No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the
5.18 release right on schedule.

That obviously means that the merge window for 5.19 will open
tomorrow, and I already have a few pull requests pending. Thank you
everybody. I'd still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to
check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for
the merge window.

The full shortlog for the last week is below, and nothing really odd
stands out. The diffstat looks a bit funny - unusually we have parsic
architecture patches being a big part of it due to some last-minute
cache flushing fixes, but that is probably more indicative of
everything else being pretty small.

So outside of the parisc fixes, there's random driver updates
(mellanox mlx5 stands out, again likely because everything else is
small), some other minor architecture fixes, some core networking, and
some tooling stuff. And random small noise. People who really care for
the details please just scroll down..

                Linus

Linus has released the 5.18 kernel. "No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule." Some of the headline changes in this release include the DAMOS memory-management interface, a number of random-number-generator improvements, the Intel software-defined silicon driver, strict memcpy() bounds checking, a switch to the C11 standard, and more. Also, the Reiserfs filesystem has been deprecated and the last vestiges of a.out support have been removed. See the LWN merge-window summaries (part 1, part 1) and the KernelNewbies 5.18 page for more details.

Ahoy, a brand new Linux kernel release is now available to download.

Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, announced the release of Linux 5.18 in a short email to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, writing: “No unexpected nasty surprises this last week, so here we go with the 5.18 release right on schedule”.

Ahh, I do approve of punctuality, monsieur Torvalds. Predictability and schedule makes writing these blog posts much easier—Wait, I’m lying: I always leave these posts until the last minute.

What’s new? Let’s find out together!

Linux Kernel 5.17 came loaded with support for next-gen hardware, including improvements for the Steam Deck.

Not to forget, every Linux Kernel release is technically exciting, and Linux Kernel 5.18 is no exception.

[...]

While the support for FreeSync video was good enough, it was a temporary solution to improve the user experience with FreeSync monitors.

Now, with Linux Kernel 5.18, the FreeSync video mode is enabled by default (changelog). You do not have to do anything from your side to enable it with supported monitors.

Linux Kernel 5.18 is released with improved hardware support and core kernel module refinements. Here’s a quick synopsis of the new features with download and installation details.

The earlier Linux 5.17 release brought us the Real-Time Linux Analysis (RTLA) tool, a new P-state driver for modern AMD Zen processors, mitigation for straight-line speculation attacks, a faster random number generator, and many other changes.

Linus Torvalds has released version 5.18 of the Linux kernel.

The maintainer-in-chief’s post announcing the release was typical of those he made for each of the eight release candidates: this time around he found no nasty surprises, additions were neither major nor complex, and no glitches impacted the development process.

Torvalds called for developers to "run boring old plain 5.18" before getting excited about the forthcoming version 5.19.

That description is a little harsh on the new cut of the kernel, which offers notable additions such as the software-defined silicon code that verifies cryptographically signed licenses to enable dormant features in Intel silicon.

We asked Intel about this, again, and the company still won't share specifics. We were told that Intel is "committed to developing flexible solutions that meet the unique demands of our customers and partners and lead the industry" and "At this time we have no specific product details to share regarding feature activation."

The mention of "feature activation" is at least new, and admission of intent from Intel. The Register will keep watching this one.

Linux creator Linux Torvalds has announced the stable Linux kernel version 5.8 release after making it through the final week of development with "no unexpected nasty surprises".

As usual, Torvalds announced the latest stable release of the Linux kernel on Sunday evening. It was on time and about two months after the stable 5.17 release, thus opening the merge window for Linux 5.19.

Torvalds had little exciting to say about Linux 5.18 but still encouraged developers to run it.

"I'd still like people to run boring old plain 5.18 just to check, before we start with the excitement of all the new features for the merge window," wrote Torvalds.

Still there were "random driver updates" as well as "some other minor architecture fixes, some core networking, and some tooling stuff."

On Sunday, May 22, Linus Torvalds launched Linux kernel 5.18. According to The Register, Torvalds, who is the principal force behind the development of the Linux operating system, said the release was typical of those he made for each of the eight release candidates: no bad surprises this time, no significant or difficult additions, and no bugs hampered the development process.

Before getting enthusiastic about the upcoming release 5.19, Torvalds advised developers to "run boring old plain 5.18."

Linux Kernel 5.18 was released on this Sunday. Ubuntu 22.04 user can install this new kernel via the mainline PPA repository.

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of the latest Linux kernel version 5.18, bringing with it the usual masses of improvements and new hardware support. Seems like it was a quiet one when it comes to releasing, with Torvalds jokingly calling it "boring old plain 5.18".

The Linux kernel developers have announced version 5.18 of the stable Linux kernel, with a feature that could affect future Intel processors by limiting CPUs unless users pay for upgrades to unlock features that already exist on the silicon.

Linus Torvalds has released the 5.18 version of the Linux kernel on schedule, but he hardly sounds happy about it

Torvalds said “nothing really odd stands out” for users of Linux distros from the latest 5.18 update, dubbing the kernel “plain old boring 5.18”.

The news means that the merge window for the soon to land 5.19 kernel will open within hours, hopefully providing loyal users with a bit more excitement.

A new version of the Linux kernel has been released.

Announced by Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, Linux 5.18 offers a number of improvements in hardware and driver support, improves file system functionality and performance enhancements, and boosts system security.

Among the notable changes in Linux 5.18 is a controversial new driver from Intel. Their ‘Software Defined Silicon’ (SDSi) driver allows the chip vender to restrict specific processor features unless a license (from Intel) is purchased and present..

Linux 5.18 has been released a bit over a week ago. As usual, we recommend the resources provided by LWN.net (part 1 and part 2) and KernelNewbies.org to get an overall view of the major features and improvements of this Linux kernel release.

Bootlin engineers have collectively contributed 80 patches to this Linux kernel release, making us the 28th contributing company according to these statistics.

The 5.18 kernel was released on May 22 after a nine-week development cycle. That can only mean that the time has come to look at some of the statistics behind this release, which was one of the busiest in a while. Read on for a look at the 5.18 kernel, where the code in this release came from, and how it found its way into the mainline.

The 5.18 development cycle saw the addition of 14,954 non-merge changesets from 2,024 developers, 289 of whom made their first kernel contribution during this time. None of these numbers are records, though the number of developers came close to the maximum seen so far (2,062 for 5.13). This work resulted in the addition of 756,00 lines of code to the kernel.

Released by Linus Torvalds on May 22 after a busy two-month development cycle, Linux kernel 5.18 brings new features and lights up new hardware. As usual, for a general overview, please head to LWN.net to read more about the merge window for 5.18 (part 1 & part 2). And now, without further ado, let's take a look at the contributions made by our engineering team!