Linux 6.12-rc1 Released With QR Code Panic Messages, PREEMPT_RT & Sched_ext

As expected the Linux 6.12-rc1 kernel is out today in marking the end of the very exciting two-week Linux 6.12 merge window that saw many high profile features land.

If you didn't already see from earlier today, checkout our Linux 6.12 feature overview for a look at all the shiny new features in Linux 6.12. The Linux 6.12 kernel brings Intel Xe2 graphics for Lunar Lake and Battlemage enabled by default, real-time "PREEMPT_RT" support has finally been mainlined, Sched_ext has been merged, QR code DRM panic messages, and much, much more.

So far Linus Torvalds hasn't issued his customary 6.12-rc1 announcement to the mailing list, but the code is available via Git for those interested. Presumably his commentary will be out soon and will update when available.

Linux 6.12 stable should be out mid-to-late November and given the timing is expected to be this year's Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel release.

Now onwards to more Linux 6.12 kernel testing and performance benchmarking.

UPDATE: Linus Torvalds is now out with his customary announcement. He wrote of Linux 6.12-rc1:

"Despite conference travel (both for me and several maintainers), things seemed to go mostly fairly normally. There's a couple of notable new features in here: For one thing, PREEMPT_RT is now mainlined and enabled as a config option (you do need to enable "EXPERT" to get the question). For another, sched_ext also got merged.
...
That leaves about a quarter of the overall changes as core kernel code, split between arch updates, filesystems (yes, bcachefs, but also btrfs, smb sever and client, netfs updates, xfs and finally core VFS updates mostly in the form of 'struct fd' re-organisational cleanups). And MM, core networking, Rust, security layer updates etc.

A little bit of everything, in other words. And nothing really looks all that strange. "