Wondering if your laptop or desktop PC is Ubuntu Certified? Ubuntu 26.10 is adding a new way to check from the Settings app.
A new row in Settings > System > About reads “check if this computer is Ubuntu Certified”. Clicking it opens a new page that will read the local/cached status from the com.ubuntu.hwctl service (the Canonical hardware API introduced in 2025).
Ubuntu’s has had a command-line way to check certification for a while, using hwlib. In 26.10 (Stonking Stingray), you’ll be able to check it via Settings rather than through terminal command.
The statuses which can be shown:
- Ubuntu certified
- Certified for a different Ubuntu version
- Not certified but similar to a model that is
- Not certified
- Unable to check
- Status unknown
There’s also an option to enable regular Ubuntu Certified checks there. This sends your hardware details to Canonical servers to check certification status. As with all of Canonical’s opt-in reporting, no personal data gets sent alongside it.
It will read a cached result first, rather than pinging Canonical’s servers every single time you open it. If a device is not certified, but a related certified system exists, the page will offer a link to view more detail on potential compatibility.
If you own an Ubuntu Certified laptop or PC – and plenty are available from major OEMs, including the Framework 13 Pro – this change will make it easier to check your certification coverage.
And if you don’t own an official Ubuntu Certified device the new panel helps you find out if your hardware setup is similar to one that carries certification.
For a device to be sold as officially Ubuntu Certified, the ODM or OEM pays Canonical a licence fee to verify their hardware against whichever Ubuntu version ships on it.
That fee covers the extra testing and maintenance Canonical does, sometimes building custom OEM images, and helps to keep updates and hardware support ticking over.
Most of us run Ubuntu on devices that don’t come with a shiny ‘certified’ label, and they work fine. Certified status doesn’t mean a device runs better than one without it, just that an OEM paid for the testing and ongoing upkeep to ensure it runs well.
The change landed in gnome-control-center 1:51~alpha-0ubuntu2 upload this week, so it should start showing up for Ubuntu 26.10 daily build users in the coming weeks – ahead of the stable release in mid-October.