Looks Like Debian 12 “Bookworm” Will Ship with Linux Kernel 6.1 LTS

The Debian Installer for Debian GNU/Linux 12 "Bookworm" will also include non-free firmware.
Marius Nestorby Marius Nestor0
Debian 12

The Debian Project announced today the availability for public testing of the second alpha development version of the Debian Installer for the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” operating system series, suggesting the final release will ship with the long-term supported Linux 6.1 kernel series.

With only three or four months left until the Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” hits the streets, the development team is hard at work preparing the Debian Installer with new features and improvements. The biggest changes so far are the inclusion of non-free firmware by default and the move to Linux kernel 6.1 LTS in the official images.

That right there is very good news for fans of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system who aim to install the Bookworkm series this summer. Both the inclusion of non-free firmware packages and the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel, which will receive updates until December 2026, will definitely boost hardware support for new installations.

“We will include non-free firmware packages from the “non-free-firmware” section of the Debian archive on our official media (installer images and live images). The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by default where the system determines that they are required, but where possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot menu option, kernel command line, etc.),” said the Debian Project.

The upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” release also promises Windows 11 detection for dual-boot installations, support for all amd64 installation images to boot on amd64 machines using 32-bit UEFI firmware without needing the multi-arch installer, netboot images for ChromeOS devices, and EFI zboot support on AArch64 (ARM64).

It will also bring support for new ARM devices, including the Banana Pi BPI M2 Ultra, ODROID-C4, ODROID-HC4, ODROID-N2, and ODROID-N2+ single-board computers, the Librem 5r4 (Evergreen) Linux smartphone from Purism, as well as the MNT Reform Version 2 modular laptop, as well as support for new RISC-V devices, including the SiFive HiFive Unmatched and BeagleV Starlight Beta, as well as the Microchip PolarFire-SoC Icicle Kit.

Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” is currently in soft freeze and early adopters can take the alpha 2 release of the Debian Installer for a test driver if they want to explore the new features. However, please keep in mind that this is a pre-release version so don’t use it to install Debian 12 on a production machine!

Image credits: Juliette Taka

Last updated 1 year ago

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com