Ubuntu Moving Ahead With Plans For Splitting Up Linux-Firmware, HWE Option

A few months back were discussions of a Linux firmware HWE package for Ubuntu to carry updated firmware blobs under the hardware enablement (HWE) umbrella. Plus also splitting up the monolithic linux-firmware package for easing of firmware updates. Those plans didn't materialize in time for the official Ubuntu 26.10 release but are now being pursued for Ubuntu 27.04 and may then be SRU'ed into Ubuntu 26.10 and potentially Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. First for the Ubuntu 27.04 "Tenacious T-Rex" and then for stable release update (SRU) backporting is now the linux-firmware-hwe package preparing to land for updated firmware assets benefiting the likes of AMD, Broadcom, Intel, Marvell, Mediatek, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and other hardware. The list of linux-firmware-hwe bundled packages can be found here. The key packages with the linux-firmware/linux-firmware-hwe split include: - linux-firmware-amd-graphics - linux-firmware-amd-misc - linux-firmware-broadcom-wireless - linux-firmware-intel-graphics - linux-firmware-intel-misc - linux-firmware-intel-wireless - linux-firmware-marvell-prestera - linux-firmware-marvell-wireless - linux-firmware-mediatek - linux-firmware-mellanox-spectrum - linux-firmware-misc - linux-firmware-netronome - linux-firmware-nonfree - linux-firmware-nvidia-graphics - linux-firmware-qlogic - linux-firmware-qualcomm-graphics - linux-firmware-qualcomm-misc - linux-firmware-qualcomm-wireless - linux-firmware-realtek The hope with the linux-firmware-hwe stack is a better user experience when paired with an HWE kernel on Ubuntu LTS releases to avoid any potential kernel/firmware incompatibilities, It should also reduce the developer/packager workload for avoiding the need to identify individual firmware files that need back-porting. These linux-firmware-hwe plans are moving ahead and look for it initially soon in the Ubuntu 27.04 archive before SRU'ed to Ubuntu 26.10 and then likely to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS when it pulls in the Ubuntu 26.10 based HWE stack.