Linux kernel 7.2 shipped after a rocky final release week with some late reverts. Bootlin engineers contributed 193 commits, ranking the company 15th among contributing organizations by commit count, and reviewed or merged 148 patches from other developers across subsystems including DRM, RTC, I3C, and MTD. Highlights include continued eBPF selftest improvements, KSZ Ethernet switch driver work, a new GPIO-driven audio amplifier driver, hot-pluggable DRM bridge support, a fixed-layout nvmem driver, stmmac maintainership, flash chip fixes, a Talitos crypto driver cleanup, TI suspend-resume improvements, and a new PHY driver for Mobileye EyeQ5 platforms.
Questions this post answers
What new features and driver support landed in Linux kernel 7.2?
Linux 7.2 shipped with numerous embedded-focused additions, including a new GPIO-driven audio amplifier driver in ASoC, continued hot-pluggable bridge support in DRM, a fixed-layout nvmem driver, a PHY driver for Mobileye EyeQ5 platforms, and various flash chip and Microchip Ethernet switch (KSZ) driver fixes. The release's final week required some late reverts before shipping. Track kernel release changes like these on daily.dev before planning an upgrade.
Who maintains the stmmac Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel now?
Maxime Chevallier took over the maintainer role for the widely used stmmac driver as part of the Linux 7.2 development cycle. This driver is commonly used for Ethernet support across many embedded platforms relying on Synopsys DesignWare MAC hardware. Developers tracking Ethernet driver maintainership changes can follow kernel news on daily.dev.
Which company contributed the most patches merged in Linux kernel 7.2 among embedded consultancies?
Bootlin contributed 193 commits to Linux 7.2, ranking as the 15th largest contributing company by commit count according to Linux Kernel Patch Statistics. Its engineers also reviewed and merged 148 patches from other contributors, including 80 by Alexandre Belloni as RTC and I3C maintainer and 42 by Miquel Raynal as MTD co-maintainer. Engineers monitoring kernel contributor rankings can follow release breakdowns on daily.dev.