Less than 24 hours ago, a new version of the Linux Kernel arrived, 5.10. This version brings with it a large number of changes and improvements, especially new drivers, improvements in graphic acceleration, security corrections and improvements in file systems. Before launching a kernel update , it goes through several Release Candidate versions in order to debug it, detect and correct these problems. However, this time some very serious bugs have been left in the pipeline.
Normally, the first revision of new versions of the kernel usually take several days, or a few weeks, to reach users. In that time, all minor bugs that may appear as soon as the new version begins to be used on a massive scale are detected and corrected. However, due to some very serious bugs detected in this version, this first revision had to be released in less than 24 hours. This is the new Linux kernel 5.10.1.
Linux kernel 5.10.1 fixes
Linux version 5.10 has arrived with two very serious bugs , both related to the storage system. The first of the failures affected the limits of the RAID1 and RAID 10 configurations within the Device Mapper. And the second of the failures is due to a series of poorly defined variables that have caused problems when trying to mount RAID6 systems.
In the Linux code we can see how both changes have simply been reversed (not fixed) with a comment ” It causes problems 🙁 “, without giving much more detail. We can see the changelog with the two changes in the following link .
The new kernel 5.10.1 undoes the changes that were causing problems and leaves the previous version of the code, which apparently worked fine. Those responsible for these changes are already analyzing the reasons why it fails to implement the changes again, but this time well, in the next kernel revision.
Is it necessary to update the kernel?
Any flaw in the Linux kernel can be worrisome. But when the problem is in the code of the storage systems, it is critical. And such has been the severity of these failures that they have been forced to launch a new review in less than 24 hours. Now, is it really necessary to upgrade?
As we have explained, the issues affect RAID configurations . If we have a server with RAID 1, 10 or 6, surely we are interested in staying in an older version, or installing the new 5.10.1, since the problems we may have when using 5.10.0 can be catastrophic, even make us lose our data. However, if we don’t have a RAID configuration then it is not necessary.
RAID configurations are used, above all, in servers and development teams, since they provide us with redundancy and better performance. But it is rare to find it on a personal computer. Therefore, the safest thing is that we do not have to worry. If we have a Rolling Release distro, we will receive this new Kernel 5.10.1 as soon as the new patches arrive, and, if not, we must continue to use the kernel that our distribution recommends.
Kernel 5.10 will soon be forgotten.