Who contributed to Linux on July 20, 2026?

3 developers shipped this update, including Linus Torvalds, David Heinemeier Hansson, and heymaikol.

What were the notable Linux updates?

Merge tag 'block-7.2-20260717' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/axboe/linux, Merge tag 'riscv-for-linus-7.2-rc4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/riscv/linux, and Merge tag 'x86-urgent-2026-07-19' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.

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The Wire · Showcase

KERNEL BLOCKS DIO BOUNCE BUFFER CRASHES WHILE RISC-V VMEMMAP FIX LANDS

By RepoJournal · Filed 06:57 UTC on July 20, 2026 · About Linux

3 people shipped this

Linus Torvalds @torvalds 4 cited

David Heinemeier Hansson @dhh 2 cited

heymaikol @heymaikol 1 cited

Block layer fixes restore bio allocation safety and prevent double-unpin crashes, while RISC-V patches eliminate spurious PTE faults and vDSO compiler elision.

In brief

Linux block layer 7.2-rc4 squashes DIO bounce buffer crashes. took long enough. if you've had silent data corruption on direct I/O, this one's for you.
RISC-V vmemmap fix lands in 7.2-rc4. memory layout issues on some hardware are resolved. sparse memory configs should stop exploding now.
io_uring 7.2-rc4 brings cleanup and fixes. the async I/O layer is getting leaner. overhead per operation keeps dropping.
x86 urgent fixes in 7.2-rc4. boot sequence and performance counter issues patched. nothing flashy but needed for stability.

The block subsystem merged critical fixes [1] addressing dio bounce buffer helpers, correcting alignment issues that caused double unpins on bounced reads, handling huge zero folios properly, and restoring slab allocation attempts in bio_alloc_bioset before mempool fallback. Parallel to this, RISC-V landed two high-impact patches [2]: flush_cache_vmap now runs after populating vmemmap pages across all architectures to stop spurious PTE faults on RISC-V microarchitectures, and LTO is disabled for the vDSO to prevent compiler elision of functions that appear unused but are actually critical. X86 boot validation [3] tightened parameter parsing, rejecting oversized acpi_rsdp values and validating console=uart8250 baud rates to prevent early boot hangs. io_uring [4] patched a use-after-free in the bpf struct_ops path where maps could register multiple times, plus fixed deferred iovec freeing in the provided-buffer grow path that left dangling references. On the desktop side, Basecamp's Omarchy [5] gutted 234 lines of hand-rolled tmux keybinding parsing, replacing it with tmux list-keys and keeping 42 curated bindings with descriptions. The biggest win across Omarchy came from eliminating polling churn entirely [6][7]: monitor and network panels stopped polling every 3-5 seconds with 26+ forks per call, and status indicators went event-driven instead of broadcasting refreshes every 2 seconds, dropping idle-desktop process churn from 53 to ~20 forks per second.

Action items

→ Pull block layer fixes [ref:1] before heavy io workloads, especially if you've seen bio allocation or dio bounce buffer issues torvalds/linux [plan]
→ Sync RISC-V vmemmap and vDSO patches [ref:2] if running on RISC-V hardware or cross-compiling for it torvalds/linux [plan]
→ Update x86 boot parameter validation [ref:3] before next full kernel deployment to lock down console parameter parsing torvalds/linux [monitor]
→ Land io_uring use-after-free fix [ref:4] immediately if you use bpf struct_ops maps or provided buffers torvalds/linux [immediate]

References

[1] Merge tag 'block-7.2-20260717' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/axboe/linux torvalds/linux
[2] Merge tag 'riscv-for-linus-7.2-rc4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/riscv/linux torvalds/linux
[3] Merge tag 'x86-urgent-2026-07-19' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip torvalds/linux
[4] Merge tag 'io_uring-7.2-20260717' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/axboe/linux torvalds/linux
[5] Use tmux to list keybindings ↗ basecamp/omarchy
[6] Stop polling monitor/network state on an idle desktop basecamp/omarchy
[7] Make status indicators event-driven instead of polling basecamp/omarchy

Quick answers

What shipped in Linux on July 20, 2026?: Block layer fixes restore bio allocation safety and prevent double-unpin crashes, while RISC-V patches eliminate spurious PTE faults and vDSO compiler elision. In total, 44 commits and 3 pull requests landed.
Who contributed to Linux on July 20, 2026?: 3 developers shipped this update, including Linus Torvalds, David Heinemeier Hansson, and heymaikol.
What were the notable Linux updates?: Merge tag 'block-7.2-20260717' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/axboe/linux, Merge tag 'riscv-for-linus-7.2-rc4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/riscv/linux, and Merge tag 'x86-urgent-2026-07-19' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip.

SCSI ERROR HANDLER RACE FIX LANDS, ARC AND S390 FOLLOW WITH CRITICAL PATCHES

The kernel merged a reliable wake fix for scsi_schedule_eh that eliminates rare races causing error handler hangs across libata and libsas drivers.

infra 47 shipped 1-min read

Linux 3 days ago

KERNEL PATCHES MEMORY LEAKS ACROSS LLC, POWERPC, AND MMC SUBSYSTEMS

The kernel shipped critical reference counting fixes that plug resource leaks in networking, power management, and storage drivers before they cascade into production.

infra 50 shipped 1-min read

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infra 7 shipped 1-min read

Linux 5 days ago

KUNIT WARNING SUPPRESSIONS BROKEN WHEN BUILT AS MODULE

Kernel testing infrastructure loses the ability to suppress warnings in 7.2-rc4 when kunit loads as a module instead of built-in, breaking test validation across the board.

infra 2 shipped 1-min read

Elsewhere on the wire

@cachyos about 18 hours ago

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infra 56 shipped 1-min read

Elixir & Phoenix about 18 hours ago

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elixir 6 shipped 1-min read

@dotnet about 18 hours ago

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