14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few minutes ago, on December 9, Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced the immediate availability for download of the first maintenance release of Linux kernel 4.3.
It has been more than a month since Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux kernel 4.3, and we have to admit that we were just wondering when it would get some maintenance releases. Well, today is that day, as the Linux kernel 4.3.1 has been introduced and includes some pretty interesting things. First of all, in numbers, Linux kernel 4.3.1 changes 136 files, with 1,224 insertions and 438 deletions.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.3.1 kernel. All users of the 4.3 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.3.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.3.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."
According to the appended shortlog, the first maintenance release of Linux kernel 4.3 brings dozens of improvements to the ARM, x86, s390, MIPS, and ARM64 (AArch64) hardware architectures, various networking updates, especially for things like Bluetooth, IPv6, IPv4, mac80211, NFC, TIPC (Transparent Inter-Process Communication) and Wireless, as well as a couple of USB sound driver improvements.
Numerous drivers have been updated
Besides the architectures, networking and sound updates mentioned above, Linux kernel 4.3.1 updates numerous drivers, especially for things like Bluetooth, CLK, MFD, NFC, PINCTRL, TTY, USB, Xen, and networking (mostly Wireless and Ethernet). Of course, Linux kernel 4.3.1 also adds some minor under-the-hood improvements that make Linux kernel 4.3 more reliable and stable.
All users of GNU/Linux distributions running Linux kernel 4.3 are urged to update to the Linux 4.3.1 kernel as soon as possible, or more precisely as soon as it arrives in the default software repositories of their operating systems. In the meantime, OS vendors and experienced users can download the Linux kernel 4.3.1 sources right now from Softpedia or the kernel.org website and start compiling it by hand.