Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Might Still End Up Shipping With WireGuard Support

There are early discussions going on over the possibility of shipping WireGuard support in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS that could be done either using the existing DKMS kernel module or patching their Linux 5.5-based kernel with WireGuard now that the necessary crypto API changes made it into that release.

Part of the unfortunate aspect of not having WireGuard merged for Linux 5.5 due to the timing of the merge window is that it unfortunately misses the mark for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS but is already in net-next for Linux 5.6. With Linux 5.5 being out in late January or early February, this will almost definitively be the kernel powering this next Ubuntu Long-Term Support release as Linux 5.6 would cut simply too close to the April launch date for the LTS distribution.

Given the uptick of usage in Ubuntu LTS releases, it would have been great to see the long-awaited WireGuard in Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal Fossa" but at least from a mainline kernel perspective it will miss the mark by one cycle.

But given recent mailing list activity, it appears there is at least some interest in adding WireGuard to Ubuntu's kernel for the 20.04 release. Canonical's kernel team is discussing the matter while Jason Donenfeld as the lead WireGuard developer has already volunteered to help them in their effort.

With Linux 5.5 having the crypto API bits for WireGuard, patching their kernel should be rather trivial if not there is already the DKMS WG module. We'll see where this leads for hopefully supporting this secure VPN tunnel tech on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Details on running WireGuard on various Linux distributions as well as the likes of Windows / macOS / Android / iOS can be found via this WireGuard.com documentation for those wanting to use the current out-of-tree approach.