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I installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS on machine and have upgraded its kernel version to 4.2 with the following command:

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-wily

I was a bit confused about kernel version and release name. Some software provides binaries for different releases: Trusty, Utopic, Vivid, Wily, ...

In this case, should I download a binary for Trusty or that for a newer release name as far as the software provides?

Jeon
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2 Answers2

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Ubuntu releases and the kernel versions are independent from each other.

Open a terminal and check the Ubuntu release version with this command : 

lsb_release -a

The output shows something like : 

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.10
Release:    15.10
Codename:   wily

Open a terminal and check the running kernel version with this command : 

uname -r

The output shows something like : 

4.2.0-22-generic

This was a PC running Ubuntu 15.10 - here is a PC running Ubuntu 14.04 :
If you opt into the hardware enablement stack for Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty),
the outputs will show that the release still is 14.04 and the kernel is 3.19.

lsb_release -a  

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
Release:    14.04
Codename:   trusty  

uname -r  

3.19.0-42-generic
cl-netbox
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    For non-LTS releases kernel major versions are always same unless it is manually changed. For LTS it is quite different. – Pilot6 Dec 29 '15 at 15:03
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Upgrading your LTS release to a newer kernel line does not change the release name.

So you still have Ubuntu 14.04 trusty.

See about HWE

LTS releases allow to install kernels from non-LTS main releases.

linux-generic-lts-wily installs the kernel from 15.10 "wily" release. It will be default in Ubuntu 14.04.4.

This may be a bit confusing.

Pilot6
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