USB4 Support Coming to Linux 5.6 Kernel

Linux 5.6 will receive support for USB4, Phoronix reported on Sunday. The Linux 5.6 Kernel will likely debut by April.

USB4’s spec published in September and is based on Thunderbolt 3, with which it is backwards compatible. Intel's open-source department added the initial patches for USB4 in October.

The Linux 5.6 kernel will reportedly have both host and device support, as well as source code and a bunch of other features, thanks to leveraging the existing Thunderbolt code. It has also kept the code compact at just 2,000 lines of code.

Other new features in Linux 5.6 include Intel Shared Virtual Memory, which will be used by the upcoming Intel Xe GPUs, and support for the WireGuard VPN protocol.