Oracle Linux 8.6 is ready to download

After the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6, many enterprise-focused Linux distributions such as AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux have received updates; all reaching version 8.6. Oracle has also announced the release of Oracle Linux 8.6, one week after the release of RHEL 8.6.

Comes with many package updates

The new version of Oracle Linux has landed for x86_64 and ARM-based systems. Oracle Linux 8.6 comes with Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 (UEK R6), which is based on mainline Linux Kernel 5.4, on fresh installations. The highlights of the release are the support for drop-in configuration files to OpenSSH servers and Policy-Based Decryption for automated unlocking of LUKS-encrypted drives. The remaining changes of Oracle Linux 8.6 are listed below:

Software management

• modulesync. This command is used to ensure the presence of modular metadata and facilitate the module installation when modular metadata is not available. The command downloads rpm packages from modules and then creates a repository with modular metadata inside a working directory.

Shell and command-line tools

• lsvpd updated to version 1.7.13.
• net-snmp-cert gencert. The net-snmp-cert gencert utility has been updated to generate certificates by using SHA512 encryption algorithm. This change provides increased security.
• opencryptoki updated to version 3.17.0.
• New capability for excluding certain network interfaces and IP addresses when creating a rescue image. The EXCLUDE_IP_ADDRESSES variable enables you to ignore certain IP addresses, and the EXCLUDE_NETWORK_INTERFACES variable enables you to ignore certain network interfaces when creating a rescue image.

Compilers and development toolsets

• GCC Toolset updated to version 11.2
• Rust Toolset updated to version 1.58.1
• LLVM Toolset updated to version 13.0.1
• PCP updated to version 5.3.5
• Grafana updated to version 7.5.11

Dynamic programming languages

• php:8.0 module stream added. This new module stream provides several bug fixes and enhancements over the 7.4 version.
• Perl 5.32 module stream added. This new module stream includes some bug fixes and enhancements over Perl version 5.30, which was distributed in Oracle Linux 8.3.

Infrastructure services

• bind updated to version 9.16.23. The bind component version 9.16.23 is introduced as an alternative to the existing 9.11.36 version.
• nginx-mod-devel package added to nginx:1.20 module stream. This package includes all of the necessary files for building external dynamic modules for nginx.

Networking

• NetworkManager updated to version 1.36.0.
• improved nftables framework. In this release, you can count packets that match specific criteria with a dynamic set and elements with attached counters.
• Restoring large nftables sets requires significantly less memory.

Security

• Audit updated to version 3.0.7.
• fapolicyd framework updated to version 1.1, includes the ability to use the new rules.d/ and trust.d/ directories in the fagenrules script.
• Libcap updated to version 2.48.
• Libreswan updated to version 4.5.
• libseccomp updated to version 2.5.2.
• Libssh updated to version 0.9.6, includes support for diffie-hellman-group14-sha256 provided in crypto policies and for drop-in configuration files. This change makes it easier to apply system-specific configurations on OpenSSH servers by using automation tools, including Oracle Linux Automation Manager and Engine; this new enhancement also provides the option to use different configuration files for different uses.
• pcsc-lite updated to version 1.9.5.
• New checksum option has been added to the semodule command for verifying installed versions of SELinux policy modules.
• SCAP Security Guide updated to version 0.1.60.
• OpenSCAP packages updated to version 1.3.6.

Download Oracle Linux 8.6

You can follow the link below to download the suitable Oracle Linux 8.6 ISO file for your system: