Users of the Linux 4.7 kernel series must update now

Oct 16, 2016 22:45 GMT  ·  By

Immediately after announcing the second point release of the Linux 4.8 kernel series, Greg Kroah-Hartman informed the community about the immediate availability of Linux kernel 4.7.8.

As you might have guessed already, Linux kernel 4.7.8 is the eighth maintenance update to the Linux 4.7 kernel series, which is still being used in various popular GNU/Linux distributions at the moment of writing this article, such as the recently announced Parrot Security OS 3.2 and Arch Linux, shipping one week after the previous point release, namely Linux kernel 4.7.7.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.7.8 kernel. All users of the 4.7 kernel series must upgrade," says Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.7.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.7.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 changed in Linux kernel 4.7.8

If you're wondering what was changed in the Linux 4.7.8 kernel release, we can tell you right now that there are multiple improvements for the x86 and PowerPC (PPC) hardware architectures, but also for ARM, ARM64 (AArch64) and MIPS ones, updates to the CPUIdle, MFD, PCI, and USB drivers, a couple of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and security-related fixes, as well as an updated sound stack, also with small changes.

From the looks of it, a total of 48 files were changed in Linux kernel 4.7.8, with 425 insertions and 176 deletions. Users of GNU/Linux distributions powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.7 series are urged to update to Linux kernel 4.7.8 as soon as possible, or more precisely as soon as the new version lands in the stable repositories of the respective OS. You can also download the Linux kernel 4.7.8 sources right now from kernel.org or via our website.