14 DAY TRIAL // The latest version of the Linux kernel, 3.16.2, has been announced by Greg Kroah-Hartman, and it's the most advanced Linux kernel available for download.
Linux kernel 3.16 is a rather new branch, as you can easily see from the version number. It now has the honor of being the most advanced branch of the kernel project and it will remain like that until the upcoming 3.17 version is promoted from its development status.
This is just the second update in the series, if we don't take into account the initial release. The previous version was rather spartan, but that was to be expected. The first update in the series is always very small, but now it looks like things are back on track. Its changelog is quite extensive and it packs numerous improvements and fixes.
“I'm announcing the release of the 3.16.2 kernel. All users of the 3.16 kernel series must upgrade.”
“The updated 3.16.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.16.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,” Greg Kroah-Hartman says in the email announcement.
According to the changelog, a number of bugs in the debug routines (USB) have been fixed, a new KV pci id (radeon) has been added, new bonaire pci ids have been implemented (radeon), additional SI pci ids have been added (radeon), the return value on disconnect timeout has been fixed (mei), a memory leak in the error path has been corrected (mei: nfc), USB host controller support for Intel Quark X1000 has been added, and the barriers used for page table modifications have been fixed.
Also, low BIOS area is now excluded when allocating the address space for non-PCI cards, the NFSv4.1 backchannel transport based on forward channel is now selected, Xonar Essence STX II support has been added, a pointer to netdev-FAQ for network patches has been added, and a LED pin quirk for the HP 15 touchsmart has been muted.
If you are using any of the versions released until now in the Linux kernel 3.16.x branch or the ones in the 3.15 kernel, you should consider an update to this build.
Linux Kernel 3.16 will most likely get quite a few updates before it gets retired, although Greg Kroah-Hartman, the maintainer, hasn't said whether this will become an LTS release or he will retire this version quickly.
A complete list of commits in this branch of the kernel can be found in the official announcement. You can download Linux kernel 3.16.2 right now from Softpedia.