As has been the case for the recent Linux kernel cycles, USB4 bring-up remains ongoing and a big area of focus in fleshing out all of the features for this latest USB standard. Some of the Linux 5.12 highlights in the USB/Thunderbolt subsystem include:
- Security Level 5 to disable PCIe tunneling with USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 devices are now supported.
- The ability to de-authorize Thunderbolt devices after a given device has been authorized.
- Continued work on the USB Type-C support and the Type-C Port Manager (TCPM).
- Support for native USB4 control _OSC specified by the ACPI 6.4 specification. The new _OSC capability is used for negotiating the native connection manager support.
More details on the USB and Thunderbolt changes for Linux 5.12 via the pull request .