Linus Torvalds has announced the public availability for testing of the first Release Candidate (RC) for the upcoming Linux kernel 6.13 series. This announcement follows the opening of the merge window for Linux 6.13, coinciding with the release of Linux kernel 6.12.
The first RC is now ready for download from Linus Torvalds’ git tree or the kernel.org website. Highlights of the Linux 6.13 kernel series include support for running Linux in a protected virtual machine on Arm CCA, user Guarded Control Stack (GCS), and 6-node sub-NUMA clustering on Intel. Other notable features include enhancements for relevant ACPI backlight quirks for specific Apple Macbook models, and a new user API to notify user-space about changes from in-kernel users.
The kernel also adopts the amd-pstate cpufreq driver as the default for some AMD Epyc processors, and introduces support for thermal thresholds, PMU support for Intel ArrowLake-H CPUs, and compatibility with MIPI DisCo 2.0 in the SoundWire subsystem.
In terms of preemption, the Linux 6.13 kernel introduces the "Lazy preemption" model for x86, RISC-V, and LoongArch architecture, postponing preemption requests to optimize fair-class preemption. Networking capabilities are bolstered with per netns RTNL support, and hardware superpages are now available for the V3D driver.
Several file systems are receiving significant improvements as well, including the F2FS file system which now offers device aliasing features, while the exFAT file system sees performance boosts.
Additionally, Linux 6.13 will support various new hardware, including the Vexia EDU ATLA 10 and Surface Pro 9 5G tablets, Adreno A663 graphics, and other Intel and AMD components.
The final release of the Linux kernel 6.13 is projected for late January 2025, depending on how many RC milestones are scheduled in the meantime.
For those interested, the first RC can be downloaded here or from kernel.org.