Whoops, Linux 5.5 Missed Some "Critical" Intel Graphics Driver Patches

While Linux 5.5 is out in the wild now as the latest stable version of the Linux kernel, it turns out some Intel kernel graphics driver patches were overlooked and this can spell trouble for some users.

Longtime Intel open-source Linux graphics driver developer Chris Wilson noted on Tuesday that Linux 5.5 is missing multiple urgent patches. The ticket notes the lack of these patches is of severity "critical" and the highest priority.

At least two patches are missing and can lead the Linux 5.5 stable to running into irrecoverable system hangs / hangs without the ability for the Intel graphics to recover or reset.

The patches in question are from December so there were several weeks to still get them into Linux 5.5 ahead of the stable tag, but it looks like an oversight caused these important fixes to be missed.

The patches have yet to appear in the Linux 5.5 stable queue but will hopefully be soon and make it into a forthcoming Linux 5.5 point release. In the meantime, Intel Linux graphics users running this newest kernel release like on openSUSE Tumbleweed, Arch Linux, Clear Linux, or manually upgrading your own distribution, be aware for the potential of hangs necessitating a system reboot.