Linux 6.13-rc4 Released For Kernel Testing Ahead Of The Holidays

Linus Torvalds just released the Linux 6.13-rc4 kernel as the newest weekly test release leading up to Linux 6.13 stable by mid to late January.

Linux 6.13-rc4 this week incorporates Intel IFS support for Clearwater Forest and VSEC driver support for Panther Lake thanks to just needing new device IDs. Linux 6.13-rc4 also picks up a security fix for the Xen hypervisor around CPU speculative attack issues/protections. There is also EROFS switching to buffered I/O for file-backed mounts to help with container start-up times. Additionally, Linux 6.13-rc4 has a fix for a nasty USB problem that had been plaguing users since the v6.13 merge window. It's been a pretty busy week ahead of the holidays.

Linus Torvalds wrote in the 6.13-rc4 announcement:

"So this definitely is looking a bit smaller than most rc4s, and I expect (and hope) that rc5 will be absolutely tiny because you should all already be relaxing over the xmas holidays.

But hey, if somebody is out there keeping the lights on, please do keep testing. Nothing particularly exciting happened last week, but appended is the obligatory shortlog for people who want to get an overview of the details.

A very random collection of fixes all over."

At Phoronix the lights are on each and every day with testing/benchmarking without days off due to the sad state of the ad industry... Plenty of exciting content still for the remainder of the year.

See the Linux 6.13 feature overview for more details on these kernel changes coming for this first major kernel version of 2025.