{"id":3639,"date":"2026-02-16T01:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/ubuntu-26-04-takes-a-smart-step-splits-firmware-package-to-minimize-update-sizes\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:00:50","slug":"ubuntu-26-04-takes-a-smart-step-splits-firmware-package-to-minimize-update-sizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/ubuntu-26-04-takes-a-smart-step-splits-firmware-package-to-minimize-update-sizes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ubuntu 26.04 Takes a Smart Step: Splits Firmware Package to Minimize Update Sizes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, known as Resolute Raccoon, is set to revamp how hardware support updates are managed by dividing the existing single <code>linux-firmware<\/code> package into 17 vendor-specific sub-packages. This initiative is aimed at minimizing the download size of routine firmware updates for users. Historically, the <code>linux-firmware<\/code> package has surpassed 500MB in size and consumes about 1GB of disk space when installed.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, if even a minor security update, such as a 100KB change for specific network cards like <em>Netronome<\/em> or <em>Mellanox<\/em>, is issued, all users must download the entire 600MB plus firmware update. This bulk update process unnecessarily wastes bandwidth and places a strain on Canonical&#8217;s infrastructure, especially since firmware security updates land in the <code>-security<\/code> repository, which is not mirrored for hygiene reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Canonical engineer Juerg Haefliger highlighted that discussions on reducing firmware updates began last year. With the introduction of meta-packaging in Ubuntu 26.04, the Linux firmware will now be distributed across 17 smaller packages, which will be aimed at alleviating the issues associated with large updates.<\/p>\n<p>The list of new sub-packages includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>linux-firmware-mellanox-spectrum<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-intel-wireless<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-intel-graphics<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-amd-graphics<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-nvidia-graphics<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-intel-misc<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-broadcom-wireless<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-netronome<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-misc<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-qlogic<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-marvell-wireless<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-mediatek<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-marvell-prestera<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-realtek<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-qualcomm-wireless<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-qualcomm-graphics<\/li>\n<li>linux-firmware-qualcomm-misc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most of these packages will be pre-installed to ensure compatibility with various hardware. The key change is that when updates are available, only impacted packages will require downloading. For instance, if a typo is corrected in the Intel Wireless drivers, only that specific package will need to be updated, reducing overall download sizes and easing bandwidth concerns.<\/p>\n<p>This modification is currently being tested in the development builds of Ubuntu 26.04, and is expected to be implemented by its official launch in April 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, known as Resolute Raccoon, is set to revamp how hardware support updates are managed by dividing the existing single linux-firmware package into 17 vendor-specific sub-packages. This initiative is aimed at minimizing the download size of routine firmware updates for users. Historically, the linux-firmware package has surpassed 500MB in size and consumes about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[211,4,1221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-firmware","category-news","category-ubuntu-26-04-lts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ubuntu 26.04 Takes a Smart Step: Splits Firmware Package to Minimize Update Sizes - ServerHost Hosting Solutions Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/serverhost.com\/blog\/ubuntu-26-04-takes-a-smart-step-splits-firmware-package-to-minimize-update-sizes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ubuntu 26.04 Takes a Smart Step: Splits Firmware Package to Minimize Update Sizes - ServerHost Hosting Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, known as Resolute Raccoon, is set to revamp how hardware support updates are managed by dividing the existing single linux-firmware package into 17 vendor-specific sub-packages. This initiative is aimed at minimizing the download size of routine firmware updates for users. 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This initiative is aimed at minimizing the download size of routine firmware updates for users. 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