Linus Torvalds announced Linux kernel 7.0 today, a release that concludes the multi-year experiment with Rust in the kernel by promoting it to stable status. The new version also brings filesystem improvements, security enhancements, and initial support for Wi-Fi 8 hardware.
Rust Is Now Stable in Linux
The biggest headline: Rust support is no longer experimental. The “Rust experiment” was formally concluded at the 2025 Linux Kernel Maintainers Summit, and 7.0 makes it official. Drivers and subsystems written in Rust can now ship in production kernels without caveats.
New Rust kernel APIs in 7.0 include PCI device enumeration and platform device abstractions. These are the building blocks that let driver authors write hardware support in Rust instead of C, gaining memory safety guarantees without sacrificing performance.
Filesystem Improvements
Several filesystems received notable upgrades:
- Btrfs now supports direct I/O when block size exceeds page size, plus initial remap-tree support
- XFS gained autonomous self-healing capabilities, allowing it to repair corruption without manual intervention
- EROFS enables LZMA compression by default, improving read-only filesystem compression ratios
- F2FS gets large folio support for better performance on flash storage
- A new immutable root filesystem called nullfs was added
Security Updates
Linux 7.0 adds support for verifying ML-DSA (Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm) post-quantum signatures, preparing the kernel for the post-quantum cryptography transition. SELinux gets BPF token access control, and NETFILTER_PKT records now show both source and destination addresses.
Hardware and Networking
New driver support covers Google Tensor SoC USB PHYs, Apple Type-C PHYs, MediaTek Dimensity 6300 and 9200 DMA controllers, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 (Kaanapali). The kernel also adds initial Wi-Fi 8/UHR (Ultra High Reliability, 802.11bn) support and AccECN congestion-notification protocol.
For ARM64 CPUs, version 7.0 adds support for atomic 64-byte load and store instructions. RISC-V gets Zicfiss and Zicfilp extensions, and LoongArch gains 128-bit atomic compare-and-exchange support.
io_uring and Performance
io_uring now supports non-circular queues for better cache performance, cBPF filters, and implicit arguments to BPF kernel functions. BTF type lookups use binary search for faster performance. The swapping subsystem got performance improvements, and zram now supports compressed data writeback.
AI Tool Policy
Starting with 7.0, the kernel project has an official policy on tool-generated content, including guidance for contributors using AI coding assistants. Linus Torvalds noted that AI tools are finding corner cases at a rate humans do not, calling it potentially the “new normal” for kernel development.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rust now required for Linux kernel development?
No. Rust is now a supported language alongside C, but C remains the dominant language. Rust is optional for new drivers, and existing C code does not need to be rewritten.
When will my distro ship Linux 7.0?
Most distributions will pick up kernel 7.0 in their next regular release cycle. Rolling-release distros like Arch Linux and Fedora typically adopt new kernels within weeks. LTS-focused distributions like Ubuntu LTS and Debian may wait for point releases.
What is XFS self-healing?
XFS can now detect and repair certain types of metadata corruption automatically, without requiring the xfs_repair tool or filesystem unmount. This is particularly valuable for large enterprise storage systems where downtime is costly.
Does Linux 7.0 support Wi-Fi 7?
Wi-Fi 7 support has been in the kernel for several releases. Version 7.0 adds initial support for the next generation, Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn/UHR), which promises ultra-high reliability for critical applications.
