Hours earlier than usual, for example, the previous rc3 was published at 17:23 EST and this one has been released at 8:02 in the same time zone, Linus Torvalds has released us Linux 6.4-rc4. His words are a bit surprising, specifically where he mentions that the «things look pretty normal«, since if everything had been as it usually is, the launch would have occurred at this time, and not about eight hours before. But who am I to disagree with the main person responsible for the kernel that my operating system uses.
The answer to why the time change is found at the beginning of his publication, where he tells us that today he will be traveling most of the day, and that is why has had to advance the launch. Trip aside, Linux 6.4-rc4 offers no headlines, nothing to worry about, and nothing remarkable. He has not even talked about the size of this candidate, and that is something that he always tends to put in this type of publication.
Linux 6.4 will arrive in June
I'm traveling most of the day today, so version 6.4-rc4 has been tagged and shipped a few hours earlier than usual.
Other than this change, everything seems pretty normal. Changes are all the usual suspects, with driver, network core, and architecture updates being the biggest part of it. The bpf self-tests also show up clearly in the diffstat, but most of it is code movement.
Nothing stands out to me, but the abbreviated log is attached for people who want to scroll through the details.
If nothing happens, Linux 6.4 will arrive at the end of june, at the beginning of July if you require at least one more RC. As always, remember that Ubuntu users who want to install it when the time comes will have to do it on their own, for which one of the best options is to use the Mainline tool, formerly Ukuu.
Ubuntu 23.10 Lunar Lobster arrived with Linux 6.2, and the next installment of the operating system, codenamed Mantic Minotaur, will use a version somewhere between 6.5 and 6.6.