It doesn't need access to the running kernel (nor to live kernel memory),
but to a kernel image, and the kernel image in /boot is convenient for
that purpose. Anyway this works fine on every other Linux distro except
Ubuntu (even Debian) so IMO it's still an Ubuntu problem that can only be
fixed by Ubuntu developers.
It's how it works: http:// libguestfs. org/guestfs- internals. 1.html# architecture
It doesn't need access to the running kernel (nor to live kernel memory),
but to a kernel image, and the kernel image in /boot is convenient for
that purpose. Anyway this works fine on every other Linux distro except
Ubuntu (even Debian) so IMO it's still an Ubuntu problem that can only be
fixed by Ubuntu developers.