Reminder of 12.04.2 release 01-31-2013

[kansasnoob]

For those who love testing we're approaching the second step release of Precise

If you have any existing Precise bugs you'd like to follow up on this is probably the time. A recent 'apport' update reminded me

Images are available here:

http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/m...nes/204/builds

[kansasnoob]

RUH-roh ............... that should be "Reminder of 12.04.2 release 01-31-2013", but what's a year between friends

[grahammechanical]

This 12.04.2 release should upgrade Grub 1.99 to Grub 2.0. Expect surprised chatter in other parts of the forums.

Regards.

[zombifier25]

This 12.04.2 release should upgrade Grub 1.99 to Grub 2.0. Expect surprised chatter in other parts of the forums.

Regards.

Whoa, when GRUB 2 came out, I have always presumed my 12.04 comp is using it.

And now, after a simple apt-cacheing,... nope

[kansasnoob]

This 12.04.2 release should upgrade Grub 1.99 to Grub 2.0. Expect surprised chatter in other parts of the forums.

Regards.

Aargh, that could be problematic:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2101763

Then again it's really only noticeable if you have more than 2 *buntu's on a machine and I'd hope most mega-multi-booters know their way around grub well enough to deal with it.

[grahammechanical]

The new look will surprise a lot of people. And I have just found another possible problem that some may have.

The 12.04.2 release gets the Quantal kernel (3.5.0). I tested this out a few months ago. It worked fine with Nouveau and with Nvidia current-updates 304.43 but not with Nvidia current recommended.

I have just now run this 12.04.1 install with kernel 3.5.0 and it will not let you activate Nvidia current recommended. Which stops it breaking the system at least.

We will see how things turn out with ordinary users.

Regards.

[cariboo]

I just received this email:

Ubuntu 12.04.2 is currently scheduled to be released on Jan 31st [0].

This is the first time we have shipped a backported Hardware
Enablement stack in a LTS release, comprised of a new kernel and
graphics subsystem. At this time we feel it is better to delay the release
by two weeks to allow time for extra QA testing.

This would put the new release date on 14 Feb 2013. No other dates
would change (i.e. freezes etc.), we are just using the extra two weeks
for testing and possible bug fixing for identified issues.

The QA Test Plan will be to have the Community Team conduct
extensive manual testing with the Ubuntu Testing Community. In addition,
the Canonical QA team & Certification teams will be running
further automated testing to ensure that the 12.04.2 point release is of
superior quality.

Provided there are no major objections I will update the Release
Schedule [0] before the end of today.

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RaringRingtail/ReleaseSchedule

Thanks

~pete
--
Pete Graner - Ubuntu Release Engineering & QA Team Manager -

[Gyokuro]

Sorry but I do not understand this decision - why get an Ubuntu LTS release an EOL kernel?? Sure someone from marketing can sell it me that canonical is supporting it but 3.2.XX is a LTS kernel not 3.5 and this promise is not enough for me. Maybe someone from the decision makers should check www.kernel.org which releases are EOL!! If I want an unstable system I will install non LTS releases maybe it's better to wait for Debian 7.0 and do not roll out anymore a 12.04 system.

[jbicha]

Ubuntu 12.04.2 is a bit different than any previous LTS. It will come with the Quantal kernel and graphics drivers backported. It will also support Secure Boot. This way you can have the stable OS but with support for brand new 2012 hardware.

People who are already using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will not automatically get the Quantal kernel and graphics drivers, so if you don't want those, just use your Ubuntu 12.04.1 CD instead.

[grahammechanical]

I think that there is a mis-understanding of what End Of Life means for a Linux kernel. The link on this page provides some information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel

From the chart under the heading of Maintenance we can see this regarding the 3.5 series of kernels

EOL (Maintained by Kroah-Hartman until the release of 3.6.1), Unofficial extended support until March 2014[120]

and for the 3.2 series

8th long-term stable release from March 2012 to 2015, used in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Debian 7 Wheezy and Slackware 14.0

If this update to the 3.5 kernel is successful then 12.04 might later be updated to the 3.7 and later still the 3.8 kernels. It is after all going to be around until 2016.

That chart also shows that if 12.04 never moves off of the 3.2 series then it will be using an unsupported kernel for about a year before 12.04 itself reaches EOL.

A responsibility of promising that a release will be supported both on the desktop and on the server for 5 years must surely include the ability to be installed on hardware that will come on the market after the OS was released. That may require more up to date Linux kernels.

I do not understand why this improvement should be a problem. anyone who is concerned about the stability of the OS due to this decision can always join the testing program. As I indicated in my earlier post I already have a 12.04 installed with both Grub 2.0 and the 3.5 kernel installed.

Regards.