Linus Torvalds has announced the release of a Linux 4.14, the latest stable release of the Linux kernel.
Linux 4.14 features a number of new features and changes, and is set to become the next long term support (LTS) release backed by several years of ongoing maintainence and support.
Announcing the arrival of Linux 4.14 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), Linus Torvalds writes:-
“Go out and test the new 4.14 release, that is slated to be the next LTS kernel – and start sending me pull request for the 4.15 merge
window.”
Linux 4.14 Features & Changes
Linux 4.14 features a huge stack of improvements to drivers, hardware enablement, file system tweaks, performance tune-ups, and lots more.
One of the “headline” features is support for larger memory limits on x86_64 hardware. The release increases the hard limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space, up from 256TiB of virtual address space and 64TiB of physical address space.
Other notable changes:
- New Realtek Wi-Fi driver (RTL8822BE)
- Btrfs Zstd compression support
- HDMI CEC support for Raspberry Pi
- Secure memory encryption for AMD EPYC processors
- ASUS T100 touchpad support
- Heterogeneous Memory Management
- AMDGPU DRM Vega improvements
- Better support for Ryzen processors
Each kernel update also introduces support for new ARM devices/boards/SoCs. Linux 4.14 introduces support for the Raspberry Pi Zero W, the Banana Pi R2, M3, M2M and M64, Rockchip RK3328/Pine 64, and others.
For a fuller look at everything that’s new in Linux Kernel 4.14 head over to the official mailing list announcement or the Linux kernel website and follow the links there, or check out Kernel Newbies for a more parseable presentation of the changes.