Linux in The News 5-22-23

Last Updated on May 22, 2023 by KC7NYR

Linux Kernel 6.2 Reaches End of Life, Users Urged to Upgrade to Linux Kernel 6.3

Linux 6.3 is already the default kernel in Arch Linux and openSUSE Tumbleweed, and it’s coming soon to Fedora Linux.
Linux Kernel 6.2 End

The time has come to say goodbye to the Linux 6.2 kernel series as it’s now marked as EOL (End of Life) on the kernel.org website, which means that it will no longer be supported with bug and security fixes.

Linux kernel 6.2 arrived less than three months ago on February 19th, 2023, and it introduced new features like protective load balancing (PLB) for the IPv6 stack, a new FineIBT control-flow integrity mechanism for x86, support for the Intel “asynchronous exit notification” mechanism, and more Rust infrastructure.

Being a short-lived kernel branch, Linux 6.2 has now reached end of life (EOL) with the Linux 6.2.16 release that was announced today by renowned kernel developer and maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman, who urges users to upgrade to the latest Linux 6.3 kernel series as soon as possible.

“I’m announcing the release of the 6.2.16 kernel. All users of the 6.2 kernel series must upgrade,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman in a mailing list announcement. “Note, this is the LAST 6.2.y kernel to be released. It is now end-of-life. Please move to the 6.3.y kernel tree at this point in time.”

Therefore, GNU/Linux distributions using the Linux 6.2 kernel series, should soon come with a plan to upgrade their users to the latest Linux 6.3 kernel series. Most rolling-release distributions like Arch Linux or openSUSE Tumbleweed, as well as some of their derivatives, are already using the Linux kernel 6.3 series.

Other popular distros like Fedora Linux 38 should soon get the Linux 6.3 kernel upgrade, and users of Ubuntu distributions can also upgrade to Linux kernel 6.3 by using this tutorial. Anyone else can download and compile the latest Linux 6.3 kernel from the kernel.org website.

Linux kernel 6.3 was released on April 23rd, 2023, with new features like a new Intel VPU DRM accelerated driver, BIG TCP support for IPv4, Rust code support for x86_64 user-mode Linux, support for the “ZBB” bit-manipulation extension for RISC-V kernels, and native Steam Deck controller support.

Unfortunately, it’s also not an LTS (Long Term Support) series so expect it to be EOL at the end of July, when you’ll be urged to upgrade to the upcoming Linux 6.4 series, which should see the light of day at the end of June or in early July 2023.