$ the-wire · showcase
Kernel merge window opens with sysctl, printk and pKVM changes; Omarchy strips its notification UI
By RepoJournal · Filed · About Linux · Composed from the cited sources · methodology
The 7.4 merge window lands subsystem pulls that touch boot-time console state, sysctl vector writes and protected-VM isolation, while Omarchy deletes the notification panel and snooze machinery outright.
Merge tag 'sysctl-7.04-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sysctl/sysctl torvalds/linux
Sysctl vector writes are now staged before committing, so erroneous input can no longer leave a vector partially updated. The merge notes are explicit that this is not an atomic write: a concurrent reader can still observe a partially updated vector.
Merge tag 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/virt/kvm/kvm torvalds/linux
pKVM finally gets state isolation, with vCPU state off-limits to the host for protected VMs, plus a hypervisor-private memory allocator for sub-page allocation. If you run protected guests on ARM, that isolation boundary is the reason to care.
Merge tag 'printk-for-7.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/printk/linux torvalds/linux
Boot consoles are now unregistered as soon as any proper console registers at the end of the boot phase, rather than waiting for the preferred console set by the last console= parameter. The same pull fixes ringbuffer growth computation on systems with many CPUs, and names John Ogness as printk co-maintainer.
Merge tag 'modules-7.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/modules/linux torvalds/linux
Local labels and mapping symbols are now filtered out during module load instead of only at kallsyms address-to-symbol lookup, which cuts lookup overhead and keeps them out of /proc/kallsyms. The pull also fixes a potentially incorrect access of SetOnce<T> when setting Rust module parameters.
Remove the notification panel and its preferences (#16430) basecamp/omarchy
The panel behind a right-click on the bell, its preferences page, and the notifications settings in shell.json are gone; the bell is a Do Not Disturb toggle, and verification codes always get through Do Not Disturb. Anyone with a shell.json carrying that key loses the setting, while Super+Shift+Alt+, still restores the last few notifications.
Remove notification snooze and the screen-sharing offer (#16429) basecamp/omarchy
Per-source and global snooze are removed along with the PipeWire screen-share detection that offered them, and the bell's snoozed and sharing states go with them. The panel's held-back list now follows Do Not Disturb only.
Delete the reader's own copy of the prints when removing fingerprints (#16403) basecamp/omarchy
Removing fingerprints now runs fprintd-delete while fprintd is still up, ahead of deleting /var/lib/fprint, because match-on-chip readers keep enrolled prints on the device and fprintd finds those copies only through its local records.
Merge tag 'mm-stable-2026-10-19-21-33' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm torvalds/linux
The MM pull extends khugepaged selftests across all supported mTHP orders, checks which windows actually collapsed and races collapse against faults, pinning, fork and remap, along with whole-page-table coverage.
Action items
- → Remove the `notifications` key from shell.json before upgrading Omarchy; the setting is no longer read basecamp/omarchy [plan]
