Canonical has recently announced that new versions of virtualization stack components will be shipped in future milestone releases of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. This decision mirrors the delivery process of previous LTS versions, where new versions of the Linux kernel and graphics stack were introduced from regular Ubuntu releases following the LTS version. Updates for qemu-hwe (hypervisor and emulator), libvirt-hwe (virtualization management toolkit), edk2-hwe (OVMF firmware), and seabios-hwe (BIOS compatibility) will be released every 6 months during the first two years of the LTS branch’s life cycle.
Despite these changes, the base virtualization stack will still be supported and shipped natively with Ubuntu 26.04. This will allow users to choose between sticking with the stable old set of packages or upgrading to new versions. The updated components offer enhanced features such as improved support for confidential computing (AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX) and hardware accelerators, providing users with more options and flexibility.