English
Magyar
Rocky Linux 9.5 was officially released to the general public on 19 November 2024. The updated installation tools, containers, cloud and live images are available on the Rocky Linux download page. This release uses the 5.14.0-503.14.1 kernel; known issues and detailed changes are covered in the release notes.
Key information
Major new features and changes
- Podman – Rocky Linux 9.5 comes with the latest and greatest version of Podman, version 5.0. Podman 5.0 introduces exciting new features such as fast Podman boot times, Podman Farm for cross-platform image building, greater volume compatibility in podman kube play, Quadlet enhancements and a higher-performance default network stack.
- Cockpit – Cockpit, the web console that provides simple remote server management, now offers file management capabilities via the Cockpit Files plugin. To use this feature, you need to install the cockpit-files package.
Dynamic programming languages, web and database servers
- Apache HTTP Server 2.4.62
- Node.js 22
System toolchain
- GCC 11.5
- Annobin 12.70
Performance-boosting tools and debuggers
- GDB 14.2
- Valgrind 3.23.0
- SystemTap 5.1
- elfutils 0.191
- libabigail 2.5
Performance monitoring tools
- Performance Co-pilot 6.2.2
- Grafana 10.2.6
Translation toolkits
- GCC Toolset 14
- LLVM Toolset 18.1.8
- Rust Toolset 1.79.0
- Go Toolset 1.22
Security
- OpenSSL 3.2.2 with certificate compression and Brainpool curves in TLS 1.3
- NSS 3.101
- The crypto policies also cover the choice of Java algorithms
- ca-certificates also provides trusted root certificates in OpenSSL library format
- A new SELinux switch allows the QEMU Guest Agent to run restricted commands
java-17-openjdk is now the default Java version: following the update, the java, java-devel and jre packages will install Java 17 instead of Java 11. Obsolete and no longer updated: gcc-toolset 12, .NET 6, Ruby 3.1 and Node.js 18; gcc-toolset 13/14, .NET 8/9, Ruby 3.3 and Node.js 20/22 are recommended instead.
A more detailed explanation of the updates and changes can be found in the Rocky Linux 9.5 release notes.
Known issues
Anaconda – Currently, clicking the help buttons in Anaconda may display blank pages in certain environments (e.g. QEMU with virtio-vga). For a more comprehensive list and explanation of known issues, see the Rocky Linux 9.5 release notes.
ISO verification
Once you have downloaded the 9.5 installation ISOs (Rocky-9.5-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/9.5/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 9 GPG key (RPM-GPG-KEY-Rocky-9, fingerprint: 21CB 256A E16F C54C 6E65 2949 702D 426D 350D 275D), which dnf automatically verifies after installation.
Update and migration
An existing Rocky Linux 9 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 9 series. You can migrate from other Enterprise Linux 9 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 from version 8 to 9. If you do wish to perform an in-place upgrade, you can find the steps for the community-developed ELevate tool in our ELevate guide.
How long is it supported for?
Active support for Rocky Linux 9 (“Blue Onyx”) runs until 31 May 2027, and its lifecycle ends on 31 May 2032. Only the latest minor version receives updates. Further releases in the 9 series:
- Rocky Linux 9.0 (July 2022)
- Rocky Linux 9.1 (November 2022)
- Rocky Linux 9.2 (May 2023)
- Rocky Linux 9.3 (November 2023)
- Rocky Linux 9.4 (May 2024)
- Rocky Linux 9.6 (June 2025)
- Rocky Linux 9.7 (December 2025)
- Rocky Linux 9.8 (May 2026)
If you’d like to run Rocky Linux 9 on your own server, you can order a KVM VPS or a dedicated server with it.