Linux 5.5 will begin its development shortly and these will be its most outstanding news

Linux 5.5

If there are no surprises, Linux 5.4 will be released tomorrow. It will be a version of the Linux kernel that will include new features, of course, but not as many as the v5.2 and v5.3 versions of the kernel. What it will include and the reason why it will be a somewhat controversial launch will be a new security module that they have called Lockdown. Once launched, Linux 5.5 development will begin, version of which some functions that they plan to include are already known.

Linux 5.5 will be the 2020 first major release. It will be released in about two months, so it will be available from the end of January or the beginning of February. In Phoronix have been in charge of collecting a list of functions that are expected to arrive in the next version. All of them will be present in the next version of the Linux kernel, as long as they do not run into a stone in the way.

What's New Planned for Linux 5.5

  • The Linux 5.5 LivePatch will follow the state of the system to better manage patches. We remember that Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa will have this option available because it is an LTS version.
  • A System76 ACPI driver will be added for your new Coreboot.
  • New Intel HMEM driver to handle hardware like Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory.
  • Main support for older SGI Octane MIPS workstations.
  • Continuous enablement of Tiger Lake / Gen12 graphics, as well as support for Jasper Lake graphics. There is also support for 12 BPC colors, HDCP updates and other changes for the Intel driver.
  • Along with the other Intel Gen12 graphics work, there are some initial snippets on Intel Xe Multi-GPU setups.
  • Support for AMD OverDrive overclocking for Navi GPUs.
  • Support for HDCP AMDGPU for its content protection capability.
  • More Arcturus GPU code has been added for that unreleased Radeon Pro product. Also AMDGPU fixes power management, Navi and other Radeon graphics bits.
  • Support for the Adreno 510 included in the MSM DRM driver.
  • Improved power savings on hybrid notebooks with Intel Graphics and a discrete NVIDIA GPU.
  • Updates for the Intel Speed ​​Select Tool.
  • NVMe drive temperatures will be reported via HWMON / sysfs.
  • Better handling of EXT4 encryption because FSCRYPT-based encryption now works when the block size is smaller than the system page size. A new direct I / O read implementation also comes with EXT4.
  • FSCRYPT online encryption support.
  • Thunderbolt 3 software connection manager support to benefit Apple systems.
  • The Linux 5.5 crypto subsystem finally replaces the asynchronous block cipher API with the use of SKCIPHER.
  • Support for NVIDIA DP MST audio.
  • Intel Ice Lake power management improvements.
  • The VirtualBox file sharing driver has been reintroduced, something that was removed in Linux 5.4.
  • Improvements for Huawei laptops.
  • For Zen 2 CPUs, the new RDPRU instruction will be advertised in / proc / cpuinfo.
  • A new WiFi WFX controller for Silicon Labs low power IoT hardware.
  • A new Logitech keyboard controller.

All of the above list are requests that you have accepted and should be available when the Linux 5.5 release is official. Any of them can be discarded at any time and not appear in the stable version. Taking into account that it will arrive approximately in February and that Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa will be released in April, it is more than likely that it is the version of the Linux kernel that includes the next version of the operating system that Canonical develops and all its official flavors.

We remember that one of the most outstanding novelties of the next version of Ubuntu will be the full support for the file system ZFS as rootTherefore, it is not ruled out that Linus Torvalds and company introduce something new for Linux 5.5 that is related to this. In any case, there are about two months to know all the details.


Be the first to comment

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.