14 DAY TRIAL // Just two days after announcing the release of Linux kernels 4.8.3, 4.7.9, and 4.4.26 LTS, renowned kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman informed the community about the availability of the fourth maintenance update to the Linux 4.8 kernel series.
That's right, Linux kernel 4.8.4 is now the latest stable and most advanced kernel version, which is already available for users of the Solus and Arch Linux operating systems, and it's coming soon to other GNU/Linux distributions powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.8 series. And even if only two days have passed since the previous update, it looks like Linux kernel 4.8.4 changes a total of 64 files, with 580 insertions and 286 deletions.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.8.4 kernel. And yeah, sorry about the quicker releases, I'll be away tomorrow and as they seem to have passed all of the normal testing, I figured it would be better to get them out earlier instead of later. And I like releasing stuff on this date every year," says Greg Kroah-Hartman. "All users of the 4.8 kernel series must upgrade."
Broadcom wireless drivers updated in Linux kernel 4.8.4
Looking at the appended shortlog and the diff from the Linux 4.8.3 kernel release, we can notice that Linux kernel 4.8.4 adds multiple improvements for the EXT4 and Btrfs filesystems, along with minor fixes for the Autofs4, FUSE, Debugfs, JBD2, and ReiserFS filesystems, a couple of minor changes to the ARC (Argonaut RISC Core) architecture, as well as a few mm, sound stack, and core kernel enhancements.
Other than that, Linux kernel 4.8.4 ships with several updated drivers, particularly for Broadcom wireless devices, as well as InfiniBand, Virtio, Crypto, CLK, SCSI, and TTY. All users of GNU/Linux distributions powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.8 series are urged to update their systems as soon as possible to version 4.8.4. We're also urging OS vendors to download the Linux kernel 4.8.4 sources right now from kernel.org or via our website and distribute it to their users.