Ubuntu 25.10 “Questing Quokka” includes a brand-new Rust-based library by default, designed to enhance Canonical’s hardware support capabilities in Ubuntu Pro. The package, named rust-hwlib, is described as “part of the hardware API project, owned and developed by Canonical’s hardware certification team. The Ubuntu pro-client will use it to retrieve information about the computer and check its certification status.”
Latest Updates for Ubuntu 25.10:
– Ubuntu 25.10 will only support Wayland (X11 support discontinued)
– Ubuntu 25.10 uses a Rust-rewritten version of sudo
– Ubuntu 25.10 adopts the Linux 6.17 kernel
– Two new applications confirmed to be released with Ubuntu 25.10
As there are no similar or comparable existing packages in the main repository (the package repository relied on for Ubuntu’s default installation and continuously supported by Canonical), this Rust library is added as new content in Ubuntu 25.10. However, a bug report tracking this addition notes that the process requires signing by key development teams, complete justification, and security audits. The current plan is to backport support to earlier Ubuntu versions in the future.
The current focus remains on rust-hwlib in Ubuntu 25.10. On x86-64 systems, the library will provide “a library and client application for collecting hardware and operating system information and checking certification status with servers.” While initially introduced to work with Ubuntu Pro activation, Canonical states it may have broader uses, allowing Ubuntu users to learn through the hwctl tool “which hardware components have been tested and certified, and the corresponding Ubuntu versions.”
This new Rust hardware library has passed multiple layers of approval and been officially added to the ubuntu-meta package. It will be available in Ubuntu 25.10 desktop (both minimal and full editions) and server installation images. If you are testing the development version (or monthly snapshots) of Questing Quokka, you will receive the library via software updates within the next week or two—stay tuned if you’re interested!
