All users of the 3.18 kernel series must upgrade

Jul 1, 2015 04:45 GMT  ·  By

Sasha Levin, the maintainer of the Linux 3.18 kernel series, announced on the last day of June that the seventeenth maintenance release of the long-term Linux kernel 3.18 branch is available for download, urging all users to upgrade.

According to the announcement, which includes detailed information about all the changes that landed in Linux kernel 3.18.17 LTS, it appears that the new point release brings a great number of changes, ranging from architecture improvements to updated drivers.

Taking a closer look at the appended diff, we can notice that there are numerous x86 enhancements, a few ARM improvements, several networking revisions, especially for the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, as well as a fix for the EXT4 file system.

Best of all, there are dozens of updated drivers in Linux kernel 3.18.17 LTS, especially for things like DVB frontend devices and tuners, but also for some networking, TTY, USB, SPI, ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface), IOMMU, and HID devices.

"I'm announcing the release of the 3.18.17 kernel. All users of the 3.18 kernel series must upgrade," says Sasha Levin. "The updated 3.18.y git tree 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."

All users of the 3.18 kernel series must update immediately

In the email announcement, Sasha Levin urges all users of the long-term supported Linux 3.18 kernel series to update their installations as soon as Linux kernel 3.18.17 becomes available in the default software repositories of their GNU/Linux operating systems.

It is also possible to download the Linux kernel 3.18.17 LTS sources right now via Softpedia or directly from the kernel.org website if you have the necessary knowledge to compile the kernel yourself.