Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a popular free and open-source Linux distribution, originally based on Debian. Ubuntu is released every six months, with long-term support (LTS) releases every two years.
A complete list of the kernel versions shipped with Ubuntu releases can be found here.
Supported Zoned Block Devices
The table below summarizes zoned block device support readiness for Ubuntu LTS releases that are still supported by Canonical.
| Distribution Version | Kernel Version | SCSI ZBC and ATA ZAC Support | NVMe ZNS Support | null_blk Zone Emulation Support | scsi_debug ZBC Emulation Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.04 LTS | 3.2 | No | No | No | No |
| 14.04 LTS | 3.13 | No | No | No | No |
| 16.04 LTS | 4.4 | No | No | No | No |
| 18.04 LTS | 4.15 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 20.04 LTS | 5.4 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| 22.04 LTS | 5.17 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Supported File Systems and Device Mapper Targets
The table below shows that the pre-compiled kernel shipped with Ubuntu only offers partial support for file systems and device mapper targets that support zoned storage devices. In particular, no LTS release offers support for the dm-zoned device mapper.
| File Systems | Device Mapper | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Distribution Version | Kernel Version | f2fs | zonefs | btrfs | linear | flakey | zoned | crypt | |
| ZBC/ZAC | ZNS | ||||||||
| 12.04 LTS | 3.2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 14.04 LTS | 3.13 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 16.04 LTS | 4.4 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 18.04 LTS | 4.15 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 20.04 LTS | 5.4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| 22.04 LTS | 5.17 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Available Pre-Compiled Packages
Ubuntu does not provide all pre-compiled application packages supporting zoned block devices. In particular, user utilities for the zonefs file system and the dm-zoned device mapper target are not available (these utilities need to be compiled from source).
Available packages are:
-
System utilities packages:
- util-linux (blkzone utility)
- nvme-cli
- sg3-utils
-
Libraries related packages:
- libblkid1 (and libblkid-dev)
- libzbd2 (and libzbd-dev)
- zbd-utils (includes both command line and graphical tools)
-
File systems related packages:
- btrfs-progs
- f2fs-tools