14 DAY TRIAL // You won't believe this, but new maintenance updates for the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel branch, as well as the Linux 4.8 kernel series, have been published today, November 21, 2016.
The Linux kernel 4.8.10 and Linux kernel 4.4.34 LTS point releases come just two days after their previous maintenance updates, namely Linux kernel 4.8.9 and Linux kernel 4.4.33 LTS, so we can't imagine how busy OS vendors must be these days updating the kernels for their supported architectures. We decided to write a single story about both of these new kernel patches because they include pretty much the same changes.
"I'm announcing the release of the 4.8.10 kernel. All users of the 4.8 kernel series must upgrade," said Greg Kroah-Hartman. "The updated 4.8.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-4.8.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary."
Many SPARC64 improvements, updated Ethernet drivers
While Linux kernel 4.8.10 changes a total of 61 files, with 1624 insertions and 801 deletions, Linux kernel 4.4.34 LTS changes 57 files, with 1499 insertions and 803 deletions, according to their appended shortlogs. The biggest part of the new patches are improvements to the SPARC64 hardware architecture, but there's also an updated networking stack with many IPv4 changes and a few IPv6, DCCP, and SCTP fixes.
The Linux kernel 4.8.10 and Linux kernel 4.4.34 LTS also include a few updates to the Ethernet drivers, for STMicroelectronics, Broadcom and Mellanox devices. It's not much, but you still need to update your GNU/Linux distribution to these new versions. Power users and OS vendors can download the Linux kernel 4.8.10 and Linux kernel 4.4.34 LTS source archives right now from kernel.org or through our website.