Following the recent Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.3 release, the Linux community has eagerly anticipated subsequent releases from its leading derivatives.
Updates for AlmaLinux 9.3 and Oracle Linux 9.3 have already been rolled out, and now Rocky Linux 9.3 is closing the circle on the big three in the RHEL-based distribution ecosystem. So, let’s see what it brings us.
Rocky Linux 9.3 Highlights
Powered by Linux kernel 5.14, this update is notable for several reasons, including reintroducing cloud and container images for ppc64le architecture and addressing issues in the 9.2 release.
Of course, the Rocky Linux team has committed to aligning these images more closely with those of other architectures in future updates.
Live images have also seen some updates and fixes. While most of them, like XFCE, MATE, Workstation, and Workstation-Lite, encounter an error related to “NetworkManager-dispatcher.service,” a workaround involving SELinux messages has been provided, which can be seen in the release notes (the link is at the end of the article).
Unfortunately, the KDE live image still faces challenges, and users will be provided with the 9.2 version until a stable 9.3 image is available.
Other notable changes in this release include enhancements to the AWS EC2 AMD or Intel 64-bit architecture AMI image, supporting UEFI boot alongside the legacy BIOS boot.
On the security side, Rocky Linux 9.3 offers significant rebasing and improvements to various components such as Keylime, OpenSSH, pcsc-lite-ccid USB CCID, and ICCD driver.
Developers and IT professionals will find the updates in dynamic programming languages, web and database servers, compilers, and development tools exciting. For example, java-21-openjdk was introduced providing a new version of Java.
Furthermore, Rocky Linux 9.3 brings refreshed Redis 7, Node.js 20, and Apache HTTP Server 2.4.57 versions. On top of that, there’s also a notable upgrade in the system toolchain, performance tools, debuggers, and compiler toolsets, including the introduction of GCC Toolset 13 and updates to LLVM 16.0.6, Rust 1.71.1 and Go 1.20.6 toolsets.
For users eager to install Rocky Linux 9.3, the process is straightforward. The download page offers various versions for different architectures, specifically, x86_64, ARM64, ppc64le, and s390x.
If you are running Rocky Linux 9.2, upgrading to the 9.3 release is seamless. Run the command below, wait for the update packages to download and install, then reboot.
sudo dnf upgrade
However, it’s important to note that some changes have been made in the availability of the optional guest-agents group, which is now limited to the Server or Server with GUI base environments.
You can refer to the release notes for more information about all changes.
