All users of the Linux 4.9 LTS kernel branch must update

Jan 26, 2017 23:22 GMT  ·  By

Another week, another Linux kernel surfaces the web in an attempt to improve the security and performance of your GNU/Linux distribution and the hardware that powers your personal computer.

Linux kernel 4.9.6 is the sixth maintenance update to the Linux 4.9 branch, which was recently declared as LTS (Long Term Support) by renowned Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman. These days, most Linux-based operating systems are still in the process of migrating to the Linux 4.9 series from Linux 4.8, which reached end of life earlier this month.

The new Linux 4.9 point release comes about one week after the launch of the Linux kernel 4.9.5 update, and according to the appended shortlog, it changes a total of 136 files, with 1030 insertions and 814 deletions. Therefore, we can say that it's a pretty big release, and you should install it on your distro as soon as it lands in the stable software repositories.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.9.6 kernel. All users of the 4.9 kernel series must upgrade. The updated 4.9.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.9.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.

ARM, AArch64, and perf improvements, many updated drivers

New in Linux kernel 4.9.6 are a bunch of improvements for ARM and AArch64 (ARM64) platforms, including DTS support for Logic PD SOM-LV 37xx Dev Kit and the implementation of an empty chosen node to top level DTSI for OMAP2, OMAP3, OMAP4, OMAP5, AM4372, AM33XX, DM814x, DM816x, and DRA7xx SoCs. The PowerPC (PPC), x86, ARC, and s390 hardware architectures received some small fixes, too.

A lot of updated InfiniBand, SCSI, and media-related drivers are also included in this update, along with various enhancements to the Ceph, FUSE, and UBIFS filesystems, many perf improvements, a handful of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), and an updated networking stack that brings multiple SunRPC and Ceph changes. Linux kernel 4.9.6 is now available for download from kernel.org or via our website.