Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

UEK 8 Installation and Availability

Information on where to obtain UEK 8 releases for Oracle Linux and how to install UEK 8, or upgrade to UEK 8 from a previous UEK release.

UEK 8 is supported on the Intel® 64-bit x86_64, AMD 64-bit x86_64 and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms.

About Upgrading From a Previous Oracle Linux or UEK Release to UEK 8

UEK 8 is the default kernel on Oracle Linux 10.

UEK 8 is made available for installation on Oracle Linux 9, starting with the Oracle Linux 9.5 release, and is the default kernel on Oracle Linux 9.6 and later.

The suggested migration path for upgrading the system from an earlier UEK release to UEK 8 is as follows:

  • If you're running an Oracle Linux 8 release you must upgrade to Oracle Linux 9 to install UEK 8. For instructions on upgrading an Oracle Linux 8 system to Oracle Linux 9, see Oracle Linux 9: Upgrading Systems With Leapp.

  • If you're running an Oracle Linux 9 release, you must ensure that the system is updated to the latest update level before installing UEK 8.

Obtaining Packages for Installation

If you have a subscription to Oracle Unbreakable Linux support, you can obtain the packages for UEK 8 by registering the system with the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) and then subscribing it to other channels. See Subscribing to ULN Developer Channels.

If the system isn't registered with ULN, you can obtain most of the required packages from the Oracle Linux yum server. See Enabling Access to Oracle Linux Yum Server Developer Repositories.

When you have subscribed the system to the appropriate ULN channels or to the Oracle Linux yum server, you can proceed to upgrade the system to UEK 8. See Upgrading a System to UEK 8.

Enabling Access to Oracle Linux Yum Server Developer Repositories

Packages for UEK 8 Developer Preview releases and any associated user space applications are available on the Oracle Linux yum server at https://yum.oracle.com/ in yum repositories that are available for each supported Oracle Linux release.

  • Oracle Linux 9: ol9_developer_UEKR8

  • Oracle Linux 10: ol10_developer_UEKR8

Oracle Linux 10

To enable access to the UEK 8 repository on the Oracle Linux yum server, use the dnf config-manager command.

Note

64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms that have Oracle Linux 10 installed use UEK 8 by default and RHCK isn't available on these platforms, therefore no installation steps are required.

  1. Ensure that you have the latest oraclelinux-release-el10 package installed and updated.

    sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-release-el10

    The package contains the yum repository definition for the ol10_UEKR8 repository.

  2. Enable the ol10_UEKR8 repository.

    sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled ol10_UEKR8

  3. Install the UEK 8 packages, for example: 

    sudo dnf install -y kernel-uek kernel-uek-devel

    Installing the kernel-uek-devel package also installs the gcc-toolset-14 packages.

  4. Verify the UEK 8 kernel packages are installed, for example:

    dnf list --installed kernel-uek*-6.12.0-*

Oracle Linux 9

To enable access to the UEK 8 repository on the Oracle Linux yum server, use the dnf config-manager command.

  1. Ensure that you have the latest oraclelinux-release-el9 package installed and updated.

    sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-release-el9

    The package contains the yum repository definition for the ol9_UEKR8 repository.

  2. Enable the ol9_UEKR8 repository.

    sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled ol9_UEKR8

  3. Install the UEK 8 packages, for example: 

    sudo dnf install -y kernel-uek kernel-uek-devel

    Installing the kernel-uek-devel package also installs the gcc-toolset-14 packages.

  4. Verify the UEK 8 kernel packages are installed, for example:

    dnf list --installed kernel-uek*-6.12.0-*

Oracle Linux 9 Developer Preview

To enable the UEK 8 Developer Preview repository:

  1. Ensure that you have the latest oraclelinux-developer-release-el9 package installed and updated.

    sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-developer-release-el9

    The package contains the yum repository definition for the ol9_developer_UEKR8 repository.

  2. Enable the ol9_developer_UEKR8 repository.

    sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled ol9_developer_UEKR8

  3. Install the UEK 8 packages, for example: 

    sudo dnf install -y kernel-uek kernel-uek-devel

    Installing the kernel-uek-devel package also installs the gcc-toolset-14 packages.

  4. Verify the UEK 8 kernel packages are installed, for example:

    dnf list --installed kernel-uek*-6.12.0-*
  5. If you plan to build kernel modules for this environment you must install and enable gcc-toolset-14.

Subscribing to ULN Developer Channels

UEK 8 Developer Preview release kernel image and user space packages are made available for the each supported Oracle Linux release and platform architecture in the following ULN channels:

  • Oracle Linux 10 (x86_64): ol10_x86_64_developer_UEKR8

  • Oracle Linux 10 (aarch64): ol10_aarch64_developer_UEKR8

  • Oracle Linux 9 (x86_64): ol9_x86_64_developer_UEKR8

  • Oracle Linux 9 (aarch64): ol9_aarch64_developer_UEKR8

The following instructions assume that you have already registered the system with ULN.

To subscribe a system to a ULN channel:

  1. Sign in to https://linux.oracle.com with a ULN username and password.

  2. On the Systems tab, in the list of registered machines, select the link that corresponds to the name of the system.

  3. On the System Details page, select Manage Subscriptions.

  4. On the System Summary page, from the list of available channels, select each of the required channels, then select the right arrow to move the selected channel to the list of subscribed channels.

  5. Select Save Subscriptions.

For more information about using ULN, see Oracle Linux 8: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.

Upgrading a System to UEK 8

The following instructions describe how to upgrade a system to UEK 8. For more details about the suggested migration paths for upgrading to UEK 8, see About Upgrading From a Previous Oracle Linux or UEK Release to UEK 8.

  1. Enable access to the appropriate ULN channels or yum repositories, as described in Subscribing to ULN Developer Channels and Enabling Access to Oracle Linux Yum Server Developer Repositories.

    Tip

    Disable any other UEK channels or repositories that you might have already configured as good practice.

  2. After enabling access to the appropriate channels or repositories, upgrade the system to UEK 8 by running the following commands: 

    sudo dnf install -y kernel-uek
sudo dnf update -y

  3. After the upgrade has completed, reboot the system.

    Ensure to select the UEK 8 kernel (version 6.12.0) if it's not the default boot kernel. For more information about setting the default boot kernel, see Managing Kernels and System Boot on Oracle Linux.

For questions regarding installing software or updating a system, see Oracle Linux 8: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.