Linus Torvalds Announces First Linux Kernel 6.16 Release Candidate

posted by Marius Nestor on Jun 08, 2025,
updated Jun 09, 2025

Two weeks have passed since the release of Linux kernel 6.15, which means that Linux 6.16’s merge window is now closed, and the time has come to test drive the Release Candidate (RC) development versions, which will be published every Sunday until the final release in about two months from today.

Some of the highlights of the upcoming Linux 6.16 kernel series include a new systemd service to run cpupower, lots of changes for the bcachefs file system, Intel Auto Counter Reload (ACR) support, Intel APX support, a new HD-audio control bound via ACPI for NVIDIA, and support for NVIDIA Hopper/Blackwell GPUs to nouveau.

Read on

Update (by Roy)

LWN and Linus:

• Kernel prepatch 6.16-rc1 [LWN.net]

  Linus has released 6.16-rc1 and closed the merge window for this release.

• Linux 6.16-rc1 [LWN.net]

  So it's Sunday afternoon, and we all know what that means by now: the
  merge window is closed, rc1 has been cut and pushed out, and we're all
  supposed to start testing (and fixing) all the new code.
  
  
  I think we had a fairly normal merge window, although I did get the
  feeling that there were a few more "late straggler" pull requests than
  usual.  Not to a huge degree, but there was definitely an upward bump
  at the end of the second week.
  
  
  But on the whole, all the stats look pretty normal: about half the
  diff is driver updates (all over, although as usual gpu and networking
  account for a fairly large chunk of it).
  
  
  On the non-driver front, it looks like basically one third arch
  updates, one third documentation and tooling (perf tool and
  selftests), and one third "the rest".
  
  
  That last part is where all the core changes go: filesystems, core
  kernel and MM, networking etc. Typically not huge changes, but often
  some of the more important ones. Although maybe that "more important"
  comment just shows my personal biases.
  
  
  Anyway, mergelog below giving at least an approximate high-level feel
  for what I've merged this time around. The full shortlog is as always
  much too big. We had just under 13k non-merge commits, and closer to a
  thousand merges. And 1783 unique author names...
  
  
                        Linus
  

Neowin:

• Linux 6.16-rc1 is out: What's new and what does it mean for your system? - Neowin

  Linus Torvalds, head and founder of the Linux kernel, has announced the closure of the merge window where major new features are added to the kernel, and the beginning of the Linux 6.16 release candidates, beginning with release candidate 1 (Linux 6.16-rc1). Linux 6.15 was released two weeks ago and in the time since, developers have had the opportunity to try and get their new kernel features into the Linux 6.16 kernel.

  Over the next two months, we will get seven or eight release candidates where developers will stabilize new and existing features. This means that the stable version of Linux 6.16 will arrive around the end of July.

  Torvalds said that the merge window seemed pretty normal this time, but did say he had a feeling that there were more “late straggler” pull requests than is typical. Despite this, everything seems to be fine and the schedule will be going forward as planned.