All users of the Linux 4.9 kernel series must update

Feb 5, 2017 23:22 GMT  ·  By

We're back on track, as only two days after releasing the seventh maintenance update to the long-term supported Linux 4.9 kernel series, Greg Kroah-Hartman has now announced the availability of Linux kernel 4.9.8.

Linux kernel 4.9.8 is now considered the most advanced stable kernel build there is for GNU/Linux operating systems, and if you're using a distribution powered by this branch, such as Arch Linux, Solus, OpenSuSE Tumbleweed, etc., you'll have to update as soon as it lands in the main repositories. According to the appended shortlog, the Linux 4.9.8 kernel is a small patch changing a total of 57 files, with 473 insertions and 273 deletions.

"I'm announcing the release of the 4.9.8 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.

There are mostly networking improvements and XFS fixes

Taking a quick look at the changes, we can notice that most of the Linux kernel 4.9.8 patch consists of networking changes, both for the networking stack, adding various improvements to the IPv6, IPv4, Distributed Switch Architecture (DSA), AX.25, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching), Open vSwitch, Bridge, and packet scheduler support, as well as the drivers, with Ethernet (Broadcom, Mellanox, Renesas), Hyper-V, MacVTap, PHY, TUN, USB, Virtio, and Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) fixes.

The rest of the Linux kernel 4.9.8 patch consists of a bunch of enhancements and bug fixes to the XFS file system, so if you're using it on your GNU/Linux distro, make sure that you also install this kernel. OS vendors are urged to download the Linux kernel 4.9.8 source tarball from kernel.org or via our website, compile/tweak it for their supported hardware architectures, and push it into the stable repos at their earliest convenience for all users to update and keep their systems secure at all times.