After the [1]Linux 7.3 merge window concluded last weekend, today we are up to the Linux 7.3-rc2 test kernel release in working toward the stable v7.3 kernel during the second half of October.

Linux 7.3-rc2 is another busy post-merge-window weekly candidate with a lot of AI/LLM-generated material continuing to flow in paired with addressing early fallout from the initial Linux 7.3-rc1 kernel testing. Linux 7.3-rc2 brought in [2]Cache Aware Scheduling misfit fixes for hybrid CPUs to provide better performance, [3]a tree-wide cleanup to move more kmalloc() calls to using kmalloc_obj() calls , [4]NVIDIA Blackwell display fixes for the Nouveau driver , [5]disabling RandStruct security by default if Rust support is present along with a Rust compiler toolchain, and [6]EDAC changes that mistakenly missed out on the Linux 7.3 merge window .

Plus a whole lot of other fixes throughout the vast kernel land of [7]close to 41 million lines in the source tree . Second-in-command Greg Kroah-Hartman already [8]warned the Linux 7.3 cycle is looking rough due to all the AI/LLM activity.

Linux 7.3-rc2 is available at [9]kernel.org . See the [10]Linux 7.3 feature overview for a look at all the interesting changes coming to this next Linux kernel version.

Update: Linus Torvalds is now out with his delayed [11]7.3-rc2 announcement where he commented:

"This didn't *feel* like a particularly busy rc2, but it clearly was. rc2 is usually the quietest time when people take a breather after the merge window and it takes a while to start finding bugs. But not this time - this is a "full fat" rc release.

And it's not some single cause. I'd like to point to the late EDAC pull that was forgotten and didn't happen during the merge window, but honestly, that's a fairl small thing. No, rc2 had several filesystems sending in their fixes, and there's a fairly sizable drm pull with lots of scattered fixes. Along with networking and bpf sending in fixes. *And* a number of driver trees too."



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Linux+7.3

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-rc2-Scheduler-Fixes

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-rc2-kmalloc-obj

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Nouveau-Blackwell-Display-Fixes

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-RandStruct-Rust

[6] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-EDAC

[7] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-rc1-Code-Stats

[8] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-Rough-Cycle

[9] https://www.kernel.org/

[10] https://www.phoronix.com/review/linux-73-features

[11] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wjzW9f50_ETY+23zP=8RHf2ZxdQVkUYhi9tWA6V8Ci4vQ@mail.gmail.com/T/#u