Canonical continues to push ahead with the expansion of Ubuntu for ARM64. With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, ARM64 has caught up with AMD64 in many key areas. Key updates include the move of ARM64 packages to the regular Ubuntu package archive, live kernel patching without rebooting, and advances in Snapdragon laptops, gaming, and software support. This emerges from a current status report from the Ubuntu developers.
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Ubuntu has supported ARM processors for more than a decade. Canonical initially focused its ARM64 support primarily on servers, but the architecture is now present in cloud data centers, developer computers, single-board computers and increasingly also in notebooks. Canonical therefore aims to no longer treat Ubuntu on ARM64 as a special case, but as a fully-fledged main platform.
ARM64 packages move to the regular Ubuntu archive
A fundamental change concerns the packaging infrastructure. Since Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, ARM64 packages are no longer delivered via the previous archive ports.ubuntu.com, but rather via archive.ubuntu.com. This means that ARM64 uses the same infrastructure as AMD64.
The change ensures that packages are automatically distributed across Ubuntu mirror servers worldwide. This is intended to speed up downloads and increase availability. According to Canonical, the change required adjustments to several components of the Ubuntu build and release process. The changes will also be backported to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Livepatch closes another gap
Since the end of June, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS also supports live patching on ARM64. Security updates for the Linux kernel can be installed without having to restart the system. The function was previously only available on AMD64.
According to Canonical, this required, among other things, extensions to the Linux kernel, the toolchain and new ARM64-specific test procedures. With the introduction, the Livepatch service on ARM64 achieves the same functionality as on the x86 platform.
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Advances in ARM notebooks
Canonical is also expanding support for ARM notebooks. Ubuntu 25.04 introduced support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite platform via the generic ARM64 desktop image. With Ubuntu 25.10, Secure Boot works there for the first time. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is the first LTS release with this feature.
The special feature: Many Snapdragon notebooks currently do not provide Linux with device trees via the firmware. Device trees describe the existing hardware and are primarily used on ARM systems for initialization. Canonical solves the problem with a new EFI stub called “stubble”, which integrates the required device trees directly into the signed kernel image. This preserves the existing secure boot chain of trust.
At the same time, Canonical is already working on supporting the next Snapdragon X2 Elite generation. The company is also expanding hardware support to other ARM manufacturers. As a first example, Canonical cites a developer image for the CIX P1 notebook. Unlike Snapdragon devices, its firmware uses the ACPI boot process familiar from PCs and therefore does not require the new EFI solution.
More software without detours
The software offering is also growing. An ARM64 build of the Steam Snap was released as a stable version in early June. Since Steam’s Linux client is still only available for x86, Canonical is combining it with the userspace emulator FEX. This allows AMD64 games to run on supported ARM systems. However, Canonical emphasizes that this is not a project supported by Valve.
Canonical also refers to other native ARM64 versions of popular Snap packages such as OnlyOffice, FreeCAD and Teams for Linux. However, another important component comes from Google: Canonical refers to the announced ARM64 version of Google Chrome, which is intended to bring Widevine support to Linux. The availability of Widevine on ARM64 also allows other Snap packages, including Firefox and Spotify, to integrate Widevine natively.
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