The Kernel of the Beast, 6.6.6, shambled into sight… briefly
The kernel 6.6.6 version number delighted many a black-clad open source fan, but not for long. It's already been replaced with a more neighborly 6.6.7.
At the end of October, Linux version 6.6 came out, and just over a couple of weeks later, it became the latest long-term supported release. It's not always the case, but in recent years it's been common for the last complete point-release of the year to be declared a stable release that will get several years of updates. This also means that August's kernel 6.5, released on the project's 32nd birthday, is now at the end of its life. After 13 point releases, it won't be getting any more.
Stable kernel supremo Greg Kroah-Hartman released version 6.6.5 last Friday, with over 100 changes. One of these was the same problematic back-port that also affected kernel 6.1.66, as we reported earlier this week. A change to Wi-Fi handling depended on an earlier change that wasn't included in kernel 6.1.66 and led to the very rapid release of 6.1.67, with the wireless-breaking change removed again.