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Ubuntu 26.10 is out: should you put it on your home server?

Ubuntu 26.10 “Stonking Stingray” arrived on 15 October with Linux 7.3 and a fully Rust-based set of core utilities. It is a nine-month interim release, so most home labs should read the small print first.

By OwnYourStack Admin · Published

Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray release artwork
Ubuntu 26.10 “Stonking Stingray”, released on 15 October 2026. © Canonical

Canonical released Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed “Stonking Stingray”, on 15 October 2026. It is an interim release, supported for nine months until July 2027, rather than a long-term support (LTS) release. That one fact decides whether it belongs on your home server.

The short answer

If your server runs 26.04 LTS and does its job, there is little reason to move. LTS releases get five years of standard security updates; 26.10 will need replacing by next summer. Interim releases suit people who enjoy living on newer software, or who need something from the new kernel or toolchain. For a NAS, a media server or a box running your smart home, boring is a feature.

What is new for servers

  • Linux 7.3. The release images ship a 7.3 kernel based on a release candidate, because the final upstream version is due after launch; expect updates to follow.
  • Rust coreutils throughout. The default core utilities now run entirely on the Rust-based uutils implementation, including cp, mv and rm, which had stayed on the GNU versions until now. Scripts that depend on obscure GNU behaviour deserve a test run first.
  • OpenSSH 10.5, split in two. The package is divided into openssh (no GSSAPI) and openssh-gssapi. Fresh installs default to the one without GSSAPI.
  • OpenSSL 4. Engines are gone, and the PKCS#11 engine is replaced by a provider, so any configuration that references the pkcs11 engine needs migrating.
  • Database and service updates. MySQL 9.7 LTS (up from 8.4 LTS), Valkey 9.1, Samba 4.24.7, Postfix 3.11.7, Dovecot 2.4.4, PHP 8.5.9 and Apache 2.4.68, among others. QEMU is 11.0 and libvirt 12.6.0.
  • HAProxy 3.4.2 changes its default balancing algorithm from roundrobin to random.
  • ZFS 2.4.4 arrives as a prebuilt out-of-tree kernel module.

Upgrade warnings worth knowing

  • Systems using TPM-backed full-disk encryption cannot upgrade from 26.04 to 26.10 at launch; Canonical expects to enable that during the 26.10 lifecycle.
  • The release upgrader refuses to run while MySQL accounts or configuration still use the mysql_native_password plugin, which has been removed upstream. Migrate those accounts first.
  • Upgrades may stop on a dangling /lib32 symlink while installing base-files; a fix was still in progress at release.
  • Do not purge an openssh package that is in the “rc” state, as this can break remote access until a fix lands.
  • Future releases will drop support for some /boot layouts, such as an encrypted /boot, RAID 5/6, and Btrfs, XFS or ZFS. The upgrader is being updated to block unsafe upgrades.

Raspberry Pi owners

Canonical lists two Raspberry Pi issues. Cloud-init may run before the network is ready, so if it depends on networking you should set at least one interface to optional: false; and Wi-Fi on wlan0 may not come up on first boot. If you are still deciding what to buy, see what a Raspberry Pi costs in late 2026.

Our advice

Try 26.10 in a virtual machine or on a spare Pi before you trust it with anything. If you run virtual machines, our guide to upgrading to Proxmox VE 9 is a good place to practise a snapshot-first upgrade routine, and a throwaway guest is the safest place to find out which of your scripts dislike the Rust coreutils.

Sources: Ubuntu 26.10 release notes; Canonical announcement.

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