Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), repos have out of date frr package, version 8.1-1ubuntu1.11 amd64
There have been many frr bug fixes since frr version 8.1, as below.
Ubuntu is a stable release operating system, where with only a few minor exceptions, packages are not updated except for security fixes which are backported to the existing package.
The few exceptions to this are when its more work to backport the security fixes, when compared with just providing a new version & all the quality assurance/testing a new version requires. These cases are very few; and are usually provided with announcements warning users of a significant change (ie. updated version of software coming) as its outside the normal behavior for a stable release model OS.
You’re using the 2022-April (22.04) release of the OS, there have been five releases newer than what you’re using, and they do have later versions of frr available to them. A CLI enquiry shows that
frr | 7.2.1-1 | focal/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 7.2.1-1ubuntu0.2 | focal-updates/universe | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.1-1ubuntu1 | jammy | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.1-1ubuntu1.11 | jammy-security | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.1-1ubuntu1.11 | jammy-updates | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.4.4-1.1ubuntu6 | noble | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.4.4-1.1ubuntu6.2 | noble-security | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 8.4.4-1.1ubuntu6.2 | noble-updates | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 10.0.1-0.1ubuntu2 | oracular | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 10.0.1-0.1ubuntu2 | plucky | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
frr | 10.2.1-1ubuntu1 | plucky-proposed | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
or you can get that detail via browser too (Ubuntu – Package Search Results -- frr)
Regardless, this isn’t the correct place for bug/feature reporting; those requests belong on a bug tracker, so I’ll provide ReportingBugs - Community Help Wiki and Bugs : frr package : Ubuntu
I see no support request here, given you’ve chosen to use an older release (with its older software). You can get newer software by release-upgrading.
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so Ubuntu repos are stuck on really old frr buggy release. And only way forward using Ubuntu repos, is for a major upgrade, no thanks!
I resolved this myself, by adding the frr repos to Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS, and successfully upgraded frr to 10.2.1…all the frr issues i ran into are now sorted with the frr repos upgrade added to the environment !
I don’t think this is the correct way to look at it. As explained above there are reasons why certain packages are in the state they are in.
But, you always have the option to upgrade specific packages.
I would have done it like this:
sudo apt update
apt policy frr
sudo apt install --only-upgrade frr
Alternatively, add the PPA and install the latest version from there.
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you missed the point in my OP, that Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS repos only have upgrade to frr 8.1, which is what i already had installed, and frr 8.1 is now 3+ years old, and quite a few bugs, and security issues, for which frr-stable release has many fixes…
Like i stated earlier post, i had already resolved this issue, for me at least…other Ubuntu users still stuck with old buggy frr releases…
after the adding frr repos to the environment, and frr upgrade, you can clearly see currently frr repos declare jammy/frr-stable = 10.2.1-0~ubuntu22.04.1
root@ubuntu-s05:/home/hharry# apt policy frr
frr:
Installed: 10.2.1-0~ubuntu22.04.1
Candidate: 10.2.1-0~ubuntu22.04.1
Version table:
*** 10.2.1-0~ubuntu22.04.1 500
500 https://deb.frrouting.org/frr jammy/frr-stable amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
8.1-1ubuntu1.11 500
500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
8.1-1ubuntu1 500
500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
root@ubuntu-s05:/home/hharry# service frr status
â—Ź frr.service - FRRouting
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/frr.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2025-01-07 15:57:03 AEDT; 2h 52min ago
Docs: https://frrouting.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup.html
Process: 794 ExecStart=/usr/lib/frr/frrinit.sh start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 839 (watchfrr)
Status: "FRR Operational"
Tasks: 22 (limit: 2226)
Memory: 69.8M
CPU: 57.281s
CGroup: /system.slice/frr.service
├─839 /usr/lib/frr/watchfrr -d -F traditional zebra mgmtd bgpd ospfd pimd staticd bfdd
├─866 /usr/lib/frr/zebra -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1 -s 90000000
├─871 /usr/lib/frr/mgmtd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
├─873 /usr/lib/frr/bgpd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
├─880 /usr/lib/frr/ospfd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
├─883 /usr/lib/frr/pimd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
├─892 /usr/lib/frr/staticd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
└─895 /usr/lib/frr/bfdd -d -F traditional -A 127.0.0.1
I also find it quite surprising / disturbing, that some have the view that Ubuntu 22.04 is quite old and outdated etc, when it’s clearly still an active LTS branch…i can’t simply perform a major release upgrade, as these hosts, host a number of important network applications, that haven’t been tested or certified for later Ubuntu LTS 24.04 (noble numbat) release…I just needed to urgently address the buggy frr issues, which is now completed…all the other apps are performing quite well…
Ubuntu being stable means “non changing” and as such we get the ability to have a base to release security patches against these particular versions for 12 years, if your base is not stable at a certain version it gets impossible to maintain ~30000 packages …
Now, that said, there are exceptions possible under what Ubuntu calls the “Stable Release Updates” (SRU) process, but note that these typically are only permitted by the reviewer team for bugfixes, adding new features means you introduce new potential bugs which would make a mockery out of 6 months of QA work and stabilization efforts that happen prior to a release.
You can read more about the SRU process here:
https://canonical-sru-docs.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/latest/explanation/principles/
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