New Release: Ubuntu 26.10

Canonical has provided a new release of their enterprise distribution with Ubuntu 26.10 (Stonking Stingray).

Besides the obligatory updates to most of the packages, highlights from a Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE perspective include:

• NVMe for Linux on IBM Z, providing resiliency for general use of NVMe drives on the platform
• Quantum Safe Secure Execution headers
• Protect Identity of TLS-secured server with SEL retrievable secrets: Protects the identity of a TLS-secured server (using openSSL) running in a secure guest by using a CPACF protected private key derived from a retrievable secret

See the full announcement on the mailing list here.

New Releases: RHEL 10.2 and 9.8

Red Hat has announced the availability of RHEL 9.8 and RHEL 10.2 for IBM Z and LinuxONE.

These updates continue to enhance security and virtualization efficiency on the platform.

Highlights

• openCryptoki support for standardized Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms
  Both releases extend cryptographic capabilities by adding support for standardized PQC algorithms via openCryptoki. This enables applications to start leveraging quantum-safe cryptography using the familiar PKCS#11 interfaces and IBM Z cryptographic hardware.

• Established KVM default I/O tuning
  Default I/O tuning settings for KVM have been optimized out-of-the-box. This improves performance and consistency for virtualized workloads without requiring manual configuration.

As usual, these releases include various fixes and improvements across the stack.

For more details, refer to the official Red Hat documentation and release notes for RHEL 9.8 and 10.2.

New Release: Ubuntu 26.04

Canonical has provided a new releases of their enterprise distribution with Ubuntu 26.04.

Besides the obligatory updates to most of the packages, highlights from a Linux in IBM Z and LinuxONE perspective include:

• Strong data at-rest integrity protection for Secure Execution
• openCryptoki support for standardized Post Quantum algorithms
• KVM: Default I/O Tunings for improved performance

See the announcement on the mailing list here.

This release is very significant, since it marks a so-called LTS (Long Term Support) release, granting an extended service timeframe of up to 10 years, as illustrated here.

New Release: SLES 16

SUSE has released a new major version with SLES 16! Read all about it in their official announcement.

Of course, coming in 7 years after their previous SLES 15 release, it features loads of updates like a brand new installer (Agama), and lots of new components like a web-based admin interface (Cockpit), Network Manager for (oviously) network administration, SE Linux, Ansible support, and many more.

But it also ships, of course, all of the latest support for our IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5 machines, like support for the Telum II processor, including on-chip AI, Network Express adapters, all of the latest post-quantum support, passthrough support of Crypto Express cards in KVM, sustainability tooling, vertical CPU polarization, and many, many more.

Congrats to the SUSE team for reaching this important milestone!

New Release: Ubuntu 25.10

Canonical has provided a new releases of their enterprise distribution with Ubuntu 25.10.

Besides the obligatory updates to most of their packages, highlights include:

• Topology map information now available through new s390-tools command zmemtopo 
• With the upgrade to opencryptoki v3.25, there is now also support for ep11 token based import and export of secure key objects
• The new tool p11kmip that allows to import/export PKCS #11 keys from to a KMIP server
• Basic support for AES-GCM in CCA tokens
• KVM: PCI passthrough performance substantially improved  to the point where it can be considered for production use

See the announcement on the mailing list here.

Updated Publication: "Networking with PCI adapters and functions"

Coinciding with the switch to the new Network Express adapters, we have updated our documentation to include the new card here.

 From the introduction:

"This publication explores what PCI network adapters offer for network connections of Linux® on IBM Z® and IBM® LinuxONE. The publication applies to Network Express and RoCE Express2 or RoCE Express3 adapters."

New Release: SLES 15 SP7 on IBM Z and LinuxONE

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 is out! See the official announcement here 

Highlights include

• IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5 support, including​
• AI foundation enhancements​
• New Secure Execution and Crypto features
• Sustainability​
• Network Express support​
• Vertical CPU Polarization support​

See the IBM Z section in this blog post for IBM Z and LinuxONE support, and the release notes for everything else.