Linux 6.12 Kernel To Add New Features For Intel & AMD Systems, Many Other Changes Too

With Linux 6.11 expected for release on Sunday that in turn will mark the start of the two-week merge window for Linux 6.12. The Linux 6.12 cycle will get underway and work towards its stable release in mid to late November. Ahead of the Linux 6.12 merge window here is a look at some of the material anticipated for merging during this next cycle.

Based on monitoring the various subsystem "-next" branches and other indicators on the Linux kernel mailing list, below is a look at some of the features likely to be found with the upcoming Linux 6.12 cycle.

On the AMD side with the expected Linux 6.12 kernel changes some of the material on my radar includes:

- AMD Bus Lock Detect support for this feature also known as AMD Bus Lock Trap.

- The AMD graphics driver is introducing per-queue resets and process isolation support with Linux 6.12.

- More RDNA3.5 fixes and other enhancements.

- Improved ASUS ROG Ally X audio support for that newer AMD powered gaming handheld.

Some of the expected Intel-related highlights for the Linux 6.12 kernel include:

- Intel Xe2 Lunar Lake graphics and Battlemage discrete graphics are enabled by default and will thus load out-of-the-box (assuming necessary firmware. plus needing Mesa 24.2+ for OpenGL/Vulkan). This is important with Lunar Lake laptops beginning to ship later this month. With Linux 6.12 it's now the initial baseline for stable Lunar Lake and Battlemage graphics.

- Intel graphics driver fan speed reporting for their discrete graphics cards is finally landing.

- Intel Granite Rapids Idle and P-State driver work.

- Intel Panther Lake HDMI audio support.

- Intel Efficiency Latency Control "ELC" support for their uncore driver.

Other expected Linux 6.12 changes include:

- Potentially seeing real-time "PREEMPT_RT" support at long last for the mainline kernel.

- Support for displaying QR codes during kernel panics.

- Removing old code that slows down CPU frequency polling when uisng the Schedutil governor.

- More fine-grained control over CPU security mitigations at build time.

- A new Rust PHY network driver is set to be merged.

- getrandom() vDSO support for more CPU architectures.

- Idmapped mounts support for FUSE file-systems and initially wired through for VirtIO-FS.

- Generic CPU vulnerabilities reporting for RISC-V.

- The Rockchip display driver can now drive 4K @ 60Hz HDMI displays.

- Improved mainline support for the QNAP TS-433 NAS.

- Updated XZ code for the Linux kernel implementation.

- NILFS2 file-system fixes and supporting some newer file-system IOCTLs.

Stay tuned for the Phoronix coverage of the Linux 6.12 merge window followed by the start of Linux 6.12 kernel performance benchmarking.