Hi folks.
The foundation has updated its kernel tree a short while ago. It seems they plan to switch to kernel version 6.1 during the year. Usually the foundation goes for LTS (long term support) kernel versions.
A lot of RPi related stuff had been merged into the so called mainline kernel tree of 6.1 over time. That's the master tree maintained by Linus Torvalds. The more stuff the foundation can transfer to mainline the less effort they and the developers will have to maintain two kernel trees. And the users should greatly benefit by getting much faster newer kernel versions and related features. Especially accessing performance relevant developments asap are of great value for embedded system like the RPi.
What's new on 6.1 ?
A lot.
Especially the RPi graphic driver section is going to benefit. (not much of relevance for audio though)
But there can also be performance improvements expected on the kernel side. A lot has been
changed and improved on the internal kernel structure over time.
Multi-Generational Least-Recently-Used (aka MG-LRU) has been introduced. That's a promising
feature to boost the performance (google the details for more info). It's not enabled by default on
mainline, but the brave RPi folks have enabled it by default already now.
Beside that, most of the realtime kernel-patch code went into 6.1 mainline kernel by now.
They get very close to get rid of that huge separate realtime kernel patch.
That's a great development from "my" audio perspective. I am running rt-kernels since more than a decade by now. Unfortunately the feature is not officially accessible yet.
Guess what !??! - I did some kernel hacking. Aaand... ....I got it going.
From what I see so far - it's working!
My guess. In the future we'll see a lot more realtime enabled audio kernels out there.
Again. It still requires kernel customization to get access to it, the feature won't come with a standard kernel.
The RPi foundation still maintains numerous RPi specific kernel customizations, that's why they have to maintain a separate kernel tree.
By now It seems they already did a good job merging their stuff with 6.1. I've been running 6.1.x for a week by now. So far I am not experiencing any issues.
The Raspbian folks are convinced it's stable enough to put it on the NEXT tree.
That's why on Raspbian based system you can (should) give 6.1.x a try by simply running:
rpi-update next
I couldn't find anything about piCorePlayer offering 6.1 yet. Probably it's not available. Usually it takes some time for the pCP folks to catch up. ( You need to push for it! ;) )
2023 just started. And great developments already on the horizon.
Now we just need to get RPis back into the market. Just a couple of (6?) more months to suffer. There's hope.
Enjoy.
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