The last 4.x kernel is EOL, and that will probably affect people running really old hardware or software. Consequently, if you have a really old Hamvoip installation, you could still be on the 4.19 kernel as I upgraded to the 5.4 Linux kernel in 2023 after seeing a mailing list post. I still have a couple microSD cards with my Hamvoip setup using a really old versin of Arch and Asterisk, but I’ve been running Allstarlink 3.1 here lately which is on Linux kernel 6.6 as well as Asterisk 20. Allmon3 isn’t as functional as Supermon or Supermon2, but with AllScan to control a private node that’s all you really need.
https://9to5linux.com/linux-4-19-the-last-of-the-linux-4-x-kernel-series-reaches-end-of-life
Users are urged to stop using the Linux 4.19 kernel series and upgrade to a newer, supported Linux kernel branch as soon as possible.
Linux kernel 4.19, the last of the Linux 4.x kernel series, has now reached the end of its supported life as announced earlier on the Linux kernel mailing list by kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman.
The Linux 4.19 kernel branch was released more than six years ago, on October 22nd, 2018, and it received no less than 325 maintenance updates, the last one being Linux 4.19.325. The biggest highlights of Linux kernel 4.19 were initial Wi-Fi 6 support, the EROFS file system, and a union mount filesystem implementation.
“It had a good life, despite being born out of internal strife. The community has proven that it can change and move forward which is great to see, as again, the only thing that is going to stop Linux, is us, the Linux community. Let’s always try to work together to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman.
Greg Kroah-Hartman also said that the Linux 4.19 kernel is plagued with hundreds of “unfixed” CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), urging companies that still use it in their products to upgrade immediately to a newer LTS (Long-Term Support) kernel series, such as Linux kernel 6.12 LTS.
“Any company saying they care about it really should have their statements validated with facts,” said Greg Kroah-Hartman in the mailing list announcement. “Currently it is a list of 983 CVEs long, too long to list here. Yes, CVE counts don’t mean much these days, but hey, it’s a signal of something, right?”
Greg Kroah-Hartman added that even if most of these CVEs have been patched by now in recent kernels, no one will be backporting them to the Linux 4.19 branch, urging users to stop using it and upgrade to a supported kernel series.
As a “fun” fact, Linux 4.19 was the last of the Linux 4.x kernels after Linux 4.14 reached end of life earlier this year. There are no more Linux 4.x kernels actively maintained at the moment of writing, and there are only six supported kernel branches, all of them LTS, as Linux kernel 6.11 also reached end of life today.