The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is pleased to announce that AlmaLinux OS 8.6 Stable was released on 12 May 2022. This stable release is available for the x86_64, aarch64 and ppc64le architectures and is ready for production deployments and use. Download it from your nearest mirror server, or download the x86_64 minimal installer directly from the AlmaLinux archive via the link below: vault.almalinux.org/8.6/isos/x86_64/AlmaLinux-8.6-x86_64-minimal.iso

Version 8.6, codenamed ‘Sky Tiger’, is based on the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 and uses the 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8 kernel. The release notes now also list the IBM Z (s390x) architecture amongst the supported platforms.

🚀 AlmaLinux 8.6 Beta, codenamed "Sky Tiger" is now available for #x86_64, #aarch64 and #ppc64le architectures. ISOs on mirrors. #cloud and #container images coming down the pipe.

😀 Looks like it's gonna be a fun #weekend. 😀#Linux #Opensource #CentOS #community pic.twitter.com/7ydDaMCwhT

— AlmaLinux (@AlmaLinux) May 6, 2022

Key updates

AlmaLinux 8.6 includes web console enhancements and several brand-new System Roles, which simplify system administration: these are Ansible roles that allow the configuration of multiple servers (networking, time synchronisation, logging, SELinux, etc.) to be managed uniformly via code. The security updates include the upstream versions of the SCAP Security Guide, OpenSCAP and other packages, alongside other improvements.

According to the release notes, the key changes are:

• New modules released: PHP 8.0, Perl 5.32, log4j 2 and container-tools 4.0
• New storage solutions: Real Time (RT) and Real Time for NFV (NFV), for real-time and network function virtualisation tasks
• Compilers and toolkits: GCC Toolset 11, LLVM Toolset 13.0.1, Rust Toolset 1.58.1, Go Toolset 1.17.7
• OpenSSH: supports drop-in configuration files, allowing settings to be organised into separate files without modifying the main configuration
• SELinux: the semodule command now features a new --checksum switch, which can be used to check which version of the SELinux policy modules are installed

PHP 8.0 can be enabled via the module system instead of the previous default PHP version:

dnf module reset php
dnf module install php:8.0

When it comes to web applications, it’s worth checking beforehand whether the CMS and plugins you’re using support PHP 8.0.

Installer image files

Three different ISO images have been created for the x86_64 architecture:

• AlmaLinux-8.6-x86_64-boot.iso: network installer, which downloads packages from the internet
• AlmaLinux-8.6-x86_64-minimal.iso: a minimal, standalone DVD image for local or offline installation
• AlmaLinux-8.6-x86_64-dvd.iso: full installation DVD, containing almost all AlmaLinux packages

AlmaLinux recommends downloading via torrent or using a nearby mirror, as this is much faster than using the central repo.almalinux.org. For the boot ISO, if the installer cannot find the nearest mirror, you must specify the directory of the selected mirror (8.6/BaseOS/x86_64/kickstart/) as the installation source; no separate source is required for the minimal and DVD ISOs.

The size of the ramdisk has increased in version 8.6. If you receive a ‘ks.cfg not found’ error during a network installation, this may be due to insufficient memory: according to the release notes, 4 GB of RAM is certainly sufficient for the virtual machine used for the installation.

Checking the downloaded ISO

Before installation, it is worth checking that the downloaded image file is intact and actually comes from the AlmaLinux team. To do this, import the AlmaLinux GPG key and download the signed CHECKSUM file:

wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux
gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux
wget https://vault.almalinux.org/8.6/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM
gpg --verify CHECKSUM

In the output, you should see the line ‘Good signature from “AlmaLinux”’, and the key’s fingerprint is 5E9B 8F56 17B5 066C E920 57C3 488F CF7C 3ABB 34F8. Next, compare the ISO’s SHA256 checksum with the value in the CHECKSUM file:

sha256sum AlmaLinux-8.6-x86_64-boot.iso

Upgrade from a previous version

An existing AlmaLinux 8.5 system can be updated with a single command:

dnf upgrade -y

For the 8.6 beta version, you need to run the same command twice. As every point release of AlmaLinux reaches the end of its life cycle with the release of the next version, dnf upgrade now updates not to 8.6, but to the latest release in the 8 series, 8.10.

dnf upgrades will not take you from AlmaLinux 8 to the major version 9: this requires a reinstallation or the use of the ELevate tool, the steps for which are described in our guide ‘Upgrading AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux from 8 to 9 using ELevate’.

How long will AlmaLinux 8 be supported?

Active support for AlmaLinux 8 ran until 31 May 2024; security updates will be provided until 31 May 2029. Subsequent releases in the 8 series:

• AlmaLinux 8.7 (November 2022)
• AlmaLinux 8.8 (May 2023)
• AlmaLinux 8.9 (November 2023)
• AlmaLinux 8.10 (May 2024, the final point release in the series)

For new installations, version 9 or 10 is now the better choice, as these will continue to receive support.

Release notes and further information

You can read more about this release in the release notes; the full list of changes can be found in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 release notes.

AlmaLinux is an operating system available on both our KVM VPS servers and our dedicated servers.

• almalinux
• release
• linux
• news