LoongArch Lands Initial Rust Kernel Support For Linux 6.8

Submitted and merged on Friday for the ongoing Linux 6.8 merge window were the LoongArch processor changes for this new kernel version. Most singificant for these Chinese processors is now supporting the Rust Linux kernel integration.

The initial Rust support for LoongArch within the Linux kernel is now present for v6.8. Separately, Linux 6.8 also brings an upgrade to the Rust toolchain. Seeing more architectures supporting Rust with the Linux kernel is good news as the Rust programming language begins to become viable for kernel programming. Linux 6.8 also has the first Rust-written network PHY driver as an alternative to an existing C driver. This is the first driver in mainline of end-user use after the past number of kernel cycles have focused on building up all of the initial infrastructure for Rust programming in kernel space. As 2024 progresses expect to see more Rust drivers coming about for the Linux kernel.

The LoongArch changes for Linux 6.8 also include bumping the minimum Clang compiler version to v18, adding built-in DTB support for the architecture, updating the default kernel configuration file, and various bug fixes.

The full list of LoongArch changes for Linux 6.8 can be found via this pull request that has since been merged to mainline.