After a fairly controlled development, today, September 15, Linus Torvalds was expected to launch Linux 6.11. The releases are usually on Sunday, in the evening in Spain. That day and time have already arrived, and the new version of the Linux kernel has also arrived. It is not yet available for download, but it will be very soon, since Torvalds has already has announced it.
The kernel is what it is: the heart of many operating systems. What it does mostly is communicate with the hardware, and to do so it needs to include its drivers. In each new version the list of supported hardware is expanded, although sometimes they also remove lines to stop supporting what, in theory, is no longer used. What follows is a summary of the hardware drivers. Most notable news which have arrived with Linux 6.11. Those who want to see something more detailed can visit this link to one of our sister blogs, specifically Ubunlog.
What's new in Linux 6.11
Much will be improved in the graphic section, at least with AMD cards. Linux 6.11 has initially enabled the AMD RDNA4 GPU. While it's not complete yet, it's well underway. These graphics cards will start arriving en masse in the coming months, and it looks like they'll be used by many handheld computers or consoles like the Steam Deck. I don't want to go into too much detail on this, but one of the benefits we'll find is in FSR4, which can generate frames extra and scale the image to improve sharpness and performance.
Other new features for the + AMD graphics section include AMDGPU ISP 4.x IP support for Image Signal Processing technology for laptops/webcams and AMDGPU Hardware Replay to more easily reproduce GPU crashes and aid in debugging. Additionally, support for AMD GPU ISP XNUMX.x IP support for Image Signal Processing technology for laptops/webcams and AMDGPU Hardware Replay has arrived to more easily reproduce GPU crashes and aid in debugging. Intel eDP Panel Replay or Monochrome TV Mode
In the processor section, more AMD: AMD Core Performance Boost management added to the AMD P-State driver, AMD Fast CPPC support to help with power savings and energy efficiency on capable SoCs, support for AMD SEV-SNP guests with the mainline kernel, AMD Core Performance Boost management added to the AMD P-State driver, AMD Fast CPPC support to help with power savings and energy efficiency on capable SoCs and support for AMD SEV-SNP guests with the mainline kernel, among others. We also find Intel on this list, as Performance event additions for new CPUs.
Other hardware and security
In the other hardware section we find the ASUS EC Sensors Controller for ProArt X670E CREATOR WIFI motherboard, Raspberry Pi PiSP controller for Raspberry Pi 5 camera system, new wireless and wired networking hardware supporting Linux 6.11 kernel or Realtek RT1318 audio support.
With regards to fullfilment of security requirements, a new Spectre BHI mitigation option targeted at cloud environments has been added, getrandom() has been implemented in vDSO, access to /proc/[pid]/mem has been hardened to improve system security, and a security issue in Landlock sandboxed applications has been fixed where applications could remove restrictions on themselves, among other things.
Tarball now available
Linux 6.11 has been announced and will be available for download soon the tarball in kernel.org. When will it arrive on your Linux distribution? Well, it depends on which one it is and its philosophy. Ubuntu It should arrive in the next few hours, but in the Daily Build of the release that will arrive on October 10th. It should also arrive in the next version of Fedora, which will arrive around the same time. It is not expected in Debian and similar distributions, at least in a stable branch that only uses LTS versions of the kernel.
Other distributions with a Rolling Release development model will also adopt it according to their philosophy. Many of them wait for the release of the first point update to be adopted.