Linux 6.13 is bringing many exciting features for its stable debut expected this Sunday. But following that it’s onward to the Linux 6.14 kernel merge window for which it will be yet another very exciting round from completing the NTSYNC driver to adding new hardware support and much more. Here is a preview of some of the changes expected to be submitted for the Linux 6.14 cycle.
Below is a look at some of the Linux 6.14 features that have been on my radar from monitoring the dozens of “-next” Git branches for the different subsystems and areas of the Linux kernel along with various mailing list discussions. There is always the possibility of last minute issues or Linus Torvalds coming up with some reason to not merge a given feature, but in any event below is a fairly safe bet about new code expected to be submitted over the next two weeks during the Linux 6.14 merge window.
Linux 6.14 is all the more exciting with Ubuntu 25.04 planning to ship Linux 6.14 and it being the kernel too timed for Fedora 42 and other spring Linux distributions. The features to be on the lookout for with the Linux 6.14 cycle include:
– The NTSYNC driver is expected to be completed for speeding-up Windows games on Linux compared to the current Wine code. The NTSYNC driver better emulates the Windows NT synchronization primitives within the Linux kernel.
– AT_EXECVE_CHECK for more consistent security on Linux systems.
– Rust PCI and platform device driver support for enabling more Rust drivers to reach the mainline Linux kernel.
– Faster AES-GCM and AES-XTS for AMD CPUs with the Linux 6.14 kernel.
– Realtek RTL8125D Rev B 2.5G Ethernet ASIC support.
– Increased power savings for some AMD CPU configurations.
– The AMDXDNA driver is set to be merged for supporting the Ryzen AI NPUs finally on the mainline Linux kernel.
– AMDGPU DRM Panic support for the “Blue Screen of Death” like experience now being supported when hitting a kernel panic or similar on AMD graphics.
– New DRM boot logger for kernel messages.
– Btrfs RAID1 round-robin read balancing.
– UHBR rates being supported for Thunderbolt with upcoming Intel Panther Lake hardware.
– More enablement work for Intel Clearwater Forest.
– Perf support for up to 2,048 CPUs as a nice increase given today’s increasingly larger processors.
– A graphics fix for old Intel Haswell era integrated graphics.
– Many other kernel graphics driver updates.
– Support for the SpacemiT RISC-V processors and the Banana Pi developer board built around this 8-core RISC-V processor.
– Blaize BLZP1600 SoC support for AI edge processing.
– The Intel THC drivers for the Touch Host Controller support on newer Intel powered laptops.
– AF_XDP zero-copy support for t he Intel IGB Gigabit Ethernet driver.
– Jumbo Data Packet Transmission and RACK-TLP for the Linux networking stack.
– NVMe PCI Endpoint Function Target driver thanks to Western Digital.
– The cpupower utility is picking up new features for AMD CPUs.
– AMD Secure TSC looks like it will be ready for the mainline Linux kernel.
– AMD RMPREAD instruction and segmented RMP mode.
– AMD P-State driver improvements.
– Custom BIOS inputs for the AMD PMF driver.
– Sensor monitoring for the ASRock B650 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard for AMD AM5 CPUs.
– ASUS TUF GAMING X670E PLUS sensor monitoring support.
– The ChromeOS UCSI driver is set to be merged.
– A Loongson EDAC driver for LoongArch systems with ECC memory.
– Samsung Galaxy S20 and S9 smartphone support with the Samsung Exynos 9810 will finally be supported by the mainline Linux kernel.
– Faster USB performance for xHCI DbC after fixing a decade-old bug.
– Performance improvements for Google Binder.
– Preempt Lazy support for POWER CPUs.
– Pre-content fanotify / Hierarchical Storage Management.
– Uncached buffered I/O.
– The EVBUG driver is being removed.
