All users of the Linux 4.2 kernel series must update

Dec 10, 2015 00:10 GMT  ·  By

Immediately after announcing the release of the first maintenance build of Linux kernel 4.3, renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman published details about the seventh point release of Linux kernel 4.2.

Looking at the appended shortlog of Linux kernel 4.2.7, we can notice that it includes pretty much the same changes that were implemented in Linux kernel 4.3.1. Thus, worth mentioning are dozens of improvements to the ARM, x86, MIPS, s390, and AMR64 (AArch64) hardware architectures, various USB sound driver enhancements, as well as multiple networking updates, especially for things like IPv6, IPv4, Bluetooth, IrDA, mac80211, Netlink, NFC, RDS, TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication), and Wireless.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.2.7 kernel. All users of the 4.2 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman in the release announcement. "The updated 4.2.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.2.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."

Driver updates, lots of driver updates

As with any new maintenance release of a Linux kernel branch, numerous drivers have been updated. Therefore, the seventh maintenance release of Linux kernel 4.2 updates the USB, networking (mostly Wireless and Ethernet, but also PPP, MacVTap and USB), TTY, MFD, CLK, and Bluetooth drivers. Of course, there are also some minor under-the-hood improvements implemented in Linux kernel 4.2.7.

If you're using a GNU/Linux operating system powered by kernel packages from the Linux 4.2 series, it is strongly recommended that you update them as soon as possible to version 4.2.7 via the official software repositories of your distribution. On the hand, you can download the Linux kernel 4.2.7 sources right now via Softpedia or from the kernel.org website if you want to compile it yourself.