Linux 6.19-rc7

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 26, 2026

• Linux 6.19-rc7

  So normally this would be the last rc of the release, but as I've
  mentioned every rc (because I really want people to be aware and be
  able to plan for things) this release we'll have an rc8 due to the
  holiday season.
  
  
  And while some of the early rc's were smaller than usual and it didn't
  seem necessary, right now I'm quite happy I made that call. Not
  because there's anything particularly scary here - the release seems
  to be going fairly smoothly - but because this rc7 really is larger
  than things normally are and should be at this point.
  
  
  Now, it's not *hugely* larger than normal, so it's not something that
  makes me worry, but it's just large enough that it makes me go "good
  that we have an extra week".
  
  
  Anyway, it all looks otherwise very normal. A bit over half is drivers
  (networking and gpu being most of it as usual, but there's a bit of
  everything in there), and the rest is the usual random mix: tooling,
  architecture fixes, VM, networking, rust driver base fixes,
  documentation, some filesystem work...
  
  
  So we have two more weeks to go, and apart from the different timing,
  nothing looks particularly odd or worrisome.
  
  
  Please keep testing, and let's hope things really do calm down now.
  
  
                 Linus
  

• Kernel prepatch 6.19-rc7

  Along with the usual fixes, this -rc also includes a new document describing the process to replace the kernel project leadership should that become necessary in the absence of an arranged transition. The plan largely follows what was decided at the Maintainers Summit in December.