WireGuard is expected to ship with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Early discussions on the possibility of providing support for WireGuard in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS are currently underway. Developers believe that this can be achieved by using an existing DKMS kernel module or a Linux 5.5-based kernel with a WireGuard patch, as necessary encryption API changes have been incorporated into the Linux 5.5 kernel version.

Yesterday we reported that WireGuard was very sorry for not joining Linux 5.5 due to the scheduling of the merge window. Because of this, WireGuard also, unfortunately, missed the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS mark, but it has appeared in net-next for Linux kernel 5.6. In addition, as Linux 5.5 will be released in late January or early February, it is almost certain that this kernel version will provide support for the next long-term Ubuntu release, as Linux 5.6 is too close to the April release date for the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS distribution, So it is too late to use Linux kernel 5.6 in Ubuntu 20.04 released in April.

From Ubuntu’s recent mailing list activity, it seems that the development team is interested in adding WireGuard to the 20.04 version of the Ubuntu kernel. Canonical’s kernel team is discussing the matter, and WireGuard author and lead developer Jason Donenfeld has already expressed his willingness to help.

With Linux kernel 5.5 having WireGuard’s Cryptographic API bits, if the DKMS WG module is not yet available, patching its kernel should be straightforward. We will see support for this secure VPN tunnel technology on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.