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Rocky Linux 8.10, the final point release of the 8 series, was officially released on 30 May 2024. It is available for the x86_64 and aarch64 architectures and uses the 4.18.0-553 kernel. Detailed information on known issues and comprehensive changes can be found in the release notes of the Rocky Linux documentation.
Important changes
- Since Rocky Linux 8.9, Azure images have been appearing under a new publisher name: resf, moving away from the previous, less intuitive name.
- As well as being available on the Azure Marketplace, Rocky Linux is available free of charge in the Azure Community Gallery, which makes it incredibly easy to run Rocky on Microsoft Azure. Instructions on how to use images from the Community Gallery can be found in this post.
Noteworthy new features and changes
- AWS AMI images can now boot on IPv6 subnets only; this resolves a long-standing bug that the Cloud SIG had been working on in collaboration with the upstream team.
- Whilst the Rocky 9.4 images were created using the KIWI tool, the Rocky Linux 8 images were built using the tool employed in previous releases, to ensure that the structure of the images remains unchanged for the final point release of the 8 series.
Software versions and security
| Area | Versions |
|---|---|
| New application streams | Python 3.12, Ruby 3.3, PHP 8.2, nginx 1.24, MariaDB 10.11, PostgreSQL 16 |
| Version control | Git 2.43.0, Git LFS 3.4.1 |
Here’s how to enable PHP 8.2:
dnf module reset php
dnf module install php:8.2
In terms of security, the SCAP Security Guide has been updated to version 0.1.72 (updated CIS profiles, PCI DSS v4.0 profile, the latest DISA STIG profiles), libkcapi 1.4.0 has gained a new -T switch, stunnel 5.7.1 now supports modern PostgreSQL clients, and OpenSSL has received API-level protection against Bleichenbacher-type attacks. In Podman, SQLite has become the default database; podman build farm (a technology preview) builds images for multiple architectures; whilst the CNI networking stack and BoltDB have been deprecated.
This is the final minor release of Rocky Linux 8; Rocky Linux 8.11 was not released in November. Instead, Rocky Linux 8 will receive only security updates for the next five years, in line with its upstream lifecycle. Further details can be found in the Rocky Linux release summary.
ISO verification
Once you have downloaded the 8.10 installation ISOs (Rocky-8.10-x86_64-boot.iso, -minimal.iso, -dvd1.iso/-dvd.iso), it is worth checking them. In the folder where you saved the ISOs:
curl -O https://dl.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/RPM-GPG-KEY-Rocky-8
gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-Rocky-8
curl -O https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8.10/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM
curl -O https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/8.10/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM.asc
gpg --verify CHECKSUM.asc CHECKSUM
sha256sum -c CHECKSUM --ignore-missing
The ‘Good signature’ line from the gpg --verify command confirms that the CHECKSUM file was signed by the Rocky Linux 8 key (fingerprint: 7051 C470 A929 F454 CEBE 37B7 15AF 5DAC 6D74 5A60), whilst sha256sum returns ‘OK’ for the downloaded ISO.
Update and migration
An existing Rocky Linux 8 system can be updated using the usual command:
sudo dnf -y upgrade
Rocky Linux only ever supports the latest point release of each major release, so the command now updates to the latest release in the 8 series. You can migrate from other Enterprise Linux 8 distributions (AlmaLinux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, RHEL) using the migrate2rocky script.
Rocky Linux does not officially support in-place upgrades between major versions; it recommends a fresh installation for the 9 series. However, the community-developed ELevate tool can be used to perform an 8 → 9 upgrade; the steps are described in our guide ‘Upgrading AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux from 8 to 9 using ELevate’.
How long is it supported for?
Active support for Rocky Linux 8 (“Green Obsidian”) lasted until 31 May 2024, and its lifecycle ends on 31 May 2029. Only the latest point release receives updates. Further releases in the 8 series:
- Rocky Linux 8.6 (May 2022)
- Rocky Linux 8.7 (November 2022)
- Rocky Linux 8.8 (May 2023)
- Rocky Linux 8.9 (November 2023)
You can run Rocky Linux on both our KVM VPS servers and our dedicated servers; for new installations, version 9 or 10 is the better choice.