openSUSE has announced a significant change affecting its Tumbleweed and Slowroll editions: support for the Bcachefs file system will be disabled with the upcoming Linux kernel 6.17. This decision follows a shift in the status of Bcachefs, which has been labeled as “externally maintained” due to the maintainers’ refusal to adhere to core kernel team’s standards for bug fixes and version management.
In the latest kernel update, no new commits for Bcachefs will be accepted, prompting various distribution maintainers to disable support for installations using this file system. OpenSUSE’s decision reflects this broader trend, as noted by SUSE employee Jiri Slaby, who stated, “Given Bcachefs is ‘externally maintained’ since 6.17, we are disabling the filesystem in 6.17 too.”
Developers at openSUSE clarified that they will not be responsible for maintaining or backporting any patches related to Bcachefs in their kernel builds once the new version rolls out. None of this will affect users currently running the Linux 6.16 kernel, and they have been advised to avoid upgrading if they wish to continue using Bcachefs.
Linux kernel 6.17 is expected to be released on September 28, 2025, but could be delayed to October 5 if further refinements are necessary.