14 DAY TRIAL // The latest version of the stable Linux kernel, 3.12.21, has been announced by Jiri Slaby and features quite a few changes, despite the fact that it's an LTS release.
After a period when Linux kernel updates were smaller than usual, the developers have started once again to send patches and fixes, even for slightly older kernels, like 3.12.x. This is the most advanced Long Term Support kernel version and it's expected to see more changes than the rest of them.
“I'm announcing the release of the 3.12.21 kernel. All users of the 3.12 kernel series must upgrade.”
“The updated 3.12.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.12.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary,” Jiri Slaby said in the email announcement.
According to the changelog, a quirk for the Synaptics HD touchscreen has been fixed, support has been added for Cinterion PXS8 and PHS8, vr save/restore functions have been added, an ns_capable check has been fixed in sock_diag_put_filterinfo, the transport is now the proto owner (vsock), Sierra Wireless EM7355, MC73xx, and MC7305/MC7355 support has been added, Alcatel L800MA is now supported as well, napi_synchronize is no longer used inside mlx4_en_netpoll, and a missing bounds check in mimd_to_kioc() has been fixed.
Also, support for Telit UE910v2 has been implemented, PMTU has been taken from the tunnel UDP socket, support has been added for SiS multitouch panel in the touch monitor, Telit LE920 newer firmware has been added, the current target reap infrastructure has been fixed (SCSI), WARN_ON has been removed from get_kernel_ns(), NLA extensions are no longer allowed to peek beyond the end of the message, the Motorola/Telit H24 serial interfaces have been removed from the ACM driver, and the fallback device is now initialized properly.
If you are using any of the versions released until now in the Linux kernel 3.12.x branch, you should consider an update to this current build, although there are a couple of newer kernel versions available for download. You can even get the latest 3.15 RC, but a final release is expected to arrive at the end of the week.
Surprisingly, there is no Linux 3.13.x because that branch of the kernel has reached end of life and the support for that one is now provided by Canonical.
A complete list of commits in this branch of the kernel can be found in the official announcement. You can download Linux kernel 3.12.21 right now from Softpedia.