After AlmaLinux 9.6 appeared two weeks ago, followed yesterday by Oracle Linux 9.6, today, the Rocky team also announced the general availability of Rocky Linux 9.6, with refreshed installation media, cloud, container, and live images now accessible via the project’s downloads page.
Rocky 9.6’s notable highlights focus heavily on dynamic programming languages and essential server technologies. This release includes PHP versions 8.3 and 8.4, the Nginx web server 1.26, and MySQL 8.4, offering the latest features and optimizations for web hosting environments.
Developers and system administrators will particularly appreciate the enhancements to debugging and performance monitoring tools. Rocky Linux 9.6 includes Valgrind 3.24, SystemTap 5.2, elfutils 0.192, and libabigail 2.6, complemented by robust performance monitoring software such as Performance Co-pilot 6.3.2 and Grafana 10.2.6.
Furthermore, this release includes updated compiler toolsets such as LLVM 19.17, Rust 1.84.1, and Go 1.23, offering developers cutting-edge tools to streamline their workflows.
It’s also worth noting that Rocky Linux’s Cloud Special Interest Group (SIG/Cloud) is adopting KIWI, a modern image-building tool, which ensures a consistent and maintainable image production process.
Additionally, Rocky 9.6 introduces a new WSL-compatible container image, enabling users on Windows 10 and Windows 11 to effortlessly integrate the distro into their workflows.
Notably, utilities for Oracle Cloud environments have also been updated, reflecting the team’s dedication to supporting diverse deployment scenarios.
Security-related highlights include significant improvements in SELinux policies, providing additional rules that “confine iio-sensor-proxy,” “power-profiles-daemon,” “switcheroo-control,” and “samba-bgqd.”
Users can upgrade to Rocky Linux 9.6 directly from any Rocky Linux 9.x version through a simple command-line interface upgrade (sudo dnf -y upgrade) or via desktop software like GNOME Software or KDE Discover.
For users migrating from other Enterprise Linux 9 distributions, the migrate2rocky tool simplifies the upgrade process to v9.6. However, Rocky Linux does not officially support direct upgrades from version 8, so a fresh installation is recommended for those moving from Rocky Linux 8 to 9.
But despite that, if you follow our tried-and-true guide, “How to Upgrade from Rocky Linux 8 to 9,” you can expect a smooth upgrade with no issues.
Lastly, this release includes a few known issues. Notably, the current OpenZFS module does not load on Rocky Linux 9.6. Users relying on ZFS should delay upgrades or fresh installations until an updated module is available. Detailed information and updates regarding this issue can be found here and here.
Additionally, systems using passt backend interfaces with SELinux enabled may experience interface startup failures. Users encountering this issue should review the detailed explanations provided in the Rocky Linux 9.6 release notes.
For more information, see the announcement.
