Kernel 5.11 now in Ubuntu HWE

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Ubuntu has just moved the 5.11 kernel into the HWE (hardware enablement) stack for Ubuntu 20.04, replacing kernel 5.8. If you’re running Ubuntu with the HWE stack (like 20.04.2) or a distro that is derived from that (like Mint 20.2), you can expect to be offered this one. I’ve been using 5.11 a few weeks from the HWE-edge stack, and it works well, with no issues noted on my end.

If you want to move to the HWE stack (if you are not already on it, of course), you can install the package linux-generic-hwe-20.04 with your favorite graphical package manager, or you could use:
sudo apt install linux-generic-hwe-20.04
in the terminal.

If you are not sure what “stack” means in this context, it’s kind of like the channel in other software, like the Firefox “release” channel or the “ESR” channel.

If you have the regular (LTS) kernel stack installed, you will be offered each regular LTS kernel as it is released. On Ubuntu 20.04, that’s kernel 5.4. When you have the HWE stack installed, as you would if you installed Ubuntu 20.04.2 or Mint 20.2, you will get each HWE kernel as it is released. HWE kernels are newer and will change in version more often, since they are not LTS kernels.

If you want the hwe-edge kernel, just add ‘-edge’ to the end of the command above, or look for linux-generic-hwe-20.04-edge in Synaptic or other graphical package manager. Currently the HWE-Edge kernel is the same as the HWE kernel, 5.11, but a new kernel will come to HWE-Edge first, then HWE.

The HWE and HWE-Edge kernels are the ones Ubuntu selected for its short term releases, ported to the LTS release for better hardware support (hence the name) and other features. Using these kernels will not change your Ubuntu release version to one of the short term releases, if you were thinking that.

I like using newer kernels (unless I find a specific reason not to use one, like an incompatibility or a bug) as they often have performance improvements and better battery life for laptops.

 

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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wavy, Cybertooth, DrBonzo

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? says:

thanks for the info, Ascaris. i just installed the 5.11.0.25 when it came down the chute yesterday. now i have 5.4, 5.8 and 5.11 to choose from on ‘buntu 20.04 lts. all three work flawlessly on my vintage AMD laptop…

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Ascaris

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ASRock Desk Mini X300(Ryzen 3400G) and ASUS TUF Laptop(Ryzen 3550H/Radeon RX 560X) both on Kernel 5.11 and have been running fine there and I’m still on Mint 20.1 on both systems currently. So no Issues for me there. And I do have 4 older Intel Core I series laptops that are Intel Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge and one First generation core i series laptop that are all still on Kernel 5.4 and will be for a good while until I get in the mood to update them.

But as far as AMD’s Ryzen APUs  Are concerned AMD’s Still pushing out feature support for even Zen/Zen+ generation APUs so I’ll be on the latest HWE Kernels that the Ubuntu folks are releasing for the downstream Mint HWE “Edge’ ISOs that are available. I guess that AMD has yet to declare any Zen generation processors as legacy just yet  but Polaris GPUs just made the cut there for not being declared Legacy By AMD. AMD’s Vega Integrated Graphics is in 5 generation of Ryzen APUs currently so the Vega GPU micro-architecture will have an extra long life-cycle compared to AMD’s other older graphics generations.  But It’s Linux that I’m on and thus most of my legacy Intel hardware is still getting Linux Community support long after Microsoft and even the Hardware’s maker has declared that hardware as Legacy/Depreciated.

 

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