Hello,
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS use the Kernel 6.8, but on kernel org the Kernel 6.8 is indicated as End of live [EOL] ?!
I’m afraid this will pose a problem for some Ubuntu users as well as for OS derived from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS…
Isn’t there something that can be done to correct this before problems arise ?
Regards
It means that upstream kernel developers aren’t supporting kernel.org’s 6.8 branch anymore. The kernel in Ubuntu was never a “stock” kernel taken straight from kernel.org anyway, though - it was always customized with patches for Ubuntu.
This page doesn’t appear to have been updated yet for 24.04, but reflects the general model Canonical follows for Ubuntu kernels:
https://ubuntu.com/kernel/lifecycle
Whether you prefer upstream-supported kernels or vendor-supported kernels is a separate matter, but while the upstream-supported kernel.org 6.8 kernel may be EOL, the Canonical-supported Ubuntu 6.8 kernel is not EOL.
Yes, all distributions recompile kernels.
If kernel.org’s 6.8 kernel remains EOL, it will make Ubuntu engineers work a lot harder to patch this kernel internally…
And since the lifespan of an LTS has now increased to 12 years with this distribution (LEGACY SUPPORT), this will give them a lot of work overload.
This thread might be relevant for questions about whether there is significant additional maintenance burden for the kernel team:
Hi,
We are working on updating https://ubuntu.com/kernel/lifecycle, however the Ubuntu kernel release cycle page (https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle#ubuntu-kernel-release-cycle) contains the updated information about the 24.04 6.8 support dates, which follows the usual 5 years of standard support plus 5 years of extended security maintenance.
We are committed to maintain stable and security updates for all our LTS kernels, independently from the support provided by the community for the upstream kernels.
It’s a shame that Kernel.org doesn’t maintain Ubuntu’s “LTS” Kernel. It would save you time of work and other distributions like RPi OS or Manjaro could take advantage of this to integrate this kernel into their distribution, which many users expect from them…
Regards.
According to kernel.org, changelog: Kernel 6.8.12
“The register of GPIO interrupt status is masked before MAC IRQ is enabled. This is because of hardware deficiency.”
Kernel 6.9.3 is a stable release. Which has more
hardware support and is not at its EOL.
Ubuntu desktop installations use the HWE kernel which is a rolling kernel. You’re only on 6.8 until the Oracular kernel is made available as an HWE kernel for Noble. Basically the kernel version jumps roughly every six month. See here for more details.
If you need faster updates, you can try the mainline builds but they’re completely unsupported.
Why don’t they just jump to kernel 6.9, then kernel 6.10, etc. until the next LTS release and then just stay on that and eventually just jump to the next LTS kernel release until the end.