The latest Linux Kernel 5.8 will be available via mainstream Linux distributions in Q3 and Q4 2020 releases this year. Overall, the Linux kernel 5.8 release introduces a bunch of driver support, security improvements, and optimizations.
Linux Kernel 5.8 is about the same size as Linux Kernel 4.9 from 2016 – over 22 million lines of code.
So I didn’t really expect this, but 5.8 looks to be one of our biggest releases of all time. In 5.8, we have no sign of those kinds of issues making the release bigger – there’s just simply a lot of development in there.
writes Linus Torvalds on the Linux kernel mailing list.
Linux Kernel 5.8: Key Features & Changes
In fact, this release is a pretty standard release. Of course, there are some new features and key changes worth knowing about.
AMD related changes
- AMD energy driver is now in Kernel 5.8 which gives the ability to read the Zen/Zen2 energy sensors. Also, Zen/Zen2 RAPL support is added to limit the runtime power usage.
- Nested AMD live migration with KVM is supported now.
- Loongson 3 CPU support for AVM virtualization.
- Support added for Ice Lake Xeon servers along with RISC-V Kendryte K210 Soc support, new Arm SoC support.
- Spectre vulnerability fixes also added.
Storage and graphics related changes
- Fixes added for EXT4 filesystems.
- More improvements for Btrfs filesystem which Fedora 33 will be defaulting in the coming release.
Microsoft exFAT driver improvements - Graphics driver and other improvements added for Qualcomm Adreno 405-640-650, Intel Tiger Lake, AMD GPU TMZ, updates on Radeon driver.
In conclusion, Linux Kernel 5.8 is indeed an important release with a lot of driver updates, security improvements, and performance optimizations.
