The Next Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Developer Release (UEK-next) is the
next generation of the UEK kernel based upon the upstream Linux v6.14 tag.
The UEK-next developer release allows Oracle Linux users to try out the latest developments from upstream Linux combined with Oracle UEK-specific features.
To read more about Linux kernel development at Oracle, see:
The original README for the Linux kernel along with a other useful documentation can be found at Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst
UEK-next is not supported for production use, however we will provide limited test and development support for these kernels to help validate applications and workloads.
UEK-next does not have a Secure Boot signature and as a result cannot be used on systems where Secure Boot is enabled.
The UEK-next release is built by applying UEK specific fixes on top of the latest Linux mainline release tag.
UEK-next developer releases are upstream Linux kernels with Oracle Linux patches for use to evaluate new features in upstream Linux and enable developers to experiment with the latest hardware support, and to validate application compatibility with the latest kernels.
Every UEK-next release is based on a major upstream release (e.g.: 6.13 based, 6.14 based, etc.)
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Packaging changes
The UEK kernel has so many modules which are rarely used by server class deployments in the
kernel-ueknext-modulesandkernel-ueknext-modules-extraRPMs.Some of the examples include:
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Desktop related modules
- Graphics drivers
- Touchscreen drivers
- Tablet drivers
- Joystick drivers
- Laptop drivers
- HID (Human Interface Device) drivers -- HID is a type of computer device that interacts directly with and takes input from humans.
- Industrial I/O drivers -- Industrial I/O drivers are typically things like accelerometers and orientation sensors used in phones, tablets and laptops
- Media drivers
- Video and DVB drivers
- Webcam drivers
- MMC drivers(Multimedia card)
- Bluetooth drivers
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Sound drivers
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Wireless drivers
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Other varied USB drivers
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Some modules are not hardware drivers but provide software functionality such as:
- Network protocols
- Network schedulers
- Network filtering
With that in mind, we are testing out the idea of an extended set of packages:
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kernel-ueknext-modules-core- Essentials for booting Exadata, OCI VMs, etc.
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kernel-ueknext-modules- Various modules that are expected to be commonly used
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kernel-ueknext-modules-extra- Modules that are NOT expected to be commonly used
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kernel-ueknext-modules-desktop- Modules for desktop-type hardware (HID, touchscreens, etc.)
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kernel-ueknext-modules-usb- Optional USB drivers
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kernel-ueknext-modules-wireless- Wireless drivers
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kernel-ueknext-modules-extra-netfilter- Rarely used netfilter modules
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kernel-ueknext-modules-deprecated- Modules that we plan to remove in future releases
The exact set of packages and how modules are distributed among them is a balancing act of shrinking the default set of installed modules while still allowing users to install modules they need in special circumstances.
You may find that on upgrade to UEK-next, that some functionality is missing, but it may be provided in a different package.
You may be able to find which package by looking at the file:
grep "<modname>" /lib/moduiles/$(uname -r)/modules.packagesand then installing those packages with
dnf install.Please do let us know your experiences on this by logging issues, UEK-next is a good way to try out new scenarios like this.
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UEK-next as default kernel post-install
Because UEK-next is not a production kernel, it was decided not autoselect it as the default kernel on installation. Should you prefer it to be the default kernel, you may do so by either:
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Prior to installation, if not already done, setting the default kernel in
/etc/sysconfig/kernelusing the line:DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-ueknext-core -
Post installation, set it as the default using
grubbyas:sudo grubby --set-default=/boot/vmlinuz-6.14.0-1.el9ueknext.$(name -p)
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- There were no new issues identified on this release.
Issues found while using this release that are not present in upstream Linux may be reported using Github Issues at:
If you have kernel patches, please contribute to upstream Linux first! Patches accepted by upstream will be part of the next UEK-next build a few weeks after that kernel is released.
