Canonical is transitioning the hwctl command-line tool from a Deb package to a snap-only distribution on Ubuntu. The change is driven by planned architecture improvements for integration with GNOME Control Center and other frontends, as well as enhanced security through snap sandboxing. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS users will be automatically migrated via a dummy Deb package that installs the snap during a standard system update, while Ubuntu 26.10 and later will ship the snap by default in the ISO seed. The hwctl tool is part of Canonical's rust-hwlib hardware API set and powers features like Ubuntu Pro, Ubuntu Insights telemetry, and the new Ubuntu Certified hardware panel.
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