14 DAY TRIAL // Renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced that the Linux 5.1 kernel series has reached end of life, urging users to upgrade to the latest Linux 5.2 kernel series.
Announced in early May 2019, the Linux 5.1 kernel series brought the ability to use persistent memory as RAM, as well as support for booting to a device-mapper device without using initramfs, support for cumulative patches in live kernel patching, and more preparations for year 2038.
In addition, Linux kernel 5.1 introduced support for configuring Zstd compression levels in the Btrfs file system, more faster and scalable asynchronous I/O, improved power management, scalable monitoring of large filesystems, as well as numerous new and updated drivers for better hardware support.
However, as all good things must come to an end, the Linux 5.1 kernel has now reached end of life with the 5.1.21 maintenance update released by Greg Kroah-Hartman earlier this week. Therefore, users are now forced to upgrade to a more recent Linux kernel series, such as Linux 5.2.
"I'm announcing the release of the 5.1.21 kernel. All users of the 5.1 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman in a mailing list announcement. "Note, this is the LAST 5.1.y kernel to be released. Everyone should be moved to the 5.2.y kernel at this point in time. 5.1.y is now end-of-life."
Upgrade to Linux kernel 5.2 as soon as possible
If you are still using the Linux 5.1 kernel on your favorite GNU/Linux distribution, you should either update it as soon as possible to the latest Linux kernel 5.1.21 point release, or upgrade it to the Linux 5.2 kernel series, the latest version of the moment of writing being Linux kernel 5.2.5.
To upgrade your kernel to the Linux 5.2 kernel series, you'll have to ask your Linux OS vendor to make the packages available in the stable software repositories or compile it yourself by downloading the Linux kernel 5.2.5 tarball from kernel.org or via our free Linux software portal.