Shipped Kernels

On the x86_64 platform, the current Oracle Linux 8 release ships with the following default kernel packages:

• 4.18.0-553 (Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK))

• 5.15.0-206.153.7.1 (Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 7 Update 2 (UEK R7U2))

  For new installations, the UEK R7 is automatically enabled and installed. It also becomes the default kernel on first boot.

  On the aarch64 platform, Oracle Linux ships with the UEK kernel only.

  Important:

  If you're upgrading from a previous Oracle Linux 8 version, the kernel isn't automatically upgraded to UEK R7. For more information on upgrading the kernel, see the release notes for the UEK release that you're upgrading to. For example, see the Installation and Availability section of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 7 Update 2: Release Notes (5.15.0-200).

The Oracle Linux release is tested as a bundle, as shipped on the installation media image. When installed from the installation media image, the kernel's version included in the image is the minimum version that's supported. Downgrading kernel packages is unsupported, unless recommended by Oracle Support.