KSMBD Adds SMB2 Compression Support In Linux 7.2
Merged back in Linux 5.15 in 2021 was KSMBD as an in-kernel SMB3 file server. There hasn’t been much KSMBD news to report on recently but for Linux 7.2 there is now SMB2 compression support… ⌘ Read more

MGLRU Improvement Yielding Nice Gains On Linux 7.2: MongoDB 30~100% Higher Throughput
The many memory management “MM” related improvements were recently merged to Git for the Linux 7.2 kernel. As typical most kernel cycles, some of the low-level improvements can yield nice efficiency wins and better performance in different areas… ⌘ Read more

NTFS3 Driver Sees Bug Fixes & Minor Improvements With Linux 7.2
While the new NTFS file-system driver merged for Linux 7.1 and has seen more improvements for Linux 7.2, for now at least the NTFS3 kernel driver continues to be maintained with new fixes and improvements. NTFS3 is the driver that was upstreamed to the Linux kernel a few years ago back during the pandemic by Paragon Software… ⌘ Read more

F2FS Integrates FSERROR Reporting, Reduces Memory Footprint In Linux 7.2
The Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) have landed for Linux 7.2… ⌘ Read more

“So Many AI-Fueled Fixes” Means No New ARM64 KVM Features For Linux 7.2
The KVM virtualization-related changes were merged a few days ago for the ongoing Linux 7.2 kernel merge window. While there are a number of features/improvements for AMD and Intel virtualization as well as the likes of s390 and RISC-V, there aren’t any new features on ARM64. The lack of ARM64 feature work this cycle is being attributed to “so many AI-fueled fixes” swamping the ARM Linux developers… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Protects Against Crafted Perf Data From Going Rogue
With the help of Claude Opus 4.6, the Linux 7.2 kernel added protections to fend off specially crafted or corrupted perf data for the perf tool that could cause a number of issues for the running system… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Ready With IMA and EVM Post-Quantum ML-DSA Signature Support
The integrity subsystem changes merged last week for the Linux 7.2 kernel include support now for IMA and EVM post-quantum ML-DSA signature support… ⌘ Read more

“Disgusting” Linux sched_ext Source Code Restructured Following Complaint By Linus Torvalds
Last week the main set of sched_ext changes were merged for Linux 7.2 that included continued work on sub-scheduler support. While Linus Torvalds didn’t object to any of the features being worked on for this extensible scheduler framework that relies on user-space BPF programs, he was frustrated by the layout of the new C source files and remarked, “please don’t do this disgusting thing…proper hierarchical filesyste … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Showing Some Unexpected & Nice Performance Gains On AMD EPYC Sorano
While the Linux 7.2 merge window doesn’t wrap up until this weekend as the feature cut-off for new material, I have already begun some early benchmarks of the code currently staged for this next version of the Linux kernel. Linux 7.2 already was looking quite exciting with cache aware scheduling and other exciting new features while an unexpected surprise in my early testing this week was seeing some local network/socket performan … ⌘ Read more

EROFS With Linux 7.2 Better Handles Large Sparse AI Datasets, More Efficient I/O
The EROFS open-source read-only file-system has some nice enhancements in place for the ⌘ Read more

Linux 8250/16550 UART Serial Driver Seeing Some Modernization Work In 2026
The Linux 8250 serial driver as the universal/legacy driver for 8250 and 16550 type serial ports has been seeing some modernization work recently with a number of 8250 serial patches having now been merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 RISC-V Reduces Kernel Startup Overhead, Eswin SoC Support By Default
Along with the many x86/x86_64 improvements and some ARM64 architecture improvements (albeit slowed down by the AI/LLM noise affecting the development pace), the RISC-V architecture changes were merged last week for the ongoing Linux 7.2 kernel development… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.7.1 Released With Initial Batch Of Bug Fixes
Following last week’s major Plasma 6.7 release, Plasma 6.7.1 is now available today with an initial assortment of bug fixes… ⌘ Read more

USB4STREAM Merged For Linux 7.2 To Quickly Send Data Between USB4 Connected Systems
As part of today’s USB/Thunderbolt subsystem updates for the ongoing Linux 7.2 kernel merge window, USB4STREAM was merged as a nifty and exciting addition to opening up some interesting USB4 connnectivity use-cases for high speed, low latency data transfers… ⌘ Read more

AI Law Firm Wins UK Court Case For First Time
Garfield AI, the UK’s first regulator-approved AI law firm, has won its first court case after helping a freelancer recover 7,000 pounds in unpaid fees. “I was owed money for work I had done, but it felt like the process of recovering it could be too stressful, expensive and time-consuming,” said Tamires Camal Taquidir, a freelancer who had provided HR-related services to a hospitalit … ⌘ Read more

OneXPlayer Configuration Driver Merged For Linux 7.2 Along With Other New Hardware
The HID subsystem updates have landed in the Linux 7.2 kernel with some treats that will excite Linux gamers and other desktop users… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 sched_ext Continues Working Toward Sub-Scheduler Support
Merged last week for the Linux 7.2 kernel were all of the sched_ext changes for this extensible scheduler support that allows loading BPF programs from user-space for handling scheduling tasks. Linux 7.2 continues building out sched_ext’s sub-scheduler support… ⌘ Read more

After Six Years Of Work and Over 360 Patches, Linux 7.2 Finally Removes Bug-Prone strncpy
Tech Times reports:

Linux 7.2’s merge window closed out a cleanup campaign on Friday that most kernel developers had stopped expecting to see end: the complete removal of strncpy(), a C string-copy function that the kernel’s own documentation labels “actively dangerous,” from every subsystem, driv … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Begins Making Preparations For NVIDIA “Blackwell-Next”
When going through the VFIO subsystem patches for the ongoing Linux 7.2 merge window, there isn’t too much to get excited about for end users with these changes. But there is the first time mentioning “Blackwell-Next” enablement by NVIDIA for the Linux kernel… ⌘ Read more

Linux Finally Eliminates The strncpy API After Six Years Of Work, 360+ Patches
Linux 7.2 has finally eliminated the strncpy API from the Linux kernel. The strncpy() function for copying up to a specified number of bytes has long been deprecated and after six years of work and hundreds of patches, no more users of the strncpy within the Linux kernel remained that it has now been eliminated… ⌘ Read more

Linux’s ARM64 NEON Intrinsics CRC64 Code Adapted To Work On 32-bit ARM
Merged for Linux 7.1 was ARMM64 NEON-accelerated CRC64-NVMe support for around 6x the performance out of that checksumming algorithm. The generic code had been a bottleneck in NVMe and other storage subsystem code of the Linux kernel with CRC64-NVMe being used to help verify against data corruption. Now for Linux 7.2, the NEON-accelerated code will also work for those still relying on 32-bit ARM… ⌘ Read more

KDE Plasma 6.8 Making It Easier To Configure Multi-Monitor Setups
With KDE’s Plasma 6.7 desktop having released this week, more development attention is turning to feature work toward Plasma 6.8 but there are also some fixes already accumulating for the Plasma 6.7.1 point release… ⌘ Read more

New NTFS Driver Sees Hardening & Fixes, Windows Native Symlinks With Linux 7.2
Happening back in Linux 7.1 was the “NTFS resurrection” with landing a new NTFS driver into the Linux kernel that had been years in the making and began as the former NTFS read-only kernel driver many years back before the stint of the Paragon NTFS3 driver in the Linux kernel. For Linux 7.2 that new/modern NTFS driver has seen more hardening work, some fixes, and Windows native symbolic links support… ⌘ Read more

AMD ACP7.D/7.E/7.F Driver Added In Linux 7.2: “Substantial Design Changes” For AMD Audio
It looks like AMD’s next-gen SoCs not only will be exciting on the CPU side with the much anticipated Zen 6 cores but the AMD Audio Co-Processor “ACP” IP looks to be going through some significant updates… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Brings More Work Around WiFi Aware, WiFi 8 / UHR & More Networking Hardware
The networking subsystem changes have been merged for Linux 7.2 with a lot happening around the core networking code as well as the many wired and wireless networking device drivers… ⌘ Read more

Apple M3 Booting On Linux After Three Years Plus Other SoC Updates In Linux 7.2
Just shy of 1,000 new patches were merged on the SoC side for the Linux 7.2 kernel. Among all those patches are enabling five more SoCs to work with the mainline Linux kernel – including the long-awaited Apple M3 support… ⌘ Read more

ARCTIC Fan Controller, More ASUS & ASRock Boards Have Sensor Monitoring With Linux 7.2
For those that enjoy keeping an eye on all their system vitals from temperatures to voltages, the hardware monitoring “HWMON” updates have seen many device additions for Linux 7.2… ⌘ Read more

AMD ISP4 Driver Merged To Linux 7.2 Kernel
The media subsystem changes were merged tonight for the Linux 7.2 merge window and it includes the long-awaited AMD ISP4 driver now in the mainline kernel.. This ISP4 driver is what completes the loop for enabling the web camera on the HP ZBook Ultra G1a and other future high-end AMD Ryzen laptops… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Gets Rid Of The Last Optimized MD5 Implementation
The Linux kernel has dropped the last of its architecture-specific optimized MD5 hashing algorithm implementations… ⌘ Read more

Bernie Sanders Unveils $7 Trillion Plan To Give Americans Control of AI Industry
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: As artificial intelligence companies reshape the economy and race toward trillion-dollar valuations, Sen. Bernie Sanders is proposing a sweeping transfer of wealth and power from the industry to the American public. The legislation, shown first to The Ass … ⌘ Read more

Godot 4.7 Released With HDR Output Support
Godot 4.7 is out today as the newest feature release for this leading open-source, cross-platform game engine… ⌘ Read more

Android 17 Drops For Pixel Phones and Watch
Google has begun rolling out Android 17, the June Pixel Feature Drop, and Wear OS 7 simultaneously across supported Pixel phones and watches. Highlights include floating app bubbles, improved foldable multitasking and gaming, tighter location and contact permissions, stronger lost-device protections, new Pixel AI tools, and up to 10% better Pixel Watch battery life. PhoneArena reports: … ⌘ Read more

EXT4 Reworks Fast Commit Handling & Faster Directory Hash Computation
The EXT4 file-system improvements were merged today for Linux 7.2 with some enticing optimizations… ⌘ Read more

AF_ALG Deprecation Approved For Linux 7.2, Useless & Insecure Crypto Driver Code Removed
The cryptographic subsystem updates have been merged for the ongoing Linux 7.2 kernel merge window… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 EDAC Drivers Prep For Diamond Rapids, Nova Lake H
The Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) drivers, such as for dealing with ECC memory error reporting, are heavy on the Intel side with Linux 7.2 in preparing for upcoming hardware… ⌘ Read more

SteamOS 3.8.10 Stable Released With Updated Arch, Steam Machine Support & Wayland Desktop Default
Overnight Valve released SteamOS 3.8.10 into the stable channel. for succeeding SteamOS 3.7. There’s a lot happening across the board to their in-house Linux platform for the likes of the Steam Deck and upcoming Steam Machine hardware… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Protects Against “Stupid Or Malicious” DoS Attempts By Arming Timers In The Past
There are a number of time® core subsystem changes for the Linux 7.2 kernel to better harden the kernel… ⌘ Read more

AI/LLM Patch Craziness Having An Impact On ARM64 Linux Kernel Development
The ongoing rise in AI/LLM-generated patches hitting the mailing lists and affecting development workflows continues to impact Linux kernel development. For the ARM64 architecture updates in Linux 7.2 is an interesting anecdote over over feeling like this activity has “slowed us down a little on the feature side” and having to deal with this AI/LLM patch activity resulted in some features now being postponed from making it for this current L … ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Working To Patch ‘RoguePlanet’ Zero-Day
wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek: Microsoft on Wednesday published an advisory acknowledging the public disclosure of a vulnerability in Defender that could lead to privilege escalation. The security defect, tracked as CVE-2026-50656 (CVSS score of 7.8), was dropped last week by security researcher Nightmare Eclipse (also known as Chaotic Eclipse). “We are working to … ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Slab Changes Include More Performance Optimizations
The slab memory allocation changes for Linux 7.2 have been merged and continue to see more work around shaves and performance optimizations… ⌘ Read more

Intel Core Ultra X7 Panther Lake Performance On Linux 7.1
After recently noting the Intel Arc B580 Battlemage performance improving with Linux 7.1 and similarly finding performance gains for the Arc Pro B70 on Linux 7.1, several Phoronix readers have been wondering whether the newer Xe3 graphics with Panther Lake similarly benefit. Here are some CPU and iGPU benchmarks of the Core Ultra X7 358H “Panther Lake” SoC between Linux 7.0 and the recently stabilized Linux 7.1 kernel. ⌘ Read more

Initial AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 FRL Support Successfully Merged For Linux 7.2
The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel graphics/display and accelerator driver changes have been merged for Linux 7.2. The Linux 7.2 DRM merge is headlined by the long-awaited HDMI 2.1 Fixed Rate Link (FRL) support for the AMDGPU open-source driver as part of the larger effort of finally proceeding with a full HDMI 2.1 implementation for this AMD Radeon Linux driver… ⌘ Read more

IO_uring, NVMe & Other Block + Device Mapper Changes Merged For Linux 7.2
Linux 7.2 continues seeing a fair amount of storage-related changes from file-systems to the block device code itself, software RAID, the wonderful IO_uring interface, and more. Here is some of the latest feature work that has been merged for Linux 7.2… ⌘ Read more

Btrfs Now Enables Large Folios By Default, Lands Huge Folios With Linux 7.2
The Btrfs file-system feature updates have been merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel with a few noteworthy changes for this copy-on-write file-system… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Improves Anonymous/Unnamed Pipe Performance For Shell Pipelines & More
Yet another performance optimization merged for the in-development Linux 7.2 kernel is improving the speed of anon_pipe_write, the kernel function used for writing data into anonymous/unnamed pipes such as when using shell pipelines or standard streams from applications… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Can Significantly Lower Container Exit/Unmount Latency
A patch series merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel addresses a race condition that can occur when a container is exiting yielding “VFS: Busy inodes after unmount” messages and a possible user-after-free condition. But the patch series also goes further and delivers a very nice optimization to lower the container unmounting latency for environments with heavy I/O load… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Adds Ability To Limit Programs To Only Open Regular Files, Avoid Being Tricked Or Doing Silly Things
Merged as part of the many VFS changes for Linux 7.2 is the new OPENAT2_REGULAR flag for the openat2 system call. This can be used to limit programs to only open regular file-systems and avoid accidentally or intentionally opening up device files or other non-conventional data files on the file-system… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Continues Removing Old i486 Code Remnants, Adds Rugged Panther Lake
The x86/cpu changes have been merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel with an interesting span of changes covering 36 years from the Intel 486 days up to adding the new “rugged” Panther Lake variant… ⌘ Read more

XFS Zone Allocator No Longer Experimental With Linux 7.2
The XFS file-system updates for the Linux 7.2 kernel aren’t too notable with the exception of its zone allocator being promoted from behind its previously-experimental flag… ⌘ Read more

Linux 7.2 Power Management Adds New Hardware Support While Dropping AMD Elan
The power management changes merged for the Linux 7.2 kernel are aplenty as usual. New hardware support, dropping obsolete hardware support, and various bug fixes and other enhancements throughout this important area of the kernel… ⌘ Read more