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Accepted
badp
Asked: 2017-05-03 05:42:39 +0800 CST

How can I stay on 4.8 kernels, or anyway not upgrade to 4.10 kernels?

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There is a serious bug with the intel GPU drivers shipping with Zesty that causes random soft locks and data loss multiple times per day due to double frees. Intel fixed the issue on their end in February as part of a 25-commit patch series and there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to cherry-pick the fix onto the kernel tip. I'd still have the problem even if I compiled my own kernel from ltorvalds' HEAD.

However, yakkety's 4.8.x Ubuntu kernels work perfectly, and as long as yakkety is supported, I can keep getting kernel updates if only I:

  1. add the yakkety sources to my computer (done)
  2. downgrade linux-generic, linux-image-generic, linux-tools-generic and linux-headers-generic to the latest available 4.8 version (done)
  3. prevent any newer kernel from being installed (???)

I've attempted to achieve (3) by Forbidding version packages in Aptitude, but apparently you can only forbid a single version of a package.

I can also put the package on hold, but then I will probably miss out on security upgrades from unattended-upgrades.

Finally I can do this manually, which adds a bit of toil in telling aptitude that no, I really do want to downgrade everything and remove the new things and only keep the old things.

How can I achieve this?

$ apt policy linux-generic
linux-generic:
  Installed: 4.8.0.51.63
  Candidate: 4.10.0.20.22
  Version table:
     4.10.0.20.22 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu zesty-updates/main amd64 Packages
     4.10.0.19.21 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu zesty/main amd64 Packages
 *** 4.8.0.51.63 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu yakkety-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4.8.0.49.61 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu yakkety-security/main amd64 Packages
     4.8.0.22.31 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu yakkety/main amd64 Packages
     4.4.0.77.83 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
     4.4.0.75.81 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
     4.4.0.21.22 500
        500 http://ubuntu.mirrors.uk2.net/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

Yeah, surprise surprise it appears that only aptitude cares about its own version F'orbids.

apt

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    First remove unnecessary lines from your sources.list; Only keep yakkety and your own version's lines.

    Add this line:

    APT::Default-Release "zesty";

    to : /etc/apt/apt.conf.

    Create a file:

    sudo touch /etc/apt/preferences.d/kernel

    Add these lines into it:

    Package: linux-generic
Pin: release n=zesty
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: linux-generic
Pin: release n=yakkety
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: linux-image-generic
Pin: release n=zesty
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: linux-image-generic
Pin: release n=yakkety
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: linux-headers-generic
Pin: release n=zesty
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: linux-headers-generic
Pin: release n=yakkety
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: linux-tools-common
Pin: release n=zesty
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: linux-tools-common
Pin: release n=yakkety
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: linux-tools-generic
Pin: release n=zesty
Pin-Priority: -10

Package: linux-tools-generic
Pin: release n=yakkety
Pin-Priority: 900

    You are running zesty right? if not change zesty with your Ubuntu code name.

    Before doing anything check that you don't get a massive update using:

    apt update
apt list -u

    Further reading

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