Linux Kernel Daily: 7.4-rc1 Opens with Timekeeping Fixes
Linux 7.4-rc1 was tagged with follow-up merges for timers, RTC, IRQ and scheduler. The dominant pattern is timekeeping correctness, plus 32-bit Year 2038 readiness in the RTC subsystem.
Duration: PT2M17S
Episode overview
This episode is a short developer briefing from Linux Kernel Daily.
It explains recent repository work in plain language.
- Show: Linux Kernel Daily
- Published: 2026-11-02T06:01:38Z
- Audio duration: PT2M17S
Transcript excerpt
This excerpt keeps the crawler page concise. Listen to the episode or use the RSS feed for the full update.
Hello, it's Monday, November 2nd, 2026, and this is Linux Kernel Daily.
Linux 7 point 4 release candidate 1 is tagged, and the signal around it is time correctness — a cluster of small timer, tick and clock fixes that remove false warnings and edge-case misbehavior.
First, timers and ticks. The timers urgent merge from November 1st pulls fixes that each close a narrow but real reliability gap. Disarmed timers with no notification now correctly report zero time remaining, with a new self-test to lock that in. The no-hertz tick logic re-evaluates kicks flushed outside hard…
Second, real-time clocks. The R T C pull lifts the configurable hardware-clock-to-system-time limit for 32-bit systems, a direct step for Year 2038 readiness, adds a new driver for the Raspberry Pi 5 R T C, and extends existing drivers to cover Abracon, Ricoh, Renesas R-Car and Allwinner parts. It also standardizes…
Finally, two small correctness items: fixes for R I S C-V interrupt retrigger reporting and a wired M S I descriptor leak, plus a boot config change so command-line init arguments correctly override boot config, as documented.
What's next: expect 7 point 4 stabilization around these timer self-tests and…
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