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Ubuntu cloud images accidentally omit xxd tool
The xxd command-line tool was accidentally omitted from the minimal cloud images of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. This follows a similar incident in August where the curl tool was also missing from these images.
The removal was caused by a change in the dependency chain after Canonical decided to drop the pollinate tool, which is used to generate randomness during the boot process. Because xxd and curl were indirectly pulled into the images via this dependency, they were lost when pollinate was removed.
While Canonical has since restored xxd and curl to the 26.04 minimal cloud images to avoid regressing users who rely on them, the xxd package has been intentionally removed from the upcoming 26.10 minimal images. In both cases, the tools remain available for manual installation via the official Ubuntu software archives.