Linux 7.1 RC2 lands as AI-generated patches and KVM "oddities" shake up the kernel

Linus Torvalds navigates a strange surge in AI-driven code and massive KVM refactoring while delivering critical GPU fixes for AMD and Intel.

Tux the Linux mascot — Credit: Larry Ewing

Linus Torvalds has just published the second release candidate of Linux 7.1, saying everything looks fairly normal. This is good news as it’s more likely Linux 7.1 will arrive on time after RC7.

While things do look fairly normal, Torvalds did note that KVM selftests made up an unusually large portion of the patches, but this was because there was a lot of renaming going on in the selftests to match kernel conventions.

He said that made this release feel big and strange, but that he is just going to ignore it as an “oddity.” He also noted that the larger number of patches are likely due to the use of AI tooling, which was noticed in Linux 7.0. This shows that the impact of AI is being felt everywhere in code, even in low-level components like the Linux kernel.

Outside of the selftests, there were lots of GPU and networking drivers being fixed. There are plenty of fixes for AMD and Intel graphics drivers with memory leaks, buffer overflows, and power management regressions in RDNA 4 and Xe architectures.

The release also includes multiple fixes for NVMe authentication and TLS mode exposure which could help protect against unauthorized access. There are also fixes for core logic errors affecting RAID10 configurations, NTFS, and ICE driver stacks. This will help to reduce the chances of system crashes.

We are still quite a bit away from the end of this release cycle, with most releases getting seven weeks of testing before a final release in the eighth week. Sometimes, the final version can be delayed an extra week if there is an RC8, but this isn’t the default.

The biggest indicator that the final version will be delayed is if things start going badly over the next few weeks, necessitating more testing. Hopefully, it won’t get to that this time, and so far, it doesn’t look like that will happen.

For anyone not familiar with the kernel, it contains the drivers for all sorts of hardware components. With each new version, more new hardware gets supported, so new kernel releases are important for people with cutting-edge hardware.