Changes to Ubuntu for Tegra kernel metapackages on Jetson and IGX

Project Discussion Ubuntu Architectures
1

Hi,

Canonical maintains a set of kernels and kernel metapackages for NVIDIA Tegra Orin based systems for Ubuntu 22.04/jammy in collaboration with NVIDIA. Currently, the linux-nvidia-tegra-igx kernel packages are relevant to both Jetson and IGX users, but we’re making incompatible changes that need action for Jetson users.

Canonical builds Ubuntu for Tegra images aimed at Jetson systems (Jetson AGX, Nano, NX), while NVIDIA builds various Ubuntu based commercial images such as IGX OS.

Unfortunately, IGX OS 1.0 images, typically provisioned in the factory or used as a starting point for IGX users, will get a broken combination of packages after apt update && apt upgrade: the userspace display supporting packages hosted by NVIDIA expect an older version of the kernel.

We’re taking steps to fix this update path for IGX users by reverting the linux-nvidia-tegra-igx meta package to point to an older, specific version of the kernel, that is compatible with the IGX OS 1.0 version of the userspace display packages. This is tracked in SRU bug LP #2082634.

To avoid this going forward:

  • future IGX OS images will always point to a specific version of the metapackage
  • we’re switching Ubuntu for Tegra images to use a Jetson specific kernel metapackage (linux-nvidia-tegra-jetson albeit currently linux-nvidia-tegra-igx-jetson is in the archive) to decouple these from IGX

Additionally, the updated metapackage will warn users of the Ubuntu for Tegra using Jetson hardware to switch to the -jetson metapackage. All Jetson users will see the prompt to install linux-nvidia-tegra-igx-jetson. But if a user that’s already upgraded to 1014+ kernels upgrades, and they select to prevent the install of linux-nvidia-tegra-igx-r36.3.1, they will reach a “broken packages” state where they’ll need to run apt --fix-broken install (as prompted) and choose to NOT abort the installation. Then once linux-nvidia-tegra-igx-r36.3.1 installs, the user can run apt install linux-nvidia-tegra-igx-jetson as normal to get the correct modules. They might also need to install the correct iGPU meta by running apt install linux-modules-tegra-igpu-jetson-nvidia-tegra-igx afterward.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience. It will be worth thinking about other mechanisms we could create to fix the update path when we need to branch two classes of devices to different sets of packages if similar situations were to occur.

On behalf of the team working on Ubuntu for Tegra,
Loïc Minier