Linux 6.1-rc2 Released: It’s “Unusually Large”

Linus Torvalds just released the Linux 6.1-rc2 kernel, which he characterized as “unusually large” in what started off as a quiet week.

Linux 6.1-rc2 ended up being much larger than usual due to some of the media subsystem’s feature material having inadvertently not having been pulled during the merge window. But since the code was in linux-next and was a Git mistake, Linus Torvalds pulled the rest of the media subsystem updates this week.

Plus there are various other fixes that landed in Linux 6.1-rc2 like the per-thread AMD CPU microcode loading change and various other fallout addressed now that more developers and testers are trying out this fresh Linux 6.1 code.

“Hmm. Usually rc2 is a pretty quiet week, and it mostly started out that way too, but then things took a turn for the strange. End result: 6.1-rc2 ended up being unusually large.”

More of Linus Torvalds’ commentary about 6.1-rc2 can be read via his release announcement.

See my Linux 6.1 feature overview to learn more about all of the big changes coming with this kernel, which will likely end up being this year’s Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel series once it debuts as stable in December.