What were the notable Linux updates?

Merge branch 'net-sched-fix-packet-loops-in-mirred-and-netem', net: Introduce skb tc depth field to track packet loops, and net/sched: act_mirred: Fix return code in early mirred redirect error paths.

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The Wire · Showcase

KERNEL PATCHES PACKET LOOPS THAT CRASH NETWORK STACKS

By RepoJournal · Filed 06:02 UTC on May 29, 2026 · About Linux

Linux is shipping a fundamental fix to how the kernel tracks packets bouncing through the network scheduler, closing a hole that let mirred and netem create infinite loops across CPUs.

The kernel team merged a critical patchset [1] that adds a 2-bit per-skb tc_depth field to track packet loops in the traffic control layer. The old per-CPU loop counters [2] broke in two scenarios: when packets queued through the backlog lost state, and when XPS/RPS moved packets between CPUs mid-processing. A per-skb field solves both. This lands alongside a fix to act_mirred [3] that was returning the wrong error code when redirect failed, preventing the kernel from properly accounting dropped packets. Separately, the keyring subsystem [4] picked up a critical RCU locking fix where find_key_to_update() was calling assoc_array_find() without holding the read lock, a lifetime bug that persistent key handling exposed. The nvme-tcp driver [5] also standardized its errno handling in the TLS handshake path, storing negative values consistently across all branches.

Action items

→ Pull the net-sched mirred and netem loop fixes into your next merge window torvalds/linux [immediate]
→ Backport the keyring RCU fix to stable kernels if you expose persistent keys torvalds/linux [plan]
→ Monitor nvme-tcp systems for TLS handshake error handling consistency torvalds/linux [monitor]

References

[1] Merge branch 'net-sched-fix-packet-loops-in-mirred-and-netem' torvalds/linux
[2] net: Introduce skb tc depth field to track packet loops torvalds/linux
[3] net/sched: act_mirred: Fix return code in early mirred redirect error paths torvalds/linux
[4] security/keys: fix missed RCU read section on lookup torvalds/linux
[5] nvme-tcp: store negative errno in queue->tls_err torvalds/linux

Quick answers

What shipped in Linux on May 29, 2026?: Linux is shipping a fundamental fix to how the kernel tracks packets bouncing through the network scheduler, closing a hole that let mirred and netem create infinite loops across CPUs. In total, 39 commits landed.
What were the notable Linux updates?: Merge branch 'net-sched-fix-packet-loops-in-mirred-and-netem', net: Introduce skb tc depth field to track packet loops, and net/sched: act_mirred: Fix return code in early mirred redirect error paths.

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