Ubuntu 25.10 may ship with Linux 6.17 (release‑candidate kernel targeted)

Key update

Canonical's Kernel Team is targeting the upstream Linux 6.17 kernel for Ubuntu 25.10 and has explicitly accepted the possibility that the shipped installer image will include a release‑candidate (RC) kernel if the upstream stable release isn't finalized before Ubuntu's kernel freeze. This is a conscious policy choice to deliver the latest kernel features and hardware support rather than hold back for an older stable kernel. (discourse.ubuntu.com)

Why it matters

Shipping an RC kernel in a mainstream distro ISO is materially relevant for developers and ops teams because the kernel defines critical runtime behavior: driver support, scheduling/eBPF behavior, syscall and ABI stabilization relevant to kernel modules and native extensions, and even subtle changes that affect container runtimes and virtualization. Practically, this increases the need to run targeted CI on Ubuntu 25.10 images (including kernel‑level tests and any native modules built with DKMS or precompiled binaries), to avoid surprising regressions in production, and to pin or delay rollout of new host images until the kernel is validated for your workload. If you maintain kernel modules, device drivers, low‑level observability tooling, or rely on precise kernel semantics (e.g., eBPF programs, io_uring behavior, or real‑time scheduling), treat Ubuntu 25.10 as a test target first and verify module builds and integration tests against the exact kernel image that will be deployed. (discourse.ubuntu.com)

Source

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