Canonical is now making Ubuntu Pro’s live patching service available to hardware enabledkernels. The HWE releases then co-exist with the long term supportversion of the operating system.
Canonical writes that the feature will be available from kernel version 6.2. That’s the kernel used for the first time in Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster, due out later this month. As of July 2023, HWE kernel support will also be available for the 22.04 LTS release, Jammy Jellyfish.
Live patching is a feature in Ubuntu Pro, the professional version of the operating system that includes some additional security features. One of the most important features in Pro is live patching, which pushes patches directly into memory so that a system does not have to be rebooted.
The live patches were previously only available on LTS kernel releases, but not yet hardware enabledkernels or HWEs. Those are kernels for the operating system that run on new hardware where otherwise only the general availabilitykernel can run on. The HWE release will have live patch support as long as that kernel is still supported.
