Rocky Linux 9.7 Available Now

Rocky Linux Team

We are pleased to announce the general availability of Rocky Linux 9.7. Updated installation media, container images, cloud images, and live images are available from the Rocky Linux Downloads webpage. Please consult the release notes published in the Rocky Linux Documentation for important information, such as known issues and detailed changes in this version.

Highlights

Notable New Features and Changes

  • Security
    • System-wide cryptographic policies (crypto-policies): post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and contains many improvements for application PQC support.
  • Dynamic programming languages, web, and database servers
    • Node.js 24
    • Valkey 8
  • System toolchain components
    • Glibc 2.34
    • Annobin 12.98
  • Performance tools and debuggers
    • GDB 16.3
    • Valgrind 3.25.1
    • SystemTap 5.3
    • Dyninst 13.0.0
    • elfutils 0.193
    • libabigail 2.8
  • Compiler toolsets
    • GCC Toolset 15, including:
      • GCC 15.1
      • Binutils 2.44
    • LLVM Toolset 20.1.8
    • Rust Toolset 1.88.0
    • Go Toolset 1.24
    • .NET 10.0

RL Web Console (Cockpit)

Cockpit is a web-based interface for managing and monitoring your local system.

This new release brings an improved UI style based on PatternFly 6.

Image Builder

Image Builder is now able to create WSL2 and Vagrant (libvirt) images.

For a more complete explanation of updates and changes, please see the Rocky Linux 9.7 Release Notes.

Testing

Every Rocky Linux release undergoes thorough testing for accuracy and stability, and Rocky Linux 9.7 is no exception. The Rocky Linux testing process includes manual and automated checks across a wide range of environments and configurations. We have validated this release for a week before approving it for availability. Testing artifacts, discussions, and the release checklist are available in the Rocky Release (v9.7) Playbook.

To participate in this testing process for future releases, join the ~Testing channel on the Rocky Linux Mattermost. We can’t wait to meet you!

Upgrade and Conversion Process

You may upgrade from previous versions of Rocky Linux 9 to Rocky Linux 9.7 on the CLI by running sudo dnf -y upgrade, or via desktop tools like GNOME Software or KDE Discover.

Rocky Linux does not support upgrades between major releases. To upgrade from Rocky Linux 8 to Rocky Linux 9, a fresh install of the operating system is recommended.

Users of other Enterprise Linux 9-based distributions may convert their installations to Rocky Linux 9.7 using the migrate2rocky utilities.

Acknowledgements

We extend our deepest thanks to the Rocky Linux project volunteers and leaders for their commitment to making this release possible through compiling, testing, and documenting this release. Our gratitude extends to our sponsors and partners for continuing to ensure we have the necessary resources for this task.

Special recognition to these contributors for their work on this release:

  • Alan Marshall (@alangm)
  • Alexey Melezhik (@melezhik)
  • Alexia Stein (@alexia)
  • Bob Robison (@grayeul)
  • Boris Reisig (@boris)
  • Brian Clemens (@brian)
  • Bryan (@codedude)
  • Chris Short (@chrisshort)
  • Chris Stackpole (@stack)
  • David Gomez (@dgomez)
  • Fredrik Nystrom (@nscfreny)
  • Joey Brinkman (@j0ey)
  • Gabriel Graves (@nebraskacoder)
  • Louis Abel (@label)
  • Lukas Magauer (lumarel)
  • Michael Young (@elguero)
  • Mustafa Gezen (@mustafa)
  • Nathan B (@kemotaha)
  • Neil Hanlon (@neil)
  • Ondřej Nedomlel (@p4nda)
  • Pablo Greco (@pgreco)
  • Robert Wolfe (@zenaku)
  • Sam Thornton (@sthornton)
  • Seongeun Hwang (@hw5e)
  • Sherif Nagy (@sherif)
  • Skip Grube (@skip77)
  • Stephen Simpson (@ssimpson)
  • Steven Spencer (@sspencerwire)
  • Taylor Goodwill (@tgo)
  • Trevor Cooper (@tcooper)
  • Wale Soyinka (@wale)

Finally, we appreciate our Enterprise Linux ecosystem—especially the upstream development work of Fedora Linux, and the curation work in CentOS Stream—and the many, many additional developers and projects that contribute to all the Enterprise Linux distributions.

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