[Bug 1911614] Re: Ubuntu 20.04 and 20.04.1 images use linux-generic-hwe-20.04 instead of linux-generic

[Chris Guiver]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
Ubuntu better.

If you look at the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (focal fossa) release notes you'll
see

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes

"Ubuntu Desktop flavour now always tracks HWE kernel (hardware
enablement). It means that from 20.04.2 release Ubuntu Desktop will gain
new major kernel versions every 6 months through to summer of 2022."

You haven't indicated if you're talking Ubuntu Desktop, if so that was
announced & is expected behavior (at least as I understand it).

Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically
gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1911614

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-
bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this
functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1911614

Title:
  Ubuntu 20.04 and 20.04.1 images use linux-generic-hwe-20.04 instead of
  linux-generic

Status in ubuntu-meta package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Just as the title says, the 20.04 and 20.04.1 images use the HWE
  version of linux-generic resulting in upgrades to the 5.8 series
  kernel. This seems to effect Ubuntu only, or I should say I checked
  the Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu iso manifests which all
  correctly list linux-generic. Also HWE is not truly complete without
  the accompanying HWE Xstack.

  I checked all the documentation I could find and this was clearly not
  intentional. In fact the manifest for Ubuntu Focal Beta still used
  linux-generic, so this got messed up some time between April 3, 2020
  and April 23, 2020. Here's just one example of the documentation for
  kernel support in Focal LTS:

  https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle#ubuntu-kernel-release-cycle

  Installations performed with 20.04 and 20.04.1 media were supposed to
  remain on the 5.4 series kernel throughout Focal's 5 year lifespan as
  had been the case since HWE was introduced. The first step in fixing
  this needs to be stopping fresh installs of Focal using the 20.04 and
  20.04.1 media from immediately upgrading to the 5.8 series kernel.

  It might be a little tricky to revert users from 5.8 to 5.4, but there
  have been reports of breakage, particularly concerning Broadcom wifi
  drivers and some graphics problems. But the graphics problems could
  also be exacerbated by the lack of the matching HWE Xstack? At any
  rate it's a bug.

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