Linux kernel 6.15 released with extended hardware support, Bcachefs improvements, and more

Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel version 6.15. This update brings expanded hardware support, covering improvements for AMD and Intel devices, HP ZBook laptops, and ongoing enhancements for ARM and RISC-V platforms.

In the area of storage, the release advances Bcachefs file system support and adds fast, real-time Zstandard compression levels to Btrfs, further optimizing performance on a range of workloads. While addressing system security, Linux 6.15 also broadens integration for the Rust programming language, now supporting hrtimer and ARMv7 components in kernel space.

For x86 system administrators, a new setcpuid= boot parameter has been introduced, offering greater control at system startup. Scheduler developers gain the ability to count and report internal events using sched_ext, which enhances diagnostics. Nested virtualization gains support for VGICv3 on ARM, and Apple Silicon systems receive emulation for the FEAT_PMUv3 feature.

Networking receives a boost with the addition of a new TCP socket option and zero-copy receive capabilities through io_uring. Following these core changes, the FUSE subsystem now enforces timeouts on unresponsive user-space servers and supports longer file names, while deleting files on exFAT file systems becomes significantly faster in this release.