Users of the Linux 4.4 LTS kernel series must update

Mar 22, 2017 23:59 GMT  ·  By

After announcing the release of the Linux 4.10.5 and Linux 4.9.17 LTS kernels, renowned Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman is now releasing the fifty-sixth maintenance update to the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel series.

Coming only four days after the previous point release, in this case Linux kernel 4.4.55 LTS, the Linux 4.4.56 LTS kernel appears to be a small patch that changes a total of 40 files, with 174 insertions and 1221 deletions, according to the appended shortlog. Most of the improvements are related to the networking stack, but we can also notice a few updated drivers and some Arch and filesystem fixes.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.4.56 kernel. All users of the 4.4 kernel series must upgrade. 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," said Greg Kroah-Hartman.

Linux 4.4 LTS kernel users get more networking improvements

Looking at the changes brought by the Linux 4.4.56 LTS kernel, we can notice an updated networking stack with improvements to the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, as well as some enhancements to Bridge, Netlink, packet scheduler, Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP),Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

In addition to those networking improvements, Linux kernel 4.4.56 LTS offers better support for the x86 architectures and fixes a couple of issues for the EXT4 and Samsung's F2FS filesystems. If you're using a GNU/Linux distribution powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.4 LTS kernel series, you are urged to update to version 4.4.56 as soon as possible. You can also download the source tarball right now from kernel.org.