Ubuntu kernel updates: the SRU cycle explained
Ubuntu now publishes a kernel every week. Learn how SRU pockets work, how to spot a pending reboot, when to reboot, and what Livepatch covers until then.
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Ubuntu now publishes a kernel every week. Learn how SRU pockets work, how to spot a pending reboot, when to reboot, and what Livepatch covers until then.
A kernel upgrade made the NVIDIA DKMS build fail. The log DKMS leaves under /var/lib/dkms names the real cause. Here is how to read it and fix it.
Ubuntu Server offers two kernel tracks, GA and HWE. See which one your VPS runs today, and whether the newer track is worth the extra reboots.
A process vanished with no error of its own. Find the OOM kill in dmesg and journalctl -k, and read the disk and network messages a guest kernel sends.
A point release is your Ubuntu with every update rolled into new media. Why a patched server downloads nothing, and why 24.04 waits for 26.04.1.
GRUB_DEFAULT does nothing on an Ubuntu cloud image. Read the menu entries your server really has, then pin the next boot without risking a rescue console.
Live kernel patching swaps patched functions into the running kernel. What it covers on an unmanaged VPS, and why the reboot is only postponed.
When /boot fills with old linux-image packages, apt stops configuring anything. Find the kernels you can remove safely, and keep the one you booted.
Recover a headless server that fails to boot after a kernel upgrade: provider console, GRUB previous kernel, initramfs and LVM failures, and prevention.
A history of the Linux kernel from 0.01 to 7.x: the GPL switch, the microkernel argument, the birth of git, the LTS model, and what each means for servers.
Linux kernel 7.1 shipped on 14 June 2026. Here is what reaches a VPS tenant, how to check the kernel you run now, and when 7.1 arrives on your distro.