Linux 6.2 Floppy Driver Update – Still Being Maintained In 2023

(CTN News) – The Linux kernel’s floppy driver is being maintained, despite the fact that we are approaching the end of the year 2023, despite the fact that we are approaching the end of the decade.

The Linux 6.2 merge window is scheduled for next week, and in preparation for what will be the first major Linux release of 2023, Linux 6.2, there is still a lot of attention being paid to the floppy driver in order to make sure that Linux 6.2 is ready for stable release around the month of February.

There has been a pull request submitted by Denis Efremov that needs to be reviewed. Earlier this week, he sent a pull request to Jens Axboe, who is responsible for maintaining Linux’s block subsystem, which contained an update list regarding floppy drivers for Linux 6.2. Of course, updates to software like floppy drivers are far and few between, but they still seem to be handled with the latest updates to the kernel.

A memory leak has been fixed in the floppy driver with Linux 6.2 as it occurs when floppy_alloc_disk() fails in the initialization path of the driver.

This memory leak has been fixed in Linux 6.2 as it occurs when floppy_alloc_disk() fails.

There has been a memory leak with the floppy disk driver since Linux 5.11 back in 2020, which has been present in the mainline kernel ever since.

The problem has been present since then. It has mainly been about fixing the floppy driver for the last few years; it has not been about anything else over the last few years.

In recent years, it has been disabling FDRAWCMD access with a use-after-free vulnerability, a hang if ejecting a broken floppy, and many other fixes that have been implemented to address the issue.

In addition to including the fix for the floppy driver memory leak in the pull of changes for Linux 6.2 as well as marking it for backporting to the current stable release of the Linux kernel, this fix is now being included in the pull of blocks driver changes.

What does the floppy driver do?

The floppy disk drive, also known as diskette, is a removable magnetic storage medium that allows recording of data. IBM first introduced it as a 8-in diskette in 1971.

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