Linux kernel 5.3.18 is the last release in the series

Dec 27, 2019 15:00 GMT  ·  By

The Linux 5.3 kernel series has reached end of life and it will no longer receive maintenance updates that fix critical security issues or bugs.

Renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman announced last week the release of the 18th maintenance update to the Linux 5.3 kernel series, version 5.3.18, which changes a total of 59 files, with 369 insertions and 329 deletions. However, the developer also noted the fact that this will be the last update for the Linux kernel 5.3 series, which now reached end of life.

"I'm announcing the release of the 5.3.18 kernel. Note, this is the LAST 5.3.y kernel release. It is now end-of-life. Please move to 5.4.y now. All users of the 5.3 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman in a mailing list announcement. "The updated 5.3.y git tree can be found at https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary."

Users are urged to upgrade to Linux Kernel 5.4

Whether you are a Linux user or a Linux OS vendor, it is highly recommended that you consider upgrading your operating system to the latest release in the Linux 5.4 kernel series. If that's not possible at the moment, at least upgrade to Linux kernel 5.3.18. Both releases are available to download from kernel.org, but they need to be manually compiled and installed.

Therefore, we recommend waiting for the Linux 5.4 kernel packages to make their way into the stable software repositories of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution before upgrading from Linux kernel 5.3. Linux kernel 5.4 brings great new features, starting with the long-anticipated support for Microsoft's exFAT file system and the highly-anticipated "lockdown" security feature.