Linux 5.4-rc8 Released - Things Are Calm For Linux 5.4's Debut Next Week

As expected, Linus Torvalds opted for doing a 5.4-rc8 kernel release today rather than going straight to Linux 5.4 stable. However, he says he could have just as well done the stable kernel release thanks to the cycle settling down.

Linus decided to release Linux 5.4-rc8 and then ship Linux 5.4.0 next Sunday to allow for extra testing. But he wouldn't mind if kernel maintainers begin sending in their Linux 5.5 pull requests early especially since the week after next is the US Thanksgiving week.

There are some notable changes in Linux 5.4-rc8 including dropping the recently merged VirtualBox shared folder driver, disabling HPET for Intel Coffee Lake hardware, and this week's mitigations around Zombieload V2 / TSX Async Abort vulnerabilities. The TAA work, of course, was already back-ported to stable series as well.

Torvalds' 5.4-rc8 announcement can be read on the kernel mailing list. As reiterated earlier today, Linux 5.4 is bringing some great features and improvements.