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Assortment of enhancements, including better ARM laptop support

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel 6.11, which is the kernel version Ubuntu 24.10 and Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS will offer.

Fittingly, this update arrives a few days before the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit takes place in Vienna, Austria. In his message to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to sign-off on the release Torvalds’ writes:

“I’m once again on the road and not in my normal timezone, but it’s Sunday afternoon here in Vienna, and 6.11 is out”, and asks kernel devs to “give the latest release a try” before getting stuck in with the 6.12 merge window, which opens tomorrow.

For a quick overview of the key updates in this release, continue reading.

Each new version of the Linux kernel includes updates for upcoming technology from major brands like Intel, AMD, NVIDIA among others. These updates, however, usually impact future products that are not yet available on the market. As such, I will not dwell on these aspects.

Most of this news might seem obvious, such as updates about temperature sensors for GPUs not yet released or sound capabilities for CPUs expected in several years. These updates are essential but expected.

The more significant changes in the kernel are those that affect current hardware—items that consumers already own and use. These updates can offer immediate improvements, making an upgrade to this kernel version worthwhile for users.

Linux 6.11 introduces the option to manage AMD Core Performance Boost directly through the AMD P-State driver, providing the capability to selectively enable or disable turbo and boost frequency ranges and offering detailed control over performance boost for each core. The latest update of Power Profiles Daemon appears to be well-equipped to leverage this feature.

The AMD Core Performance Boost control is now accessible via the AMD P-State driver in version 6.11.

Additionally, the AMD P-State driver introduces AMD Fast CPPC, a power management advancement for the latest Ryzen (Zen 4) mobile processors that boosts performance by 2-6% without increasing power consumption, depending on the task.

The speed of AES-GCM decryption and encryption has improved by up to 160% on contemporary AMD (and Intel) processors thanks to efforts by the same Google developer responsible for significant enhancements in AES-XTS performance featured in the Linux 6.10 kernel release.

There’s support for x86 kernels to operate as guests utilizing AMD SEV-SNP encrypted virtualization through KVM.

In addition, while I’m skipping over initial details, there are some notable Intel updates in this kernel related to “Lunar Lake” devices, which have just started being available. These include perf subsystem enhancements that support the performance monitoring unit (PMU) on these new chips.

Moreover, Intel now facilitates performance limit reasons reporting accessible from user-space.

Furthermore, an adjustment to the TPMI driver has been made to allow for user-space, via DebugFS, to access reports on Intel performance limit reasons. This provides insights into why a CPU core(s) may be performing below expected levels.

It remains to be seen if any existing Linux applications will begin to search for this type of data, but with the kernel’s new capabilities, it is likely that some will soon emerge. This is a feature that those familiar with HWiNFO on Windows might recognize.

In similar development, Intel servers that operate on Linux version 6.11 can now utilize Sub-NUMA clustering to boost performance in NUMA workloads, even when Intel’s Resource Director Technology (RDT) is active. Previously, the function of these two technologies was incompatible.

Also in enhancements, the support for Intel NPUs within Meteor Lake (and subsequent) chipsets has been broadened in Linux 6.11, including advances in the in-kernel iVPU accelerator driver, which now supports both hardware scheduling and profiling.

Moreover, Linux 6.11 introduces support for memory hot-plugging for RISC-V, effective in both physical scenarios and virtual machines.

Linus Torvalds recently encountered some frustrations during kernel development on his new ARM64 setup. To address these, kernel images can now be compressed and installed, not just built, which was marked by a specific commit. Additionally, improvements have been made to support other minor issues.

In terms of advancements, ARM64 systems now support CPU hotplug for ACPI platforms. The official documentation now highlights: “CPU hotplug in the arm64 environment typically refers to the kernel’s ability to manage CPUs online and offline using PSCI.”

Meanwhile, RISC-V has been upgraded to allow memory hot-plugging with the release of Linux 6.11. This update also includes several new ISA extensions, STACKLEAK security feature, initial NUMA support, console output, cache information on ACPI-based systems, and various other modifications.

The kernel update also provides enhanced support for various ARM-based laptops.

The 2019 Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS, one of the pioneering Windows on ARM laptops utilizing a Snapdragon 850 SoC, receives a new embedded controller driver in Linux kernel version 6.11. This enhancement provides support for various features, including battery and power management.

In related developments for ARM hardware, Linux kernel 6.11 introduces support for two Snapdragon X1 Elite laptops, namely the ASUS VivoBook S 15 and the Lenovo Slim 7x. However, these laptops still lack support for several critical hardware features such as USB ports.

Linux enthusiasts using Chromebooks, like myself, will find it notable that the Linux 6.11 kernel expands support for Chrome OS devices with the addition of new drivers. One notable enhancement includes the introduction of the cros_ec_hwmon driver, which provides monitoring for fan speeds and temperatures in newer Chromebook models, leveraging the ChromeOS Embedded Controller (CrOS EC), also found in some newer Framework 13 AMD laptops.

The newly introduced cros_charge-control driver offers charge threshold setting capabilities through CrOS EC, utilizing sysfs in user-space. Should your Linux distribution/DE support charge threshold adjustments, this feature should be operational on Chromebooks and Framework 13 laptops as well.

Users of Framework 13 laptops might be interested to know that Linux version 6.11 introduces a new ChromeOS EC LED driver designed to manage multi-colour LEDs dependent on various events, triggers, and inputs.

Enhancements also include mainline Linux kernel support for fan control on later Dell machines (laptops, PCs, all-in-ones, etc.), the Raspberry Pi PiSP camera, Realtek RTL8192DU USB Wi-Fi adapters, and the Thrustmaster TCA Yoke Boeing joystick.

For graphic designers, animators, and digital artists looking to boost their creative output on Linux platforms, the availability of robust open-source tools like Krita and Blender has expanded significantly.

Cost-effective and efficient drawing tablets such as the Huion Inspiroy 2 S, Dial 2, and the XP-PEN Deco Mini 4 are now compatible right away with the new Linux 6.11, which is an excellent development.

Moreover – the LWN merge summary for Linux 6.11 serves as a perfect starting point to explore the major new features in this release. It includes explanations, links to detailed articles, and references to the specific code commits.

The Linux 6.11 version brings significant upgrades with numerous foundational, security, and performance enhancements, along with broader hardware support.

So, what are the steps to upgrade to or install the Linux kernel 6.11?

Well, you can always download the Linux kernel source code and compile it yourself, or wait for your Linux distribution to package up and release this update as a software update — but not all do.

Ubuntu 24.10 will ship with Linux kernel 6.11 by default, and via the HWE, Linux kernel 6.11 will also be back-ported to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS early next year.

Other Linux blogs encourage those on Ubuntu to install Canonical mainline kernel builds. These are not intended for regular users: they’re not signed, can fail to boot, won’t receive security updates, and may lack Ubuntu-specific patches/fixes.

That said, plenty of people do run them—do you? Let me know in the comments—so if there is a feature or fix in Linux 6.11 you can’t wait for, those pre-packaged DEBs are one route.

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