As we work toward the stable [1]Linux 6.18 kernel release expected around the end of December, out today is the Linux 6.18-rc5 test kernel.

Linus Torvalds christened the Linux 6.18-rc5 kernel just minutes ago. It's been another week of mostly small changes throughout kernel space. The changes on my radar this week include many DRM kernel graphics driver fixes, [2]electronic privacy screen hotkey handling for some Dell laptops , and [3]partially addressing a performance regression that is most prominent on IBM POWER CPUs .

Linus Torvalds wrote in the 6.18-rc5 release [4]announcement :

"Things remain calm and small, and everything looks pretty normal. The rc5 diffstat is mostly drivers, with misc random noise in architectures (x86, some risc-v), tooling (mostly just a perf header file sync, some selftest fixes), some core networking, and minor filesystem fixes (xfs, smb, btrfs).

There's a blip in io_uring, but that's mostly removing a new ABI that wasn't quite ready for prime-time.

In other words: it all looks just the way I like it at this point: small and boring."

For details on the changes coming to Linux 6.18 at large can be found via our [5]Linux 6.18 feature overview .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Linux+6.18

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-Electronic-Privacy

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-rc5-POWER-Regression

[4] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wi3Tbqg7xONe_KCwiAaDVswAzLRcYxyp8_VZa_SAY1hZA@mail.gmail.com/T/#u

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux-618-features