Linux Kernel 4.6 Has Reached End of Life, Users Urged To Move To Linux 4.7.1

Reader prisoninmate writes: Immediately after announcing the availability of the first point release for the Linux 4.7 kernel series, Greg Kroah-Hartman also informed the community about the launch of Linux kernel 4.6.7, which is the seventh maintenance update for the Linux 4.6 stable kernel branch, but it also looks like it's the last one for the series, which has now officially reached end of life. Therefore, if you're using a GNU/Linux operating system powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.6 branch, you are urged to move to Linux kernel 4.7 as soon as possible by installing the brand new Linux kernel 4.7.1 build.

Too slow

[wonkey_monkey]

Firefox is already on version 47 or something. You guys are going way to slow.

Hmm, I'm still only on 2.6. I need to get a wiggle on too!

Re:

[thegarbz]

That's very outdated thinking. Version numbers are meaningless. There should only be one Linux which magically changes in the background and is always up to date. That's far less confusing.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, that Linux should go around killing other Linuxes and absorbing their power!

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!

Re:

[RavenLrD20k]

Considering that this is Linux and not organic immortals we're talking about...

I think it's less Highlander; more Mega Man.

Re:

[elal1862]

Why is it outdated thinking and what changes do you have in mind?
Remember that version numbers are mostly intended for developers (to keep track of code revisions), not end-users. My only gripe with version numbers would be that every developer seems to use their own definition of what's a major or a minor revision, rendering the decimal point moot.
But in the end, an arbitrary number is just that: an arbitrary number — and if you rather don't want to deal with that, Manjaro [manjaro.org] may be a distro for you.

Re:Too slow

[thegarbz]

Why is it outdated thinking and what changes do you have in mind?

Well the key important change is that you update your Sarcasm detector 2.4.27p-3 to Sarcasm360 powered by Windows 10 IoT. Then you won't be in a situation where you're left with a Sarcasm detector that is unable to detect the updated sarcasm of the day based on frigging stupid industry trends. The benefits of the new Sarcasm360 is that it's the last one you will ever buy. From this point forward Sarcasm detection will be a subscription based model and the product will randomly change while you use it. Best of all you can use it anywhere you have an internet connection, unfortunately when your internet connection drops so will the Sarcasm360. We only provide offline access to the Sarcasm360 if you buy the enterprise server to host the back end environment. This enterprise version of Sarcasm360 will also allow you to schedule when updates happen and it won't send every piece of Sarcasm you're lolling at back to the mothership. This is only $9000/year for a 2 seat license.

Sarcasm360 cloud edition can be yours now for only $10/month which is less than the price of 2 skinny chai lattes, a favourite among our hipster millennial development team.

Re:

[inode_buddha]

oh fuck that was funny

Re:

[thegarbz]

Glad I could help :)

Re:

[Shirley Marquez]

I'd have given this a point but it's already maxed out at 5.

Re: Too slow

[corychristison]

I know you're joking, but I pay for Kernel Care [kernelcare.com] to do something along those lines on a few servers I own.

Re:

[Penguinisto]

Hmm, I'm still only on 2.6. I need to get a wiggle on too!

I know, right?

[root@oneOfMyProdServers ~]# uname -a
Linux oneOfMyProdServers 2.6.32-504.12.2.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 11 22:03:14 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

*sigh*... guess it's time to tell my $2bn/yr-revenue employer to get off their asses and get everyone onto systemd while I'm at it (*shudder*).

All joking aside, though... I know of corps still using really ancient RHEL 2.x stuff, mostly because they cannot justify migrating off it, but at the same time the thing still has enough justificatio

Re:

[ls671]

I beat you:

uname -a:
Linux oneOfMyProdServers 2.6.30.5 #4 SMP Sun Dec 29 21:46:53 UTC 2013 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux

32 bits!

Re:

[dunkelfalke]

I beat you

uname -a
Linux (none) 2.4.18-rmk3 #1309 Wed Feb 3 15:56:53 2010 armv4l unknown

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

Data center professionals shouldn't custom-compile new kernels, either. The distribution maintainers backport security fixes; there's no need to upgrade Ubuntu/CentOS/whatever with some frankenkernel that then doesn't work with your ACPI and udev userland.

Re:This is why I stay away from Linux.

[bondsbw]

Yep, this message is first and foremost for distro maintainers. If you didn't custom build your kernel, you probably don't need to start doing so.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The Linux kernel is extremely stable. There is no need to backport anything. The distros should just upgrade. Fedora already does this.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[ls671]

Is there any distro that doesn't provide kernel sources/compile configuration as well for their kernel images, in case you need to add functionality/tweak stuff?

I need to recompile on every kernel security/bug fix but I use the sources/compile configuration from my distro with a couple changes to the config. It is not because I want to, it is because I need to.

Re:

[ls671]

You silly, I get the security/bug fix from my distro owner but I need to recompile to add functionality not provided in the kernel images.

Re: This is why I stay away from Linux.

[corychristison]

This is why I use Funtoo on my personal machines.

Building a new kernel with my configuration file is a single command, and one more command to install it into the bootloader.

How about that TCP bug

[urbster1]

Is that fixed in 4.7? (referring to this https://linux.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org] )

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, see the announcement: http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1608.2/00687.html

and you find the following fixes included:
Eric Dumazet (1):
tcp: make challenge acks less predictable

Jason Baron (1):
tcp: enable per-socket rate limiting of all 'challenge acks'

Note that several distros patched it even earlier (Fedora seems to have fixed it in their kernel 4.6.4-301 according to koji).

Still waiting for zfs support

[james_marsh]

Sadly still no stable support for 4.7 from the zfs on Linux packaging for Debian :(

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

I'm more interested in budget fair queuing, which is an instant performance maximization with no trade-offs.

Re:

[james_marsh]

I thought that was meant to be making its way upstream ages ago?

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

Yeah, it was. Haven't heard anything about that in a while.

Stick with LTS kernels

[crow]

If the idea of your kernel no longer getting point releases bothers you, you should stick with the Long Term Stability releases. For most users, this is done by default using the distribution kernels. For users that build their own kernels, upgrading to the next release isn't much more difficult than upgrading to the next bugfix point release. If you're building your own kernel and use commercial kernel modules (e.g., VMWare), then stick with LTS kernels to minimize version conflicts.

So for most Linux users, this story is a non-story.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[stinerman]

Heh. For Debian, I think they're almost ready to move to the 3.x series. Maybe. In a few years.

That was sarcasm. I use Debian and love it.

Re:

[nnull]

Although, not official, you can get it to compile and working by changing a single line in vmnet. Unfortunately, VMware has been seriously slacking in linux support lately since 4.6.

Re:

[Tanktalus]

I have the same problem with the nvidia drivers - last time I tried using 4.7.0, the nvidia drivers crapped out during installation. I know there's a patch out there somewhere, I'd rather get it from Nvidia.

Re:

[Narishma]

I believe 4.4.x is an LTS version and those are supported much longer than regular versions.

Re:

[yusing]

You are correct sir.

Am i safe?

[Espectr0]

espectr0@lunix:/home/espectr0# uname -a
Linux lunix 3.16.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.16.7-ckt25-2 (2016-04-08) i686 GNU/Linux

hey Greg...

[advocate_one]

fsck off...

Android

[hackel]

Google and the Android developers better hurry up and get their act together... The 3.4 kernel on my Nexus 5 is woefully outdated—over 4 years old now! I know they were trying to get all of their patches merged upstream, I hope that happens soon.

Re:

[hackel]

3.4 doesn't actually reach EOL until Sept. I'm sure knowing Google's and OEMs' track records, they'll get everyone upgraded by them. Good times.