Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Released With New HWE Stack For Better Hardware/Graphics

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Released With New HWE Stack For Better Hardware/Graphics

The second point release to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is now officially released. Notable with Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS is the new hardware enablement (HWE) stack that brings the Linux kernel, Mesa, and related components from Ubuntu 20.10, which means better hardware support that tends to be most notable around better open-source graphics support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-20.04.2-LTS-Released

[elatllat]

They should be on 5.10 not 5.8 .

while read -r L ; do
echo "$L"
P="$(echo "$L" | perl -pe 's/ .*//g')"
apt-cache show "$P" \
| grep "Version" \
| perl -pe 's/.*: */\t/g'
done < <(apt-cache search linux-image \
| grep "linux-image" \
| grep -vP "\d\.\d+\.\d|virtual|aws|azure|gcp|gke|18.04")

linux-image-generic - Generic Linux kernel image
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04 - Generic Linux kernel image
5.8.0.41.46~20.04.27
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-lowlatency - lowlatency Linux kernel image
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-lowlatency-hwe-18.04 - Lowlatency Linux kernel image (dummy transitional package)
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-lowlatency-hwe-18.04-edge - Lowlatency Linux kernel image (dummy transitional package)
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-lowlatency-hwe-20.04 - lowlatency Linux kernel image
5.8.0.41.46~20.04.27
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-oem - Depends on the generic kernel image (dummy transitional package)
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-oem-20.04 - OEM Linux kernel image
5.6.0.1042.38
5.6.0.1007.7
linux-image-oem-osp1 - Depends on the generic kernel image (dummy transitional package)
5.4.0.65.68
5.4.0.26.32
linux-image-oracle - Linux kernel image for Oracle systems.
5.4.0.1037.34
5.4.0.1009.9
linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04-edge - Generic Linux kernel image
5.8.0.41.46~20.04.27
linux-image-gke-5.4 - Google Container Engine (GKE) Linux kernel image
5.4.0.1035.44
linux-image-gkeop - GKEOP Linux kernel image
5.4.0.1009.12
linux-image-gkeop-5.4 - GKEOP Linux kernel image
5.4.0.1009.12
linux-image-lowlatency-hwe-20.04-edge - lowlatency Linux kernel image
5.8.0.41.46~20.04.27
linux-image-oem-20.04b - OEM Linux kernel image
5.10.0.1013.13
linux-image-oem-20.04-edge - OEM Linux kernel image
5.10.0.1008.8

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

uname -r
5.8.0-40-generic

[anarki2]

5.10 is exclusive to the OEM kernel, HWE is on 5.8 across all 20.04+ releases, so it's all fine.

OTOH I wonder when 5.8 comes down to the 18.04 HWE edge release. Still stuck on 5.4.

[Linuxxx]

5.10 is exclusive to the OEM kernel, HWE is on 5.8 across all 20.04+ releases, so it's all fine.

OTOH I wonder when 5.8 comes down to the 18.04 HWE edge release. Still stuck on 5.4.

Never, since 18.04.5 (with Linux 5.4) is the end of the road (or rather river) for the Bionic Beaver.

[Danny3]

They should be on 5.10 not 5.8 .

WTF, they release it now and still on the 5.8 ?
Ubuntu seems to never fail to disappoint!

[user556]

WTF, they release it now and still on the 5.8 ?

HWE updates for 20.04 has had kernel 5.8 for some months now, presumably since the 20.10 release. What is new now is Canonical have now packaged a fresh 20.04 install ISO with all the HWE updates included.

[Hibbelharry]

WTF, they release it now and still on the 5.8 ?
Ubuntu seems to never fail to disappoint!

You didn't get the point of what a LTS release should do. You don't get very latest stuff just in time, that has never been the promise. This is more about being able to run an outdated but mostly untouched distro on current servers (and client pcs).

[elatllat]

...a LTS [OS] release should..

have LTS kernels (5.4 and 5.10 on the "hardware enablement / edge").

[royce]

WTF, they release it now and still on the 5.8 ?
Ubuntu seems to never fail to disappoint!

HWE releases follow the current release of Ubuntu, a few months after its release to benefit from real-life usage testing. In this case, 20.10. Instead of simply bundling whichever the latest version of the kernel is untested and untried. The next HWE update due in summer will have whatever kernel & graphics are bundled with 21.04 and so on and so forth.

Ubuntu LTS is conservative like this by definition. The clue is in the Long Term Support acronym.

[Hibbelharry]

have LTS kernels (5.4 and 5.10 on the "hardware enablement / edge").

Being a end user it's totally meaningless if a upstream kernel is supported longterm or not. Your distribution vendor has to deliver supported kernels to you, you don't get them from kernel.org. So if your distribution vendor does the job to maintain a specific other release, you're all well. And your distributuon vendor will decide which versions they pick to deliver the service.