Ubuntu 23.04 Preparing To Land Its Linux 6.2 Based Kernel

The Ubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" development builds recently transitioned from Linux 5.19 as in use by Ubuntu 22.10/22.04.2 to a Linux 6.1 based kernel. This led some -- including myself -- to wonder if Canonical changed course and shifted to Linux 6.1 LTS instead of the Linux 6.2 kernel that has been out as stable since last month. Fortunately, that's not the case and Ubuntu 23.04 is preparing to soon land Linux 6.2 across all kernel flavors.

Linux 6.2 is the latest and greatest stable kernel now and through the point of Ubuntu 23.04 releasing on 20 April. The Linux 6.3 kernel won't be out until late April or early May while the Ubuntu 23.04 kernel freeze is on 6 April. Meanwhile Linux 6.1 is the 2022 long-term support release and what Ubuntu Lunar recently shifted to for many of their kernel builds. Fortunately though, Linux 6.2 is being targeted for this upcoming Ubuntu non-LTS release.

Longtime Ubuntu developer Dimitri John Ledkov at Canonical commented today on the mailing list:

"...in Lunar, no further 6.1 builds will be done for any kernel flavour for the time being. And v6.2 landing, across all flavours, is in progress."

It's great seeing them commit to Linux 6.2. The 6.2 kernel has the stabilized/out-of-the-box Intel Arc Graphics for DG2/Alchemist GPUs, better Radeon RX 7000 series "RDNA3" support, initial NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 support on Nouveau, various improvements for Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" servers, Call Depth Tracking for better Skylake era performance, and other feature advantages over Linux 6.1 LTS. For the Intel Arc Graphics and better AMD RDNA3 support in particular and other hardware support additions, I'm happy they went with 6.2 over 6.1.

Ubuntu 23.04 is due for its official debut on 20 April while daily ISO images are available for those wanting to help in testing.