Linux 6.13-rc7
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LWN ☛ Linux 6.13-rc7
Well, it looked a bit quiet at the start of the week, but then things picked up, and we're definitely back to speed after the two quiet holiday weeks.
This rc7 is slightly bigger than normal, but considering the timing, it's pretty much where I would have expected, and nothing really stands out. The diffstat looks fine, and the appended shortlog doesn't look strange either.
So unless something odd happens the upcoming week, I expect to release a final 6.13 next week as per the normal schedule.
Linus
PS: one final note on the holidays, and a check to see if anybody actually ever reads these weekly rc announcements of mine:
For _me_ a traditional holiday activity tends to be a LEGO build or two, since that's often part of the presents both for Xmas and birthday, which pretty much coincide for me.
So too this year.
But in addition to the LEGO builds, this year I also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds ("LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron"). Not because I play guitar, but because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of "not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing".
I've done quite a few, but the kits I really enjoyed doing were from Aion FX. And since I want to have the excuse to continue to do them, and since I don't actually have any _use_ for the resulting pedals (I've already foisted off a few only unsuspecting victims^Hfriends), I decided that I'm going to see if some hapless kernel developer would want one.
So here's the deal: as an admittedly pretty weak excuse to keep buying and building kits, and still consider it "work", if any kernel developer (as defined as "has a commit authorship from the year 2024 in my kernel git tree") feels they really need a guitar pedal in their life, hand-built by yours truly, please send me an email (*from* that email address that is in the git tree) with the subject "I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL".
Pick any in-stock pedal kit from
https://aionfx.com/project-type/kit/
and make sure it's actually in stock (because not all of them are). And next week, I'll pick one person at random - assuming anybody wants one - and will buy that kit with my own money (hashtag "not sponsored by Aion FX, I just really like their kits"), build it with my own shaky little fingers, and send it to the victim by US postal services.
We're not talking Amazon two-day delivery here, just to be clear. Also, if you are not in the US, who knows what happens between USPS and you. I'll drop it off at the local post office, but I can't guarantee anything more than that.
And it's may be worth noting that while I've had good success so far, I'm a software person with a soldering iron. You have been warned. I will test the result to the best of my abilities, and the end result may actually work (note: you will have to provide your own guitar, playing abilities, and pedal power supply). But you should set your expectations along the lines of "quality kit built by a SW person who doesn't know one end of a guitar from the other". -
LWN ☛ Kernel prepatch 6.13-rc7
Linus has released 6.13-rc7 for testing. ""So unless something odd happens the upcoming week, I expect to release a final 6.13 next week as per the normal schedule"". Read the full announcement for your details on how to get a free guitar pedal assembled by Linus himself.
Update
Latching onto gossip:
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Linus Torvalds offers to build guitar effects pedal for kernel developer
Linux overlord Linus Torvalds has offered to hand-build a guitar effects pedal for one lucky kernel contributor.
The odd offer appeared in his weekly state-of-the-kernel post, which on Sunday US time informed the Linux world that release candidate (rc) seven for version 6.13 of the Linux kernel “is slightly bigger than normal, but considering the timing, it's pretty much where I would have expected, and nothing really stands out.”
Torvalds therefore expects version 6.13 to debut next week, meaning it will arrive after his preferred seven release candidates and without delays caused by the usual holiday-period slowdown.
Torvalds then added a postscript in which he revealed that he often uses the holiday season to build LEGO, which he frequently receives for Christmas and his late December birthday.
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Linus Torvalds Offers to Build Guitar Effects Pedal For Kernel Developer
Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced a playful giveaway for kernel contributors: he'll hand-build a guitar effects pedal for one lucky developer selected at random, using his holiday hobby skills with pedal kits. To qualify, developers must have a 2024 commit in Torvalds' kernel git tree and email him with the subject "I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL". He'll pick a winner at random, use his own money to buy a pedal kit from a company called Aion FX, and then 'build it with my own shaky little fingers, and send it to the victim by US postal services.'"
The Register:
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Microsoft change pulled from Linux over Intel CPU issues
Intel and AMD engineers have stepped in at the eleventh to deal with a code contribution from a Microsoft developer that could have broken Linux 6.13 on some systems.
The change, made in the autumn, was a useful improvement at face value. It was a modification to Linux x86_64 to use large read-only execute (ROX) pages for caching executable pages. The theory was that the alteration would result in increased performance.
However, the code caused problems on some setups and an urgent patch from Intel's Peter Zijlstra was committed yesterday to disable it. The stable release of the 6.13 kernel was due this coming weekend.
Also here:
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A happy Linus Torvalds is offering to build a guitar pedal for one lucky Linux dev
Linus Torvalds, the Linux boss-man, often draws eyes due to his interesting and often very expressive takes whether it is regarding hardware or software.
This holiday season though Torvalds is in a pretty content mood as the Linux development team managed to wrap up Linux kernel version 6.13 release candidate 7 (rc7) and thus the final stable release should be out next week.
Shifting focus to smalltalk:
A couple of updates:
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Linux 6.13, I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL
Just as 2025 is starting, we got a new Linux release in mid January, tagged as 6.13. In the spirit of holidays, Linus Torvalds even announced during 6.13-rc6 that he would be building and raffling a guitar pedal for a random kernel developer!
As usual, this release comes with a pack of exciting news done by the kernel community: [...]
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Linux Kernel 6.13 Released, Here's What's New
Linus Torvalds announced the official release of the new Linux kernel 6.13 with a lighthearted update: “So nothing horrible or unexpected happened last week, so I’ve tagged and pushed out the final 6.13 release.” Now, let me walk you through the key updates and features it brings.