diff --git a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-altcfg.conf b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-altcfg.conf
index f03306e..b6dbcad 100644
--- a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-altcfg.conf
+++ b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-altcfg.conf
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@
 DISTROOVERRIDES = "poky:poky-altcfg"
 #DISTROOVERRIDES = "poky:linuxstdbase"
 
-INIT_MANAGER:poky-altcfg = "systemd"
+POKY_INIT_MANAGER:poky-altcfg = "systemd"
 # systemd isn't suitable with musl
-INIT_MANAGER:poky-altcfg:libc-musl = "sysvinit"
+POKY_INIT_MANAGER:poky-altcfg:libc-musl = "sysvinit"
 
 require conf/distro/include/poky-distro-alt-test-config.inc
diff --git a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-tiny.conf b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-tiny.conf
index ce466e3..f65d2da 100644
--- a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-tiny.conf
+++ b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky-tiny.conf
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 # Distro config is evaluated after the machine config, so we have to explicitly
 # set the kernel provider to override a machine config.
 PREFERRED_PROVIDER_virtual/kernel = "linux-yocto-tiny"
-PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto-tiny ?= "5.19%"
+PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto-tiny ?= "6.1%"
 
 # We can use packagegroup-core-boot, but in the future we may need a new packagegroup-core-tiny
 #POKY_DEFAULT_EXTRA_RDEPENDS += "packagegroup-core-boot"
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@
 DISTRO_FEATURES:class-nativesdk = "${DISTRO_FEATURES_DEFAULT} ${POKY_DEFAULT_DISTRO_FEATURES}"
 
 # enable mdev/busybox for init
-INIT_MANAGER:poky-tiny = "mdev-busybox"
+POKY_INIT_MANAGER:poky-tiny = "mdev-busybox"
 
 # FIXME: Consider adding "modules" to MACHINE_FEATURES and using that in
 # packagegroup-core-base to select modutils-initscripts or not.  Similar with "net" and
diff --git a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky.conf b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky.conf
index dc0e8e7..3d22878 100644
--- a/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky.conf
+++ b/poky/meta-poky/conf/distro/poky.conf
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 
 DISTRO_FEATURES ?= "${DISTRO_FEATURES_DEFAULT} ${POKY_DEFAULT_DISTRO_FEATURES}"
 
-PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto ?= "5.19%"
-PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto-rt ?= "5.19%"
+PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto ?= "6.1%"
+PREFERRED_VERSION_linux-yocto-rt ?= "6.1%"
 
 SDK_NAME = "${DISTRO}-${TCLIBC}-${SDKMACHINE}-${IMAGE_BASENAME}-${TUNE_PKGARCH}-${MACHINE}"
 SDKPATHINSTALL = "/opt/${DISTRO}/${SDK_VERSION}"
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@
 BB_SIGNATURE_HANDLER ?= "OEEquivHash"
 BB_HASHSERVE ??= "auto"
 
-INIT_MANAGER = "sysvinit"
+POKY_INIT_MANAGER = "sysvinit"
+INIT_MANAGER ?= "${POKY_INIT_MANAGER}"
 
 # We need debug symbols so that SPDX license manifests for the kernel work
 KERNEL_EXTRA_FEATURES:append = " features/debug/debug-kernel.scc"