Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1306565
In Process
Yasha Karant
Asked: 2021-01-10 12:33:28 +0800 CST

How are Ubuntu-supplied drivers verified for production LTS updates

  • 772

Based on my recent experience with the Nvidia proprietary driver released by Ubuntu (NOT directly from Nvidia), I am curious how drivers are checked for production LTS updates. Ubuntu states that production release LTS represents the "best work" from Canonical Ubuntu. When I just updated the production kernel on 20.04.1 LTS, as urged by the stock Ubunutu GUI application Software Updater, the Nvidia proprietary driver failed. Under a separate posting/thread ( 20.04.1 LTS kernel 5.8.0-34 nvidia build fails ), a partial answer was posted by Terrance that was I able to use to find a working solution. I fully understand that third party repos (such as ElRepo for Enterprise Linux, not Ubuntu) have difficulty with always staying current on the latest production updates, particularly kernels or some basic pervasive systems environments outside the kernel. However, this issue arose with a LTS production deployment update from Ubuntu. I fully understand that Ubuntu paid professional staff have only limited resources, and things can "fall through the cracks". Is this common? If so, after a new major system update is suggested by, say, Software Updater, how long should one wait? Several weeks and check Ask Ubuntu to see if issues have arisen? Note that Ask Ubuntu is not LTS specific, but includes enthusiast Ubuntu releases (non LTS). Thank you for any insights into the Ubuntu LTS deployment and development processes.

drivers

1 Answers

  1. I can explain what really happened.

    In October 2020 Ubuntu 20.10 was released with the 5.8 Linux kernel. All drivers were tested and there are no problems with them.

    For those who installed Ubuntu 20.04 from the 20.04.1 image, linux-image-hwe-20.04 meta package was installed. It was pointing to the same kernel as linux-generic (5.4). That was an initial mistake IMHO. Before the HWE meta appeared only with xx.04.2 releases. And it didn't cause so much trouble.

    People who wanted to test a new kernel could install HWE before but at their own risk. I did it many times. But this time all of a sudden...

    Recently the linux-image-hwe-20.04 was switched to the 5.8.0-34 kernel, but drivers stayed the same in the repos. Some of them are incompatible with the 5.8 kernel. This is a second mistake.

    Kernels got an update to 5.8, and a lot of people is having a lot of trouble.

    This can be more or less easily fixed by installing drivers from 20.10 repos.

    So this is not a matter of driver testing. It is disappointing that every time a HWE kernel is released some kind of trouble with drivers happens. This time it is worse than ever. But I wouldn't complain very much about it.

    • 3