With Linux 6.19-rc1 released, the merge window for Linux 6.19 has now concluded. Here is a summary of the interesting Linux 6.19 new features and changes with this kernel version.
Linux 6.19-rc1 was released on Sunday and will see weekly release candidates until Linux 6.19 stable is ready to debut around early February. Linux 6.19 introduces the Live update Orchestrator, adds PCIe link encryption and device authentication infrastructure, new drivers like ASUS Armoury and for Uniwill laptops, the DRM Color Pipeline API, a new console font, AMD GCN 1.0/1.1 GPus now default to the AMDGPU driver, initial support for the Tenstorrent Blackhole SoC, initial Intel Xe3P graphics enablement for Nova Lake and Crescent Island, a lot of ongoing Rust work, the constant catch-up around Apple Silicon hardware support, enabling of Microsoft C Extensions support in the kernel build by default, and Intel Xe VFIO driver merged. Plus a lot more.
Below is a look at the Linux 6.19 features/changes that were on my radar. I have already been running some Linux 6.19 kernel benchmarks seeing some performance gains but some regressions spotted. More Linux 6.19 kernel performance benchmarking is forthcoming on Phoronix.
Processors:
– Initial support for the Tenstorrent Blackhole SoC. This is just the very basic support but at least it’s beginning to be upstreamed.
– Initial support for the Black Sesame C1200 automotive SoC.
– KVM x2AVIC support for AMD SVM to handle up to 4,096 vCPUs up from the current 512 vCPU limit.
– Intel overhauled the KVM TDX locking code to address race issues and other conditions.
– Continued Intel Wildcat Lake ID additions across different drivers like the Intel PMC and VSEC drivers.
– There is also more Intel Nova Lake enabling in Linux 6.19 like Nova Lake audio support and various other device ID bits.
– LoongArch32 enablement has begun as a 32-bit port for the Loongson LoongArch architecture variant of the existing 64-bit LoongArch64.
– Parallel CPU hot-plugging for RISC-V cores. The ratified Zalasr ISA is also now supported on the RISC-V side.
– New cache statistics for the Turbostat utility that is distributed as part of the Linux kernel sources.
– Arm MPAM was upstreamed for this ARM CPU feature akin to Intel’s Resource Director Technology.
– PCIe link encryption and device authentication and initial enablement work around AMD SEV-TIO for Trusted I/O.
– Fixing a thundering herd problem for big NUMA Linux servers.
– Scoped user access support to reduce speculation barrier usage and the performance hit they can cause.
– AES-GCM optimizations benefiting AMD Zen 3 a lot as well as AVX-512 CPUs.
– Intel LASS was upstreamed for Linear Address Space Separation.
– Updated Intel CPU microcode handling to deal with larger microcode binaries.
– Intel SGX EUPDATESVN support.
– The new imh_edac driver for the new memory controller with Xeon Diamond Rapids processors.
– AMD Zen 6 RAS preparations.
– AMD SDCI support for Smart Data Cache Injection (SDCI) as found with current EPYC Turin processors.
– Overhauling of RSEQ and CID management as important performance work.
– Optimized NUMA distances for Intel Granite Rapids and Clearwater Forest.
Linux Graphics:
– The DRM Color Pipelien API was finally merged to the mainline kernel! This is initially for the AMDGPU and VKMS drivers and the Intel driver also managed to squeeze in support (see below). This is another step for Linux HDR efforts and the Valve-funded enhancements around HDR for Linux gaming.
– AMD GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 GPUs now default to the AMDGPU driver rather than the legacy Radeon DRM driver. This allows for RADV Vulkan support out-of-the-box, better performance, and other functionality.
– Initial Intel Xe3P graphics enablement with a current focus on Nova Lake integrated graphics and the Crescent Island AI inferencing card.
– Intel CASF adaptive sharpening was finally upstreamed for that functionality supported since Lunar Lake.
– Nova driver preparations began with an eye on future NVIDIA GPUs.
– The MSM DRM kernel driver now supports the new Adreno graphics in the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Adreno X2-85 GPUs.
– Nouveau support for larger pages and compression.
– The Arm Ethos NPU driver was upstreamed to the accelerator subsystem underneath DRM.
– Various other accelerator and graphics driver improvements for Linux 6.19.
– The Intel graphics driver support for color management and the new Xe VFIO driver were merged as later additions.
