(Lenovo thinkpad) apt upgrade: how to upgrade to the generic kernel or to the hwe kernel?

Question

Edit: this seems to be an issue related to Thinkpad laptops

I am working on a fresh install of ubuntu 20.04.

uname -r outputs:

5.6.0-1047-oem

sudo apt upgrade outputs:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-generic-hwe-20.04 linux-headers-5.8.0-43-generic linux-headers-generic-hwe-20.04 linux-hwe-5.8-headers-5.8.0-43
  linux-image-5.8.0-43-generic linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04 linux-modules-5.8.0-43-generic linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-43-generic
  oem-sutton.simon-meta
The following packages will be upgraded: ...

This is a bit obscure to me.

According to: What is hardware enablement (HWE)?, one may use either the generic kernel, or the hwe kernel. But the above seems to be listing both the generic and the hwe kernels to be upgraded. Or it may be I am just confused about what the upgrade does.

The context is that running apt upgrade from that points breaks the nvidia drivers (i.e. before the upgrade nvidia-smi outputs something sensible, after it outputs it can not not communicate with the nvidia drivers). I am trying to figure out the best action to perform.

What device are you using? If you got the oem kernel then you're likely using a certified device. Likely a ThinkPad of some kind (P15/P15v/P17/T15/T15p)? I'm not sure you should move off the oem kernel as it will contain hardware specific enablement work done by Canonical. e.g. see bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/oem-priority/+bug/1903946 — popey, Feb 16 '21 at 10:32
Indeed, I am on a thinkpage P15. Is there a way to 'ask' apt to upgrade packages but keep using the oem kernel ? — Vince, Feb 16 '21 at 10:36
sudo apt install aptitude and aptitude why linux-generic-hwe-20.04 — nobody, Feb 16 '21 at 10:51
@nobody "The candidate version 5.8.0.43.49~20.04.29 has priority optional, No dependencies require to install linux-generic-hwe-20.04" — Vince, Feb 16 '21 at 11:16
last attempt from me dpkg -l | grep linux-'[g|i|h|m]' and dpkg -l | grep nvida please. — nobody, Feb 16 '21 at 11:33

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 01 '21 at 09:15

0

The following does not answer the question (why both the generic and the HWE kernels are meant to be upgraded), but the following managed to have the nvidia drivers working fine, even after upgrade:

disabling secure boot in BIOS
installing Ubuntu
removing the file oem-sutton.simon-addison-meta.list from /etc/apt/sources.list.d

This file seems to be specific to Lenovo systems.

The nvidia drivers can then be installed.

edited Aug 01 '21 at 09:15

Zanna

70,465

answered Feb 16 '21 at 16:01

Vince

195

I have the exact same issue as you. Can you tell me what did you do after removing the file from /etc/apt/sources.list.d ? Did you install something or reboot the machine, etc.? – thenewasker Aug 01 '21 at 07:50

(Lenovo thinkpad) apt upgrade: how to upgrade to the generic kernel or to the hwe kernel?

1 Answers1