With last night's release of Linux 5.14-rc1 the merge window is officially over for this next version of the Linux kernel. With that, here is a look at the highlights for the forthcoming Linux 5.14 kernel based upon our original reporting during the merge window.
Linux 5.14 was another busy cycle with seeing changes like a new tracer for operating system noise, memfd_secret for allowing secret memory areas on the system, many CPU/architecture-related updates, core scheduling for allowing better security with Intel Hyper Threading, many open-source graphics driver improvements for Intel and AMD, removal of legacy IDE support, and much more. Here is the more exhaustive list of notable Linux 5.14 features:
Processors:
- Core Scheduling has been merged for making HT/SMT safer to keep enabled primarily for cloud environments with the ability to have more control over what's run on a core's sibling thread around trusted/untrusted tasks.
- VirtIO-IOMMU support on x86 where as previously was just AArch64 support.
- Various new Arm SoCs now supported .
- More kernel features now supported on RISC-V like transparent hugepages and KFENCE.
- ACPI CPPC CPUFreq frequency invariance support .
- A big clean-up to the x86 FPU code .
- Preparing for more OpenRISC LiteX drivers to be upstreamed in the future.
- Continued bring-up around Intel Alder Lake and the hybrid CPU concept. This includes new thermal code , P-State handling , and other ADL-specific additions.
- Upstreaming of Microwatt POWER soft CPU core support .
- ARM64 preparations for some CPU cores not supporting 32-bit execution .
- RAS/EDAC changes around Intel support for on-package HBM memory with future Xeon CPUs .
- Disabling Intel TSX by default on more CPUs .
Display / Graphics:
- A Microsoft Hyper-V display driver .
- Intel Alder Lake P support .
- AMDGPU hot unplugging should now work .
- 16 bpc display support for AMDGPU .
- PCIe ASPM is enabled by default in AMDGPU .
- Support for AMD Smart Shift laptops .
- Hantro VPU driver support for the G2 decoder .
- Many other open-source graphics/display updates .
Laptops:
- AMD SFH support for light sensor and human presence detection with newer AMD Ryzen laptops.
- Dell Hardware Privacy laptop support .
- Support to change Lenovo ThinkPad BIOS settings within Linux .
- A performance fix for Intel's ISST driver with some HPC benchmarks .
- Other Linux laptop support improvements .
Other Hardware:
- Raspberry Pi 400 support with the mainline kernel .
- Lower latency for the USB audio driver .
- Many Habana Labs AI driver improvements for its Goya and Gaudi accelerators.
- Microsoft Xbox One Controller select/share button support .
- Support for the SparkFun Qwiic joystick via a new driver as a ~$10 open-source joystick for DIY electronics .
- New sound hardware support from Alder Lake M to various other sound chips.
- More work on supporting CXL , Compute Express Link.
- Intel has overhauled and replaced its RDMA driver .
- Support for a tiny and cheap MIPS IoT single board computer .