What’s New in Linux Kernel 7.0? Key Features and Improvements

Release Overview

Linux kernel 7.0 was released on 12 April 2024. The version number was increased from 6.19 to 7.0 as a minor‑version reset and does not indicate a fundamental change in the kernel’s direction.

Rust Integration

The experimental tag for Rust support was removed, signalling that Rust code is now accepted as a regular part of the kernel tree, although it is not yet a primary development language.

Cryptography Updates

A post‑quantum signature algorithm, ML‑DSA, is added for kernel module authentication. Support for SHA‑1‑based module signing has been dropped.

Search and Control Enhancements

BPF‑based io_uring filtering is introduced, allowing administrators to restrict which io_uring operations are permitted in constrained environments.

Binary‑search based BTF type lookup speeds up type resolution.

New Filesystem: NULLFS

NULLFS is an immutable empty root filesystem intended to be mounted temporarily before the real root filesystem is mounted.

Storage and Memory Management

Btrfs : Direct I/O now works with block sizes larger than the system page size.

EROFS : LZMA compression is enabled by default; DEFLATE and Zstandard remain stable.

XFS : Autonomous self‑healing capabilities are added.

F2FS : Progress toward large‑page filesystem layout.

zram : Compressed pages can be written back without decompression, reducing CPU overhead.

Swap subsystem now uses a simplified swap table.

NFSD and Kernel Filesystem Changes

NFSD gains a dynamically adjustable thread pool and defaults to NFS v4.1.

Experimental POSIX ACL support is added to NFSD.

Special kernel filesystems pidfs and nsfs are no longer exportable.

Network and Virtualization Enhancements

Generic AccECN support is enabled.

CAKE queueing discipline receives multi‑queue support for better cross‑CPU traffic shaping.

VSOCK sockets gain network‑namespace awareness.

Initial work on Wi‑Fi 8 (802.11bn) is included.

KVM : Precise CPUCFG reporting for LoongArch VMs, AMD ERAPS support, a new user‑space control to suppress interrupt‑end broadcasts, and full PMU ownership for VMs.

Hyper‑V : Debugfs interface added for hypervisor statistics.

Download Information

Linux kernel 7.0 can be downloaded from https://kernel.org. Rolling‑release users receive the update first; a broader rollout is expected in the following weeks.