All users of Linux 4.5 are urged to update immediately

May 5, 2016 00:42 GMT  ·  By

Renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman has just announced the release and general availability of the third maintenance build of the latest and most advanced kernel branch, Linux 4.5.

Linux kernel 4.5.3 is here, arriving two weeks after the release of the second maintenance version, Linux 4.5.2, and bringing a huge number of changes. Looking at the appended shortlog, which also includes the diff from Linux kernel 4.5.2, we can notice that today's release of Linux kernel 4.5.3 changes a total of 213 files, with 1994 insertions and 952 deletions, so check out the brief changelog below for details.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.5.3 kernel. All users of the 4.5 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.5.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.5.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."

Here's what's new in Linux kernel 4.5.3

Release highlights of Linux kernel 4.5.3 include multiple improvements to the ARM and x86 hardware architectures, but also some minor changes to the PowerPC (PPC) and s390 ones, several fixes for the Btrfs, F2FS (Flash-Friendly File System), EXT4, and procfs filesystems, as well as updated sound and networking stacks, with improvements for things like ALSA, NetLink, SunRPC, and Wireless.

As with any new maintenance version of a Linux kernel, numerous drivers are being updated and new ones added. Linux kernel 4.5.3 has dozens of updated drivers, in particular for things like GPU (mostly AMDGPU, Radeon, Intel i915), ACPI, CPUfreq, Crypto, DMA, EDAC, EFI, InfiniBand, I2C, IOMMU, V4L2 (Video4Linux), MMC, MTD, networking, NTB, PCI, PINCTRL, RTC, SPI, SCSI, and USB.

We recommend all users using a GNU/Linux operating system powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.5 branch to update to the 4.5.3 version as soon as possible, or more precisely as soon as it arrives in the main stable repositories of their distribution. Alternatively, you can download the Linux kernel 4.5.3 sources from the kernel.org website or via ours and install it manually (only for advanced users).