14 DAY TRIAL // After announcing the release of the Linux 4.11.2 and Linux 4.10.17 kernels, the latter marking the end of life for the Linux 4.10 series, Greg Kroah-Hartman informed the community about the availability of Linux kernels 4.9.29, 4.4.69 and 3.18.54.
Coming about one week after the release of Linux kernels 4.9.28, 4.4.68 and 3.18.53, these new maintenance versions are here with many improvements. According to their appended shortlogs (here, here and here), Linux kernel 4.9.29 LTS changes a total of 87 files, with 865 insertions and 443 deletions, Linux kernel 4.4.69 LTS changes a total of 90 files, with 796 insertions and 434 deletions, and Linux kernel 3.18.54 changes a total of 45 files, with 481 insertions and 172 deletions.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.9.29 [4.4.69 and 3.18.53] kernel. All users of the 4.9 [4.4 and 3.18] kernel series must upgrade. The updated 4.9.y [4.4.y and 3.18.y] git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.9.y, git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.4.y, and git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.18.y," said Greg Kroah-Hartman.
CIFS and x86 improvements, updated wireless drivers, and more
Among the components updated in the Linux kernel 4.9.29 LTS, Linux kernel 4.4.69 LTS and Linux kernel 3.18.53 patches, we can mention the x86, ARM64 (AArch64), ARM, and PowerPC (PPC) hardware architectures, as well as the CIFS, EXT4, Ceph, and OrangeFS filesystems. Core networking improvements are also present in the Linux 4.4.69 LTS kernel, especially for the mac80211 wireless framework, along with numerous updated wireless drivers (ath10k, ath9k, carl9170, wcn36xx, brcm80211, cw1200, iwlegacy, iwlwifi, mwl8k, rtl8xxxu, rtlwifi, rt2x00, and wl18xx).
Updated drivers are also present in all three releases for various crypto, Bluetooth, InfiniBand, MD, NVDIMM, TTY, USB, VFIO, and HID devices. The rest is filled by the usual core kernel, mm and tools changes. You should know the drill by now if you're using a GNU/Linux distribution powered by a kernel from either the Linux 4.9, 4.4 or 3.18 series, so make sure you update your system(s) as soon as possible. OS vendors can download the source tarballs of Linux kernels 4.9.29, 4.4.69 and 3.18.54 right now from kernel.org.