The Linux Kernel Organization is a California Public Benefit Corporation established in 2002 to distribute the Linux kernel and other Open Source software to the public without charge. We are recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 private operating foundation. IRS determination letter California determination letter The Linux Kernel Organization is managed by The Linux Foundation, which provides full technical, financial and staffing support for running and maintaining the kernel.org infrastructure. Legal information Due to U.S. Exports Regulations, all cryptographic software on this site is subject to the following legal notice: This site includes publicly available encryption source code which, together with object code resulting from the compiling of publicly available source code, may be exported from the United States under License Exception "TSU" pursuant to 15 C.F.R. Section 740.13(e). This legal notice applies to cryptographic software only. Please see the Bureau of Industry and Security for more information about current U.S. regulations. Our servers are located in Corvallis, Oregon, USA; Palo Alto and San Francisco, California, USA; Portland, Oregon, USA; and Montréal, Québec, Canada. Use in violation of any applicable laws is prohibited. Linux is a Registered Trademark of Linus Torvalds. All trademarks are property of their respective owners...
What is Linux? Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance. It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6. Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher), today Linux also runs on a multitude of other processor architectures, in both 32- and 64-bit variants. New to Linux? If you're new to Linux, you don't want to download the kernel, which is just a component in a working Linux system. Instead, you want what is called a distribution of Linux, which is a complete Linux system. There are numerous distributions available for download on the Internet as well as for purchase from various vendors; some are general-purpose, and some are optimized for specific uses. We currently have mirrors of several distributions available at https://mirrors.kernel.org/. Note, however, that most distributions are very large (several gigabytes), so unless you have a fast Internet link you may want to save yourself some hassle and purchase a CD-ROM with a distribution; such CD-ROMs are available from a number of vendors. Mailing lists The Linux kernel is discussed on the linux-kernel mailing list at vger.kernel.org. Please read the FAQ before subscribing. Although there is no official archive site, unofficial archives of the list can be found at: https://lkml.org/ https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel...
If you have questions, comments or concerns about the F.A.Q. please contact us at helpdesk@kernel.org. Is Linux Kernel Free Software? Linux kernel is released under the terms of GNU GPL version 2 and is therefore Free Software as defined by the Free Software Foundation. For more information, please consult the documentation: Linux kernel licensing rules I heard that Linux ships with non-free "blobs" Before many devices are able to communicate with the OS, they must first be initialized with the "firmware" provided by the device manufacturer. This firmware is not part of Linux and isn't "executed" by the kernel -- it is merely uploaded to the device during the driver initialization stage. While some firmware images are built from free software, a large subset of it is only available for redistribution in binary-only form. To avoid any licensing confusion, firmware blobs were moved from the main Linux tree into a separate repository called linux-firmware. It is possible to use Linux without any non-free firmware binaries, but usually at the cost of rendering a lot of hardware inoperable. Furthermore, many devices that do not require a firmware blob during driver initialization simply already come with non-free firmware preinstalled on them. If your goal is to run a 100% free-as-in-freedom setup, you will often need to go a lot further than just avoiding loadable binary-only firmware blobs. Can I use the word "Linux" or the Tux logo? Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds and its use is governed by the Linux Trademark Institute. Please consult the following page for further information: Trademark Usage The Tux penguin logo was created by Larry Ewing using Gimp software. It is free to use, including commercially, as long as you give Larry Ewing proper credit ("if someone asks"). For any other permissions, please reach out to Mr. Larry Ewing directly. What does "stable/EOL" and "longterm" mean? As kernels move from the "mainline" into the "stable" category, two things can happen: They can reach "End of Life" after a few bugfix revisions, which means that kernel maintainers will release no more bugfixes for this kernel version, or They can be put into "longterm" maintenance, which means that maintainers will provide bugfixes for this kernel revision for a much longer period of time. If the kernel version you are using is marked "EOL," you should consider upgrading to the next major version as there will be no more bugfixes provided for the kernel version you are using. Please check the Releases page for more info. Why is an LTS kernel marked as "stable" on the front page? Long-term support ("LTS") kernels announced on the Releases page will be marked as "stable" on the front page if there are no other current stable kernel releases. This is done to avoid breaking automated parsers monitoring kernel.org with an expectation that there will always be a kernel release marked as "stable." Linus has tagged a new release, but it's not listed on the front page! Linus Torvalds PGP-signs git repository tags for all new mainline kernel releases, however a separate set of PGP signatures needs to be generated by the stable release team in order to create downloadable tarballs. Due to timezone differences between Linus and the members of the stable team, there is usually a delay of several hours between when the new mainline release is tagged and when PGP-signed tarballs become available. The front page is updated once that process is completed. Is there an RSS feed for the latest kernel version? Yes, and you can find it at https://www.kernel.org/feeds/kdist.xml. We also publish a .json file with the latest release information, which you can pull from here: https://www.kernel.org/releases.json. Where can I find kernel 3.10.0-1160.45.1.foo? Kernel versions that have a dash in them are packaged by distributions and are often extensively modified. Please contact the relevant distribution to obtain the exact kernel source. See the Releases page for more info on distribution kernels. How do I report a problem with the kernel? If you are running a kernel that came with your Linux distribution, then the right place to start is by reporting the problem through your distribution support channels. Here are a few popular choices: Ubuntu Fedora Project Arch Linux Linux Mint Debian GNU/Linux Red Hat OpenSUSE SUSE If you are sure that the problem is with the upstream kernel, please refer to the following document that describes how to report bugs and regressions to the developers: Reporting issues How do I get involved with Linux Kernel development? A good place to start is the Kernel Newbies website. Can I get an account on kernel.org? Kernel.org accounts are usually reserved for subsystem maintainers or high-profile developers. It is absolutely not necessary to have an account on kernel.org to contribute to the development of the Linux kernel, unless you submit pull requests directly to Linus Torvalds. If you are listed in the MAINTAINERS file or have reasons to believe you should have an account on kernel.org because of the amount of your contributions, please refer to the accounts page for the procedure to follow...
Email is the only reliable way of contacting Kernel.org administrators. General contacts helpdesk@kernel.org: All questions about kernel.org infrastructure. Please do not send general Linux questions or bug reports to these addresses. We do not have the resources to reply to them. Please try the following sites for general Linux help: https://superuser.com/ - for computer enthusiasts and power users https://serverfault.com/ - for systems administrators https://askubuntu.com/ - for users of Ubuntu Linux Linux Foundation also offers training opportunities if you are interested in learning more about Linux, want to become a more proficient Linux systems administrator, or want to know more about how Linux can help your company succeed. https://training.linuxfoundation.org/ Mailing address Please send any mail correspondence to the Linux Foundation: The Linux Foundation 1 Letterman Drive Building D, Suite D4700 San Francisco, CA 94129 Phone/Fax: +1 415 723 9709...