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Roberto Leinardi
Asked: 2021-01-11 11:36:44 +0800 CST

Does it make sense to use a linux-generic-hwe kernel on a non LTS version of Ubuntu?

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I just discovered that HardWare Enablement (HWE) kernel exists and I really like this idea. I am just not sure if it make sense to use the linux-generic-hwe-20.04 kernel on non LTS versions (e.g. 20.10, 21.04, etc). Will the linux-generic-hwe-20.04 always be most recent kernel available on the repo? If not, will the package manager automatically switch to the newest kernel provided by the non LTS version?

While I'm writing, linux-generic-hwe-20.04 and linux-generic seems to be on the same version on Ubuntu 20.10 but I'm not sure what it will happen in the next months (my wish is to always have the most recent of the two).

kernel

1 Answers

  1. You can't use linux-generic-hwe-20.04 package on Ubuntu 20.10, because there should not be such package in the 20.10 repos. But it appears that someone has added it I guess erroneously, unless it has been added for compatibility during 20.04 -> 20.10 upgrade.

    The HWE concept is applicable only to LTS releases. The idea is to bring the kernel from 20.10 to 20.04.

    Ubuntu 20.10 has the same kernel 5.8 as the HWE kernel for 20.04. Ubuntu 20.10 will reach it's End of Life in July '21 and won't get any new major kernel.

    So you either use non-LTS releases and upgrade them every 6-9 months, or use an LTS release with HWE kernels. That will give almost same results in terms of kernel versions.

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