve.
How he saw it ForonyxLinus Torvald sent an email to the Linux kernel mailing list. Over the last few emails, Linus has been a little concerned about the large number of fixes and tweaks that have been made to the kernel, but since the changes were apparently quite minor, he hasn’t let it get to him. Now, with the release of Linux 7.0-rc5, it seems that things are starting to look much better:
It looks like things are starting to calm down: rc5 is smaller than the previous rc’s merge window, although it’s still a bit larger than rc5s historically. I’ll still take it as a good sign overall.
The diffstat looks pretty normal: half the drivers (gpu and networking, but unusually also some serial updates). But overall it’s pretty small: most commits are small lines.
Outside of the drivers, it’s the usual mix: core networking, some filesystem updates, bpf, self-tests, and some architecture fixes.
So while the rcs have trended bigger than usual in this build, overall it all still seems pretty harmless. Please keep trying,
Linen
If you want to try the Linux 7.0-rc5 build for yourself, you can download it at LKML. Just be sure to report any problems you find; It’s up to testers to ensure that Linux 7.0 has as smooth a release as possible by drawing attention to the system’s major weaknesses.
