Another weekend has passed, which means we have a new release candidate for Linux 6.18. This time it was the seventh version. According to the creator of the Linux Kernel, Linus Torvalds, last week saw some last-minute core virtual memory (VM) regressions, which were fortunately fixed quickly as the cause was trivial.
While issues like this can cause annoying delays to the final version, Torvalds said the release is still on track for a final release this coming weekend. He believes that the kernel is in good shape due to rc7 being a smaller set of changes than rc6. However, he did mention that if there are any issues this week, then the final version could potentially be delayed.
This week, Torvalds noted that rc7 looked "mostly normal" with the usual driver updates, architecture fixes, core networking, and tooling and documentation. However, he did note that there is a SELinux patch that stands out due to a variable renaming. This was triggered by a bug fix for a bug that due to confusion over naming.
The changes in this release are mostly normal and fall into several typical categories. The update brings driver updates for GPU and networking components, architecture fixes for LoongArch, MIPS, and ARM64, updates to the networking stack, miscellaneous updates to development tools and documentation, and numerous one-off patches addressing specific isolated bugs.
If nothing goes wonky this week, we should see Linux 6.18 arrive on November 30. There will then be a two-week merge window to add new features, and then release candidates will be released for Linux 6.19 for several weeks. Notably, 6.19 will take longer to arrive due to the kernel maintainer summit taking place during the cycle. This will likely delay it a week or two.
Linux 6.18, once released, will be available in different Linux distributions at different times. For distributions like Arch Linux and Fedora, the wait will be quite short. If you"re on Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint, then the wait will be longer.