What’s New in Linux Kernel 5.18? Key Features and Improvements Explained

Linux 5.18, the latest stable kernel series for GNU/Linux distributions, was announced on May 22 by Linus Torvalds and is now generally available, introducing many new features and expanded hardware support.

The release follows a two‑month gap after 5.17 and includes seven release‑candidate milestones that helped developers fix bugs and refine existing functionality.

Key highlights of Linux 5.18 are:

Transition to the C11 compiler standard.

Support for user‑space event tracing.

AMD’s Host System Management Port (HSMP) support.

64‑bit integrity checks on NVMe devices.

Intel’s Hardware Feedback Interface (HFI) support.

Improved indirect branch tracking for x86.

Better process‑scheduling performance on AMD Zen CPUs.

The Btrfs file system gains two new ioctl() operations that allow direct range reads/writes and cross‑mount reflink/dedupe support. Additional enhancements include an improved random number generator, updates to the io_uring subsystem, RSA encryption support for virtio‑crypto devices, and a new keep_last_dots mount option for exFAT that preserves trailing dots in filenames.

Other notable updates:

32‑bit PowerPC finally receives real‑time patch support.

Intel’s silicon‑defined driver support and F2FS ID‑mapping mount improvements.

Built‑in NFSv3 support for the NFS file system.

BPF program memory‑allocator packaging and a new fprobe entry/exit tracing mechanism for multi‑function probing via ftrace.

For ARM users, 5.18 adds support for separate interrupts and virtual‑mapped kernel stacks on 32‑bit ARM, introduces the QARMA3 pointer‑authentication algorithm, and provides shadow‑stack construction for AArch64 (ARM64).

On RISC‑V, the kernel now supports the “Sv57” page‑table format, new performance implementations using SBI PMU and Sscofpmf extensions, SBI CPU‑idle extensions, and restart‑sequence support. PA‑RISC also receives minimal vDSO support.

Additional changes include the deprecation of ReiserFS, enhancements to the bridge subsystem for multi‑generation trees, fragment support for the XDP fast‑path mechanism, and a new kernel keyring named machine that holds the TPM Machine Owner Key (MOK).

Hardware driver updates are extensive: dual‑core GPU support for the Panfrost driver, Realtek audio support for HP laptops, InterTouch support for ThinkPad T14 and P14s Gen 1, Razer BlackWidow keyboard support, Fn‑key mapping for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and various improvements for Apple T2‑chip Macs and Magic keyboards.

Linux 5.18 can be downloaded from https://kernel.org/ for those who wish to compile their own kernel. Users of mainstream distributions will see the kernel appear in stable repositories in the coming weeks, and the merge window for the next major release, Linux 5.19, opens tomorrow.