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Canonical announced over the weekend their plans for the default kernel used in the upcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) release, and it looks like they chose to ship it with the upcoming Linux 6.8 kernel series.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is still three months away from the moment of writing this article, slated for release on April 25th, 2024, but we already have a big picture of the new features to be implemented in Canonical’s 10th Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) release.
The biggest change will be the upcoming GNOME 46 desktop environment series, which brings numerous new features and enhancements like a much-improved Nautilus (Files) file manager, built-in support for WebP images, a more streamlined Settings app, headless setup support for Xwayland with the NVIDIA graphics driver, headless remote logins via GDM (GNOME Display Manager), and much more.
Now, Canonical’s Ubuntu Kernel Team has confirmed that Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) will be powered by the upcoming Linux 6.8 kernel series, which is currently in heavy development with a second Release Candidate available for public testing as of January 28th, 2024.
To ensure there won’t be any hardware issues when Ubuntu 24.04 LTS launches in late April, Canonical has provided experimental builds of the latest Linux kernel 6.8 Release Candidates for early Ubuntu 24.04 LTS adopters who want to give them a helping hand under ppa:canonical-kernel-team/unstable. However, at the moment of writing, there are no Linux 6.8 builds available for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Apart from the many new features included in Linux kernel 6.8, Canonical’s Ubuntu Kernel Team will also add some Ubuntu-specific changes like a new Apparmor / Stacking LSM patch set, enforcing of retpoline ABI check, replacement of Ubuntu FAN with OVN/OpenVSwitch/MicroOVN based solutions, shifts deprecation, as well as use of the latest GCC with frame pointers enabled.
Of course, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS shipping with Linux kernel 6.8 is great news for everyone who will want to install or upgrade their previous Ubuntu LTS systems to the Noble Numbat series. Even if Linux kernel 6.8 is not an LTS series, it ensures support for the latest hardware and gives Ubuntu users access to the newest kernel features.
Rest assured that the first Noble Numbat point release, Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, which will probably see the light of day later this year, will be shipping with a newer HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel from the upcoming Ubuntu 24.10 release, due in October 2024.
Last updated 3 months ago
