diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b9256817..35cd2a6c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ A per-node observability agent for Kubernetes and Linux hosts. The agent
 gathers container and host metrics, logs, and L7 traffic using eBPF and
 exposes them in Prometheus format.
 
-Minimum Linux kernel: **5.1** (eBPF CO-RE).
+Minimum Linux kernel: **5.8** (L7 events use a BPF ring buffer).
 
 > This project is a fork of
 > [coroot/coroot-node-agent](https://github.com/coroot/coroot-node-agent)
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index f9bae35a..9ef2708c 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -189,8 +189,11 @@ func main() {
 		klog.Exitln(err)
 	}
 
-	if !common.GetKernelVersion().GreaterOrEqual(common.NewVersion(4, 16, 0)) {
-		klog.Exitln("the minimum Linux kernel version required is 4.16 or later")
+	// L7 events go through a BPF ring buffer (BPF_MAP_TYPE_RINGBUF), which
+	// every program variant uses and which kernels before 5.8 do not have:
+	// on them the programs fail to load further on, with a less clear error.
+	if !common.GetKernelVersion().GreaterOrEqual(common.NewVersion(5, 8, 0)) {
+		klog.Exitln("the minimum Linux kernel version required is 5.8 or later (BPF ring buffer)")
 	}
 
 	resolver, err := newIPResolver(hostname)