Linux in The News 12-11-23
Last Updated on December 11, 2023 by KC7NYR
Debian 12.4 “Bookworm” Released with 94 Bug Fixes and 65 Security Updates
The Debian Project announced today the release and general availability of Debian 12.4 as the third ISO update to the latest Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” operating system series, superseding Debian 12.3 which was halted due to an issue in the EXT4 file system leading to data corruption.
Debian 12.3 was supposed to be released over the weekend. Instead, the Debian Project published a short announcement informing users about an issue in the EXT4 file system with data corruption in Linux kernel 6.1.64-1, which triggers the planned Debian 12.3 point release to be delayed until the issue is fixed.
The Debian Project urged users not to upgrade their systems at that time, especially those with UnattendedUpgrades configured. However, the issue is now fixed and Debian 12.3 turned into Debian 12.4, which ships with Linux kernel 6.1.66-1.
Debian 12.4 is here two months after Debian 12.2 and provides those who want to deploy the latest Debian Bookworm operating system on new hardware with up-to-date installation media where you won’t have to download hundreds of updates from the repositories after the installation.
Debian 12.4 includes all the security and software updates that have been released through the official channel for the Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” operating system series since October 7th, 2023. In numbers, this new release includes a total of miscellaneous bug fixes for 94 packages and 65 security updates.
For details about these security and bug fixes, check out the release announcement page. The Debian 12.4 ISO images are available for download right now from the official website, but the Debian Project reminds us that Debian 12.4 doesn’t constitute a new version of the Bookworm series.
Debian 12.4 installation images are available here for 64-bit (amd64), 32-bit (i386), PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian (ppc64el), IBM System z (s390x), MIPS 64-bit Little Endian (mips64el), MIPS 32-bit Little Endian (mipsel), MIPS, Armel, ARMhf, and AArch64 (arm64) hardware architectures.
Debian 12.4 live images are only available here for 64-bit systems with the KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon, and MATE desktop environments pre-installed. A NetInstall image is also available for download for those who want to install Debian over the network.
Of course, existing Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” users should update their installations by running the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands in a terminal emulator or virtual console. Keep your systems up to date at all times if you want to receive the latest security and bug fixes included in this new point release.