- Linus Torvalds announced the general availability of Linux Kernel 5.19 on the 31st of July via the mailing list, as usual.
- The new Linux Kernel, released after 8 release candidates, introduces various features, improvements, optimizations, and new hardware support.
- Linus Torvalds also announced its plans to end the 5.x branch. The new release is expected to be named 6.0 and the merge window is now open.
Linus Torvalds announced the release and general availability of Linux Kernel 5.19 on the last day of July. Torvalds stated that the shortlog from release candidate 8, includes nothing really interesting, “A lot of random small stuff.” The development of this release took one extra week due to the problems while implementing Retbleed vulnerability fixes that affect CPUs on Linux-based operating systems. The final release of Linux Kernel comes with optimizations, improvements, security fixes, and improved hardware support. For more detailed information, you can take a look at our Linux Kernel 5.19 article.
What’s new?
Linux Kernel comes with improvements for network drivers for both wireless and wired connections, including a Big TCP support, pureLiFi driver, and WFX WiFi low-power IoT receivers driver. The release also adds user-space support for the MPTCP path manager, wake-on LAN support for ATH11K driver, and RTW89 driver now supports Realtek 8852ce 5 GHz devices.
Also, Linux users with Intel laptops were complaining about the sleep mode, which drained the laptop’s battery faster than it is expected and caused them to run hot. Linux Kernel 5.19 includes changes to fix that issue for devices Skylake through Comet Lake CPUs. In the announcement mail, Linus Torvalds also stated,
« On a personal note, the most interesting part here is that I did the release (and am writing this) on an arm64 laptop. It’s something I’ve been waiting for for a long time, and it’s finally reality, thanks to the Asahi team. We’ve had arm64 hardware around running Linux for a long time, but none of it has really been usable as a development platform until now. »
Direct Rendering Manager subsystem is also improved to support AMD GPUs. Linux Kernel 5.19 also merges an Apple M1 NVMe controller and Apple eFuses driver. A new in-field scan solution is also added to Linux Kernel 5.19 to detect issues in Intel CPUs. Linux Kernel 5.19 also comes with various security improvements, The improved lockdown mode prevents privileged processes from changing kernel memory. It also introduces support for rules in the Landlock security module.
The new and updated drivers now support Raspberry Pi Sense HAT joystick, Mega World controller’s force feedback, ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II, and Google Whiskers touchpad. It also improves Keychron keyboards support.
What’s next?
Linux Kernel 5.19 is now available as a source code but most users will wait for their distribution maintainers to update and release their distro with the latest release. Now that 5.19 is now officially released, the merge window for the next version is now open. However, it seems like it won’t be named 5.20. Linus Torvalds said,
« Anyway, regardless of all that, this obviously means that the merge window will open tomorrow. But please give this a good test run before you get all excited about a new development kernel.
I’ll likely call it 6.0 since I’m starting to worry about getting confused by big numbers again. »
FAQ
What is the most recent Linux kernel?
The latest version of Linux Kernel is 6.2 and it was released on February 20, 2023. Also, the latest LTS (Long-Term Support) version of Linux Kernel is 6.1 and it was released on December 11, 2022.
How do you check the installed Linux kernel version?
You can check the Linux kernel version of your system with three different methods. You can simply use uname -r command to quickly check the Linux kernel version. You can also use cat /proc/version to check the version from a file. Installing the neofetch application is also an option to check the kernel version and it provides additional information about the other packages installed as well.
Can the Linux kernel be customized?
Yes, the Linux kernel can be customized. You can customize the Linux kernel by enabling or disabling specific options, and even adding new functionalities. But it’s a complicated process; you can check online guides about customizing the Linux kernel.
Is it legal to edit the Linux kernel?
Yes, it is legal to edit the Linux kernel since it is under General Public License.
Is the Linux kernel open source?
Yes, the Linux kernel is an open-source project.
Who developed the Linux kernel?
Linus Torvalds has developed and still developing the Linux kernel.
Does Linus Torvalds still work on Linux?
Yes, Linus Torvalds still works on developing the Linux kernel.
What is the Linux kernel written in?
Linux kernel code is written in the standard C programming language.