Rocky Linux 8.6 was officially released on 16 May 2022, following extensive testing by the Rocky Linux community. Version 8.6 is designed for the x86_64 and aarch64 architectures and uses the 4.18.0-372.9.1 kernel. This new version includes bug fixes and improvements, as well as a number of new features, such as enhanced installation support, improvements to system stability and security, and user-friendly management tools that make installing, managing and configuring the Linux system even easier.

The Rocky Linux installers are available from the project’s download page, whilst the ISO images for older subversions are archived at vault.rockylinux.org.

Video: Rocky Linux 8.6 Based on RHEL 8.6 (9to5Linux)

Major changes

Rocky Linux 8.6 has introduced major changes in the following areas: security, programming, identity management, infrastructure and developer tools. The announcement highlighted the PHP 8.0 and Perl 5.32 modules, as well as the new system roles: high-availability (HA) cluster management, the extended networking role and the web console installer role; the web console also manages Stratis repositories.

You can find the full list in the distribution’s release notes and in the Red Hat release notes.

Security

• fapolicyd: updated to version 1.1. Includes support for the /rules.d and /trust.d directories, support for the fagenrules script, and new options for the fapolicyd-clic command.
• The OpenSSH server now supports drop-in configurations. This means that you can use the Include directive in sshd_config, similar to what is currently available for ssh_config.
• pcsc-lite package: has been updated to version 1.9.5, with new features and bug fixes.
• SELinux: you can now check the versions of installed policy modules using the semodule command with the --checksum switch.
• SCAP Security Guide (SSG) packages: updated to version 0.1.60; OpenSCAP packages updated to version 1.3.6.

Web and programming

New modules are now available for the following:

• PHP 8.0
• Perl 5.32

Identity management

• ansible-freeipa roles and modules in the Ansible Automation Hub.

Infrastructure services

• bind9.16 is a version of the bind package released as an alternative to the traditional bind packages, featuring an enhanced set of functions. For further details, see: Infrastructure Services upstream.

Ansible

You can now install ansible-core from the Rocky Linux Appstream repository. The ansible-core package contains the ansible and ansible-playbook binaries, as well as the core Ansible modules. It renders the old ansible package, which provides the same binaries, obsolete. If you already have the ansible package installed, you must remove it before you can install the ansible-core package.

New module versions

The following modular packages are now available in the versions listed:

• container-tools:4.0
• eclipse:rhel8
• log4j:2
• perl:5.32
• php:8.0

Translators and developer tools

The following translators and development tools are now available in the listed versions of Rocky Linux 8.6:

• GCC Toolset 11
• LLVM Toolset 13.0.1
• Rust Toolset 1.58.1
• Go Toolset 1.17.7

Known issues

• kdump: during an interactive installation, the kdump setting must be configured last, after setting up disk encryption. If you plan to disable kdump, first set up disk encryption, and only then disable kdump.
• Minimal ISO: if you install using the minimal ISO, be prepared for some packages to be missing, mainly from the AppStream repository (rsyslog, policycoreutils-python-utils, etc.). This is to be expected.
• KDE and this kernel bug: If you’re using KDE 8.5 and upgrade to 8.6, you’re very likely to encounter problems. The bug in question relates to the inability to unlock the screen after the system has been locked. The solution is to configure GRUB to boot the system using the older kernel at start-up.

ISO verification

Once you have downloaded the 8.6 installation ISOs (Rocky-8.6-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/vault/rocky/8.6/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM
sha256sum -c CHECKSUM --ignore-missing

The command compares the ISO files in the folder with the CHECKSUM file and returns an ‘OK’ result next to the downloaded image file. The packages are signed by the Rocky Linux 8 GPG key (RPM-GPG-KEY-Rocky-8, fingerprint: 7051 C470 A929 F454 CEBE 37B7 15AF 5DAC 6D74 5A60), which dnf automatically verifies after installation.

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 8.7 (November 2022)
• Rocky Linux 8.8 (May 2023)
• Rocky Linux 8.9 (November 2023)
• Rocky Linux 8.10 (May 2024, the final minor release in the series)

You can choose Rocky Linux as your operating system on both our KVM VPS servers and our dedicated servers.

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