Linux 6.19 released with faster file transfers and better support for older AMD GPUs

Linux kernel 6.19 brings notable updates across graphics, storage, and infrastructure. Legacy AMD Radeon GPUs from the Southern Islands and Sea Islands generations now move from the radeon driver to the modern amdgpu driver, giving cards like the Radeon HD 7970 and R9 290X native RADV Vulkan support and up to 40 percent higher performance in select OpenGL and Vulkan workloads. The driver change also improves compatibility with DXVK and Proton, which can help older GPUs run more Windows games on Linux.

On the desktop side, Linux 6.19 introduces a DRM color pipeline API to support hardware accelerated HDR, although real HDR improvements still depend on compositor and GPU support as GNOME and KDE work to integrate it. The kernel also expands panic screen diagnostics to more Intel and AMD GPUs, using VRAM to display crash information even in severe failure scenarios.

For storage, ext4 now supports block sizes beyond the 4 KB page size, with best case benchmarks showing up to 50 percent faster buffered writes, plus additional tweaks like better POSIX ACL caching, per CPU disk request caching, and improved online defragmentation via folios. In cloud environments, Google’s Live Update Orchestrator is now merged to enable warm reboot kernel switches via Kexec Handover with minimal downtime. Linus Torvalds also confirmed the next major kernel version will be Linux 7.0, with the merge window starting right after 6.19 and running for about two weeks, and a stable release expected around mid April.