14 DAY TRIAL // Immediately after announcing the release of the Linux 4.1.22 LTS kernel, Sasha Levin published details about the thirty-first maintenance build of the long-term supported Linux 3.18 kernel series.
Looking at the appended shortlog for Linux kernel 3.18.31 LTS, which will receive security patches and updates until January 2017, we can notice that a total of 180 files have been changed, with 1950 insertions and 809 deletions. Therefore, this is considered an important update for all users running a kernel from the Linux 3.18 series on their GNU/Linux operating systems.
"I'm announcing the release of the 3.18.31 kernel. All users of the 3.18 kernel series must upgrade," said Sasha Levin. "The updated 3.18.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.18.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."
What's new in Linux kernel 3.18.31 LTS
The diff from the previous maintenance release, Linux 3.18.30 LTS, shows us that the 3.18.31 update brings multiple architecture changes, in particular for the x86, ARM, ARM64 (AArch64), s390, PowerPC (PPC), and Xtensa hardware architectures, improvements to the Btrfs, EFIvarFS, EXT4, FUSE, JBD2, NFS, OCFS2, OverlayFS, procfs, and XFS filesystems, as well as many core kernel, security, perf, and mm updates.
As with any new point release of a Linux kernel branch, there are multiple updated drivers, and Linux kernel 3.18.31 LTS brings enhancements to Bluetooth, CLK, EDAC, GPU (mostly Radeon), HID, iiO, InfiniBand, IRQChip, MD, MMC, MTD, PCI, SCSI, thermal, USB, and watchdog drivers. Users are urged to update as soon as possible, and OS maintainers can now download the Linux kernel 3.18.31 LTS sources.