The 7.2-rc5 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Linus said: "So it's a bit too big for my liking, but nothing in there strikes me as particularly strange or scary".

The Debian project is considering a general resolution on the use of large language models in the creation of the distribution. There are three alternatives to consider: a total ban on LLM usage, rejecting LLMs "as far as practical", or explicitly allowing LLM usage subject to a set of conditions. The discussion period has just begun; the beginning of the voting period does not yet appear to have been set. Those who want to look over the discussion ahead of the inevitable LWN article can find it over here.

On July 21, the kernel community lost Dan Williams, one of its most beloved contributors. Dave Hansen and Thomas Gleixner, both of whom worked with Williams extensively, have written an obituary and allowed LWN to publish it. He will be deeply missed, but he has left us with a lot to remember him by.

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (compat-openssl11, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-17-openjdk, kernel, kernel-rt, and sssd), Debian (exim4), Fedora (chromium, dotnet10.0, mbedtls, mupdf, netatalk, python-django5, skopeo, sssd, and wget1), Mageia (libevent and transmission), Oracle (.NET 8.0, 389-ds-base, aardvark-dns, acl, buildah, cifs-utils, dovecot, dracut, galera and mariadb11.8, glibc, hplip, kernel, libxml2, nginx, openexr, podman, postgresql18, rsync, thunderbird, and vim), and SUSE (389-ds, afterburn, agama, alsa, apache-commons-compress, apache-ivy, brotli-java, zstd-jni, avahi, aws-nitro-enclaves-cli, cockpit, cockpit-machines, cockpit-packages, cockpit- podman, cockpit-repos, cockpit-subscriptions, container-suseconnect, containerd, cosign, cryptsetup, curl, dash, dnsmasq, docker, docker-compose, ffmpeg, firefox, freetype2, gawk, gh, glib-networking, glib2, go1.25, go1.25-openssl, go1.26, go1.26-openssl, google-guest-agent, google-osconfig-agent, gpg2, gsasl, gstreamer-plugins-bad, gzip, haproxy, hauler, helm, helm3, ImageMagick, imagemagick, iproute2, java-11-openjdk, java-26-openjdk, jline3, joe, jq, kernel, kernel-devel, krb5, kubevirt, libgcrypt, libpng12, libqt4, libssh2_org, libXfont2, libxml2, mariadb-connector-c, microcode_ctl, multipath-tools, nasm, net-tools, nghttp2, nmap, ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs, openexr, packagekit, pam, patch, perl, perl-DBI, perl-dbi, perl-http-date, perl-libwww-perl, perl-xml-bare, php8, prometheus-ha_cluster_exporter, python-aiohttp, python-cryptography, python-dulwich, python-idna, python-maturin, python-mistune, python-msgpack, python-paramiko, python-Pillow, python-pyasn1, python-soupsieve, python-sqlparse, python-tornado, python-tornado6, python-urllib3, python313, python313-pandas, python314, qemu, radvd, rootlesskit, rpcbind, ruby3.4, runc, s390-tools, shibboleth-sp, sssd, systemd, systemd, systemd-mini, terraform-provider-aws, terraform-provider-azurerm, terraform-provider-external, terraform-provider-google, terraform-provider-helm, terraform-provider-kubernetes, terraform-provid, terraform-provider-susepubliccloud, tiff, tomcat, tomcat10, tomcat11, uriparser, vim, vorbis-tools, wget, wpa_supplicant, xwayland, and yelp).

Version 2.44 of the GNU C Library has been released. Changes include a new /etc/tunables.conf file for the system-wide setting of tunable parameters, a new tunable to control the use of transparent huge pages for read-only executable segments, a number of math-function improvements, a handful of security fixes, and more.

Greg Kroah-Hartman has released the 6.12.98 stable Linux kernel with a single fix for a file descriptor leak in ext4. Users of the ext4 filesystem should upgrade.

Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.1.5, 6.18.40, 6.12.97, 6.6.145, 6.1.178, 5.15.212, and 5.10.261 stable Linux kernels.

This batch of kernels includes a hefty set of updates, possibly the largest ever. 7.1.5-rc1, for example, included more than 2,000 patches, 6.18.40-rc1 included 1,611 patches, and so forth. Users are advised to upgrade.

Registration is now open for the 2026 Linux Plumbers Conference, to be held October 5 to 7 in Prague, Czechia. Tickets to this event tend to sell out quickly, so interested attendees probably should not procrastinate.

Fedora contributor Simon de Vlieger has published a blog post with a walkthrough of how the project turns source code and packages into the final release that users install on their systems.

It follows the a package from a packager's git push to a composed release: ISOs, cloud images, container images, and OSTree deployments.

The walkthrough describes how the Fedora 'sausage' is created as of Fedora 45, things change all the time; I hope to have time to update this document every cycle or every few cycles of Fedora releases so there's both history and people can find up to date information.

Daniel Borkmann led a session at the 2026 Linux Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit about the progress that has been made with netkit, the subsystem that allows virtual machines (VMs) running on Linux to perform networking efficiently. When that did not fill the full time, he went on to discuss his idea for using BPF to live-patch user-space applications. While netkit is making progress, and can now support zero-copy receipt of packets into a VM in a network namespace, the idea of using BPF for patching user-space programs remains entirely speculative.

The Open Home Foundation, which governs the Home Assistant home-automation project, has announced the "public preview" of its Device Database:

Providing a public, open way to browse the anonymous, aggregated device data we collect was always part of the plan, and this preview is our first step toward it.

You can already use it to search and filter devices to see aggregated community insights, starting with a deliberately focused set of specifics, such as whether a device requires an internet connection, and which protocols and integrations it works with. We've kept that initial scope narrow on purpose, giving us a solid foundation we can build on together with you, our community, as the database grows.

LWN looked at Home Assistant in May 2025.

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (glibc, java-21-openjdk, kernel, and libpq), Debian (imagemagick, spice-vdagent, and webkit2gtk), Fedora (cryptlib, dotnet8.0, dotnet9.0, firefox, python-black, python-lsp-black, and python-pytokens), Mageia (apache, cifs-utils, dnsmasq, lrzip, and socat), Oracle (.NET 10.0, .NET 9.0, 389-ds-base, cups, edk2, fence-agents, firefox, freeipmi, freerdp, git-lfs, glib2, gnutls, golang, gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free, gstreamer1-plugins-good, gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free, hplip, libinput, libvirt, libxml2, memcached, nginx, openexr, perl-DBI, perl-XML-LibXML, php, php8.4, plexus-utils, postgresql16, python3.12, python3.14, sssd, tomcat, tomcat9, unbound, vim, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, yggdrasil, and yggdrasil-worker-package-manager), Red Hat (container-tools:rhel8, git-lfs, go-toolset:rhel8, golang, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, host-metering, java-1.8.0-openjdk, java-11-openjdk with Extended Lifecycle Support, java-17-openjdk, java-21-openjdk, oci-seccomp-bpf-hook, rhc, rhc-worker-playbook, skopeo, xorg-x11-server, xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, and yggdrasil), Slackware (mozilla-thunderbird), SUSE (afterburn, alloy, apache-sshd, apache2, avahi, chromium, clamav, curl, dhcpcd, dnsmasq, docker-compose, ffmpeg-7, firefox-esr, gawk, glibc, gnutls, go1.26-openssl, google-osconfig-agent, gpg2, haproxy, ImageMagick, imagemagick, jline3, jq, kernel, libgcrypt, libgnt, meson, pidgin, nmap, nodejs24, pacemaker, patch, perl-HTML-Parser, perl-libwww-perl, perl-List-SomeUtils-XS, python-aiohttp, python-WebOb, qemu, rust-keylime, SVT-AV1, libyuv0, libaom3, trivy, ucode-intel, and wireshark), and Ubuntu (libhttp-date-perl, libxpm, linux-azure, linux-azure-fde, pam, and rsyslog).

I have just received the shocking news that Dan Williams, a longtime, high-profile kernel developer, has passed away. I knew him primarily through his long service on the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board; he was always a strong, thoughtful, and intelligent presence. Dan will be deeply missed.

There is a support effort underway for Dan's family as they come to terms with this loss.

One of the ideas raised at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) was the creation of an operations structure for the swap subsystem. Like many parts of the kernel, the swap layer evolved over time, with pieces being added as needed; the end result of this evolution is rarely what one would expect had the subsystem been designed today. The interface between the swap layer and the devices it uses is just one example. It appears that one result of the swap subsystem's evolution — the lack of an abstraction layer to interface with underlying storage — will soon be addressed, but in a different way than was initially envisioned.

The Codeberg forge has adopted a pair of new policies, promising not to use hosted projects to train LLMs and, more controversially, banning the hosting of LLM-generated software. The site's blog describes and justifies these policies.

Although often well intentioned, sharing the result of a prompt and calling it "libre software" does not make the world a better place. Codeberg is not and does not want to be a place to dump such generated single-use software that no one else will ever look at. We are a place for people to collaborate and improve software together. Within this context, the recent votes can be understood as a reconfirmation of those principles: As we want to center on human collaboration, we will not actively support or engage in the creation of LLMs and will not put our limited resources to use for storing single-use software that would pollute our FLOSS commons.

Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (acl, dogtag-pki, dovecot, glibc, go-toolset:rhel8, golang-github-openprinting-ipp-usb, grafana, grafana-pcp, httpd:2.4, javapackages-tools:201801, libtiff, mariadb-connector-c, perl-HTTP-Daemon, pki-deps:10.6, and sssd), Debian (bind9, chromium, firefox-esr, and pdns-recursor), Fedora (chromium, collectl, fractal, kernel, libssh, llvm, nginx, nginx-mod-brotli, nginx-mod-fancyindex, nginx-mod-headers-more, nginx-mod-js-challenge, nginx-mod-modsecurity, nginx-mod-naxsi, nginx-mod-vts, perl-DBI, perl-YAML-Syck, and srt), SUSE (7zip, GraphicsMagick, ImageMagick, multipath-tools, perl-YAML, python-sqlparse, python3-sqlparse, python313-bleach, and sssd), and Ubuntu (apache2, commons-beanutils, exim4, gawk, giflib, gst-plugins-good1.0, krb5, libapache-mod-jk, libarchive, libgphoto2, libhtml-parser-perl, linux-aws, linux-aws-5.15, linux-aws-fips, linux-fips, linux-ibm, linux-nvidia, linux-fips, linux-lowlatency, linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8, linux-oracle, linux-ibm, linux-oracle, linux-ibm-5.15, linux-nvidia, linux-nvidia-6.8, linux-nvidia-lowlatency, linux-nvidia-tegra, linux-nvidia-tegra-igx, linux-oem-6.17, linux-oracle-6.8, python-aiohttp, and tar).

Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:

• Front: LLMs in the kernel; GNOME save and restore; Fedora changes; BPF and tracepoints; BPF and LSMs; famfs; sched_ext.
• Briefs: GNOME security; PyPI policy; Arch on aarch64; Firefox 153; Quotes; ...
• Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

One of the features that users often miss when moving from X11 to Wayland is the ability to save and restore the position of windows between sessions. At GUADEC 2026, held in A Coruña, Spain, Adrian Vovk provided an overview of work that has gone into providing a platform-wide save and restore framework for GNOME. After two failed attempts at landing an API, he believes that the third try will be the one to succeed—though not in time for the upcoming GNOME 51 release due in October.

Python Software Foundation security developer-in-residence Seth Larson has announced that the Python Package Index (PyPI) will now reject new files that are uploaded to releases older than 14 days. The restriction is to prevent the poisoning of old releases if publishing tokens or workflows of PyPI projects are compromised.

The discussion of this behavior began during PEP 740 (Digital Attestations) back in January 2024. The discussion was restarted in March 2026 after the popular packages LiteLLM and Telnyx were compromised. These packages were compromised due to a "mutable reference" in these projects' usage of the Trivy GitHub Action.

Originally the discussion stalled due to some projects depending on this behavior to add support for new Python versions to already-published releases. To quantify how disruptive this change would be to existing workflows, the PyPI database was queried for projects that have published new files to old releases (bucketed by number of days since the release). Later, specifically cp314 wheels were queried for the top 15,000 packages, revealing that only 56 projects of 15,000 had published a 3.14-compatible wheel more than 14 days after a release was available.

LWN covered the LiteLLM compromise in March.

Tracepoints in the kernel are useful for a variety of purposes: debugging, active monitoring, and performance measurements, among other things. Previously, any given BPF program could only be attached to a single tracepoint. Jiri Olsa has been working to change that, and led a discussion about his progress at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory-Management, and BPF Summit. That work has since been merged, and can be expected as part of the 7.2 kernel.