Linux 7.1 Release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/06/15/linux-7-1-release-main-changes-arm-risc-v-and-mips-architectures/

Publish Date: 2026-06-15 06:44:00

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 7.1 on LKML:

So it’s only Sunday morning back home, but it’s Sunday afternoon where I am right now, so I’m doing the 7.1 release at the regular time – just not in the regular timezone.

This obviously means that the merge window opens tomorrow, but I’ll be in yet another timezone by then, so timing will all be a bit irregular. Normally I try to front-load the merge window and do as much as possible the first few days – this time I’m not sure that will work out with my laptop and a couple of long flights without internet, but I’ve made sure that I have fetched the early pull requests (thank you – you know who you are), so I will be able to do some of it off-line.

Anyway, possible slight hiccups in the merge window aside, the news today is 7.1. Below is the shortlog for the last week – nothing particularly interesting or scary stands out, which is as it should be. It’s mostly various smaller driver updates (gpu, networking, sound, misc) with some networking and trace tooling fixes. And random minor changes elsewhere.

Please do keep testing despite the release, and apologies in advance if my merge window latency is going to be a bit random the next few days. I briefly onsidered just extending the release for a week, but decided it wasn’t really worth it. I may come to regret that decision,

Linus

Released about two months ago, Linux 7.0 introduced AI coding assistants documentation, implemented a new generic API for file IO error reporting, the second phase of improved swapping performance with swap tables, and Rust got a rank upgrade of sorts, since it is no longer experimental. Now that Linux 7.1 has been released, it’s time to list some newsworthy changes and check out the embedded-focused Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures in more detail.