All users of the Linux 4.4 LTS kernel must update

Jun 25, 2016 21:05 GMT  ·  By

After announcing the release of Linux kernel 4.6.3, Greg Kroah-Hartman has informed the community about the availability of the fourteenth maintenance update for the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel series.

Linux kernel 4.4 is the most advanced LTS (Long Term Support) kernel branch, which is currently used in numerous popular GNU/Linux operating systems that are looking to offer their users a stable, well-tested and long-term supported kernel. Among theses, we can mention Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and Solus 1.2 "Shannon." Linux kernel 4.4.14 LTS is here to change a total of 87 files, with 1,434 insertions and 1,080 deletions.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.4.14 kernel. All users of the 4.4 kernel series must upgrade," says Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.4.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.4.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 4.4.14 LTS

According to the appended shortlog and the diff from the previous maintenance update, Linux kernel 4.4.14 LTS adds multiple changes to the SPARC support, along with various small fixes for other hardware architectures, including s390, ARM64 (AArch64), PowerPC (PPC), MIPS, ARM, and x86. Moreover, the networking stack has received various improvements to the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, as well as things like L2TP, Netfilter, Netlink, Open vSwitch, TIPC, Wireless, and switchdev.

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) full virtualization solution for Linux and Intel HDA sound support have been improved as well in Linux kernel 4.4.14 LTS, along with a few updated drivers, in particular networking ones (Ethernet, TUN, VXLAN, etc.), but also general-purpose input/output (GPIO), crypto, PINCTRL, and SCSI drivers. All users of a GNU/Linux operating system powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.4 LTS series are urged to update to Linux kernel 4.4.14 LTS as soon as possible.