Kernel builds, 7.4-rc1, and MM maintainership

Kernel traffic centered on a large kbuild series claiming major build speedups and the opening of the 7.4 cycle with rc1. Media Kconfig friction, RCU page-table work, MM maintainership shifts, and BPF verifier changes filled out the rest.

kbuild series claims large build speedups

A 22-patch series targets significantly faster kernel builds through toolchain caching, modpost and objtool changes, parallel Rust and objtool work, and pigz. Reported gains range from 36 to 90 percent. Build-time and CI costs make the series relevant to anyone shipping or testing kernels regularly.

Linux 7.4-rc1 opens with a large merge window

Linus Torvalds tagged 7.4-rc1 and noted an unusually large merge window. He linked the size partly to AI-related patches becoming more routine and identified 7.4 as the next LTS. The tag starts the stabilization period for the coming release.

Media pull reverts obscure driver Kconfig exposure

Linus Torvalds objected to media Kconfig changes that exposed obscure I2C and SPI drivers in the v7.4 media updates pull. The contested patch was reverted. The exchange underscores continuing pressure to keep niche hardware options from cluttering the main configuration surface.

Userland page-table freeing made RCU-safe

A v5 12-patch series finishes converting remaining architectures to RCU-safe freeing of userland page tables. It drops MMU_GATHER_RCU_TABLE_FREE and enables lockless RCU walks. The work simplifies MM code and improves scalability for architectures still on the older path.

MM components routed through mm/core.git

David Hildenbrand proposed sending several memory-management components through mm/core.git and adding Zi Yan as THP co-maintainer. Andrew Morton agreed to merge the series. Clearer maintainer routing reduces review ambiguity for core MM patches.

get_maintainer.pl stops defaulting every patch to LKML

A two-patch change alters get_maintainer.pl so THE REST falls back to LKML only when no subsystem list matches. The intent is to cut blanket copies of every patch to the main list. Contributors and list subscribers gain lower noise without losing proper subsystem coverage.

BPF deferred patches cut verifier rewrite cost

A 13-patch bpf-next series replaces bpf_patch_insn_data() with lists of deferred patches. Verifier rewrite cost drops from O(N*M) to O(N) per pass. Complex BPF programs see lower verification overhead as a result.

NVIDIA LSTP USB drivers draw framework pushback

NVIDIA posted drivers for its LSTP USB multiplexer adapters. Greg Kroah-Hartman and others objected, pointing to greybus and the OBMF-ICP specification as existing homes for similar work. The thread turns on whether new multiplexer drivers should reuse established bus frameworks.