Will Linux Kernel 3.5 Be Coming to 12.04? – Kernel Update Information

kernel

I'm wondering if Kernel 3.5 or 3.6 will be available for Ubuntu 12.04 when the Kernel is officially released?

Best Answer

The Ubuntu Kernel team will be providing packages of all the kernels from the next 3 Ubuntu releases for 12.04. You can get the details on that here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Release/Rolling

These kernels will be named like this:

linux-image-current- - always points to the the most recently released kernel, e.g., 12.10, 13.04, etc.

They will be available in the package manager but by default your 12.04 installation will use 3.2.x unless you specifically install one of these kernels.

As far as 3.5 itself, you can now use the hardware enablement stack:

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal xserver-xorg-lts-quantal

For all future kernel releases, you can always find the latest builds of the upstream kernel here:

However these packages are for testing and you probably shouldn't use them unless you need to or you know what you are doing.

Related Solutions

Kernel – Will Ubuntu Point Releases Include a New Linux Kernel?

12.04.2 includes Kernel 3.5 along with a newer Xorg, as part of the hardware enablement package, which is available here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

Do note that the Ubuntu image ISOs are also updated to use the new stack, so if you are doing new installations and want to keep the released 12.04 stack, you need to install from the older ISOs. These kernel upgrades are also not offered as part of normal upgrades, so there's no need to worry that you'll be upgraded from one major kernel version to the other. See the wiki page for more information.

The 3.2 kernel released with 12.04 will continue to be maintained for the life time (5 years) of precise. (and also Debian Wheezy)

Also, Ubuntu will generally work with mainline kernels. Binary builds are provided by the kernel team. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds

This is a new policy. The decision to have such a updated kernel and Xorg was decided at the 2012 Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) in Oakland.

The most exciting feature about 3.5 (IMHO), Seccomp2, is part of the Precise 3.2 kernel.

Quantal Backported Kernel in 12.04.2 – Explanation

The 12.04.2 and later release ISOs have a Hardware Enablement Stack to allow 12.04 to run on newer hardware.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

In an effort to support a wider variety of hardware on an existing LTS release, the 12.04.2 and newer point releases will ship with an updated kernel and X stack by default. These newer hardware enablement stacks will be comprised of the newer kernel and X stacks from Quantal, Raring, and Saucy.

To optionally install it manually (if you've installed from earlier 12.04 release images):

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends \
     linux-generic-lts-quantal \
     xserver-xorg-lts-quantal \
     libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-quantal

and leave out the last two lines for servers (usually no graphics installed).

Here's how support will work for the stacks:

If your hardware is supported by 12.04.1, you can install the 12.04.1 it will be supported until 2017 with no extra effort on your part.
If you install from a later point release (due to requirements for newer hardware support, or for other reasons), your hardware stack will be upgraded in 2014 (approximately June) to the 14.04 hardware enablement stack. The 14.04 enablement stack will then be supported on 12.04 installs until the 12.04 end of life, in April 2017.

If you want to remove it:

How to remove Kernel/LTS Enablement Stack?

More info:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Kernel – Will Ubuntu Point Releases Include a New Linux Kernel?

Quantal Backported Kernel in 12.04.2 – Explanation

Related Question