With [1]Linux 6.10 expected to be released in the coming hours, in turn the Linux 6.11 merge window will open tomorrow unless there is any last-minute v6.10 release delay. With that said, here's a look at some of the features you can likely expect to see for this next kernel version.

The Linux 6.11 merge window will be kicking off and then reach stable in September. There's a lot in store for both AMD and Intel CPU/GPU customers, a variety of new hardware/device support, the extensible scheduler should finally be merged, new security enhancements, and a range of other changes. Based on my monitoring of the various mailing lists and "-next" Git branches, below is a look at some of the changes that should be merged for Linux 6.11... There's always the possibility of Linus Torvalds rejecting some code over technical issues or other last minute problems, but below is an initial look at some of the features to be expected. Of course, stay tuned to Phoronix for more details on the Linux 6.11 features/changes over the two week merge window. After the merge window, it's onto the Linux 6.11 kernel benchmarking.

Graphics:

- [2]AMD RDNA4 graphics enablement is [3]hopefully in good shape ahead of next-generation AMD Radeon GPUs.

- [4]AMD ISP 4.x IP support in the Linux 6.11 AMDGPU driver.

- [5]Working on getting the Intel Xe driver ready for Xe2 graphics with Battlemage dGPUs and Lunar Lake. This includes adding [6]the initial Battlemage PCI IDs as experimental support, [7]Battlemage display support , and more.

- Intel [8]eDP Panel Replay support .

- [9]A Hardware Replay feature for helping to better reproduce GPU hangs and debugging.

- The Intel Xe driver is [10]prepping for SR-IOV support .

- [11]Improved performance for the Etnaviv driver .

- [12]Monochrome TV mode support was added by Raspberry Pi developers.

- [13]Monochrome logo support for the DRM Panic code .

Processors:

- [14]AMD Core Performance Boost is being introduced to the AMD P-State driver.

- [15]AMD Fast CPPC support for yielding better performance on capable SoCs.

- [16]Support for running AMD SEV-SNP KVM guests with the mainline kernel!

- [17]A big speed boost for Intel and AMD CPUs with the AES-GCM performance .

- [18]Intel Panther Lake audio support .

- [19]Intel Performance Limit Reasons support for being able to indicate via the TPMI driver on DebugFS why CPU cores may be limited to reduced performance states / clock frequencies.

- [20]Perf support for Intel Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake processors .

- [21]I2C support for Arrow Lake H .

- [22]ARM64 updates include [23]expanding the Arm CPU cores needing the speculative SSBS workaround .

- [24]A new Spectre BHI mitigation option intended for use within cloud environments.

- [25]Support for the Mobileye EyeQ 6H SoC .

Other Hardware:

- [26]Keyboard backlight support for more T2-enabled Apple Macs .

- [27]ASUS EC Sensors driver support for the ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI .

- [28]New HID drivers in Linux 6.11 along with more HID BPF capabilities.

- [29]Intel Gaudi 2D accelerator support with not much public information yet on this new "GAUDI2D" variant.

- [30]A Dell "PC Extras" driver is being introduced with its initial feature being for fan mode control support.

- [31]Intel NPU driver enhancements .

Storage:

- [32]DM-Verity multi-buffer hashing as a nice performance improvement.

- [33]Block atomic writes are wired up including for NVMe and SCSI storage .

- [34]Device Mapper will optimize flushing with Linux 6.11.

- [35]New features for Bcachefs .

Laptops:

- [36]Better support for the Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS ARM laptop .

Other Linux Changes:

- The [37]extensible scheduler "sched_ext" should be merged to much excitement.

- [38]Greater control over the swapiness behavior with a new "swapiness" argument for the memory-.reclaim option.

- [39]Preparations for Device Memory TCP .

- [40]The Linux kernel bumping the Rust toolchain to a new baseline and beginning to reach a minimum version for use moving forward.

- [41]VMware Hypercall API support .

Linux Security:

- [42]Hopefully seeing getrandom() in the vDSO .

- [43]Tightening of /proc/[pid]/mem access for better security .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.10-Features-Recap

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-AMDGPU-Final-RDNA4

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-RDNA4-Intent-Linux-6.11

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMDGPU-ISP-4.x-Linux-6.11

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Xe-More-Last-Minute-6.11

[6] https://www.phoronix.com/news/DRM-Xe-Next-BMG-PCI-IDs

[7] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Battlemage-Linux-6.11

[8] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-More-Intel-P-Replay

[9] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Intel-HW-Hang-Replay

[10] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-DRM-Intel-Xe-Next

[11] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Etnaviv-Driver-Linux-6.11

[12] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-DRM-Monochrome-TV

[13] https://www.phoronix.com/news/DRM-Panic-Monochrome-Logo

[14] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Core-Perf-Boost-Linux-6.11

[15] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Fast-CPPC-For-Linux-6.11

[16] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-611-AMD-SEV-SNP-KVM-Guest

[17] https://www.phoronix.com/news/AES-GCM-Intel-AMD-Linux-6.11

[18] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Panther-Lake-Audio-Linux

[19] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Perf-Limit-Reasons-Linux-6.11

[20] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-611-Perf-Arrow-Lunar-Lake

[21] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-I2C-Host

[22] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-ARM64-Changes

[23] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Arm-SSBS-Linux-More-CPUs

[24] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Spectre-BHI-VMEXIT

[25] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Mobileye-EyeQ6H

[26] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Apple-Magic-Keyboard-Backlight

[27] https://www.phoronix.com/news/ASUS-EC-X670E-CREATOR-WIFI

[28] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-More-HID-BPF

[29] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Gaudi2D-Linux-Driver

[30] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Dell-PC-Driver-For-Linux-6.11

[31] https://www.phoronix.com/news/DRM-Misc-6.11-Nouveau-Intel-NPU

[32] https://www.phoronix.com/news/DM-Verity-Multi-Buffer-Hash

[33] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Block-Atomic-Writes

[34] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-DM-Optimize-Flushing

[35] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Bcachefs-Look-Toward-Linux-6.11

[36] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Yoga-C630-WOS-EC-Driver

[37] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Extensible-Scheduler

[38] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Fine-Swappiness

[39] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Device-Memory-TCP-Nears

[40] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Patches-Multiple-Rust-Ver

[41] https://www.phoronix.com/news/VMware-Hypercall-API-Linux-6.11

[42] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-No-Random-vDSO

[43] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.11-Tightens-Mem-Access