Ubuntu 26.10 Proposal Aims to Streamline GRUB Bootloader

Canonical engineer proposes dropping support for ZFS, RAID, encryption, and other features to improve security.

Mar. 27, 2026 at 11:55am

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Canonical engineer Julian Andres Klode has put forward a proposal to significantly cut down the GRUB bootloader for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.10 release. The proposal aims to remove support for various filesystems, RAID configurations, and disk encryption in order to reduce the attack surface in the pre-boot environment and improve overall security.

Why it matters

The proposed changes would have a significant impact on Ubuntu users, as many rely on features like ZFS, software RAID, and full disk encryption. Removing support for these features could prevent some users from upgrading to Ubuntu 26.10, as the release upgrader would block the update if their current setup relied on the dropped functionality.

The details

Klode's proposal calls for removing support for Btrfs, HFS+, XFS, and ZFS filesystems, leaving only ext4, FAT, ISO 9660, and SquashFS for Snaps. It would also drop image support, the Apple partition table, LVM, most md-RAID modes (with RAID1 retained), and LUKS-encrypted disks. This would mean Ubuntu 26.10 systems running Secure Boot would need to boot from a plain, unencrypted ext4 partition on a GPT or MBR disk, losing features like ZFS, Btrfs, and encrypted /boot.

  • The proposal was put forward in March 2026 for the upcoming Ubuntu 26.10 release.

The players

Julian Andres Klode

A Canonical engineer who works on Ubuntu's secure boot signing and has proposed the changes to the GRUB bootloader.

Neal Gompa

A well-known contributor to Fedora, openSUSE, and several other Linux distributions, who has pushed back on some of the proposed changes.

Paddy Landau

An Ubuntu community member who raised concerns about the proposal, including the impact on boot menu theming.

Thomas Ward

A Ubuntu Technical Board member who argued that the proposal would make Ubuntu's own recommended installation configuration incompatible with Secure Boot.

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What they’re saying

“We must not let individuals continue to damage private property in San Francisco.”

— Robert Jenkins, San Francisco resident

“Fifty years is such an accomplishment in San Francisco, especially with the way the city has changed over the years.”

— Gordon Edgar, grocery employee

What’s next

The Ubuntu Technical Board is expected to review the proposal and provide a public justification for any features that may be removed.

The takeaway

The proposed changes to Ubuntu's GRUB bootloader have sparked significant debate within the community, with concerns raised about the impact on users who rely on features like ZFS, software RAID, and full disk encryption. The Ubuntu Technical Board will need to carefully weigh the security benefits against the potential disruption to users before moving forward with any changes.