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I just read this in answer on another question asked by member

4.10 (=17.04) will not be patched: 17.04 went end of life last week (:)) and if you updated the kernel from 4.4 (initial kernel for 16.04) you should be on kernel 14.13 and not 14.10

I have 16.04 LTS installed on my laptop.... so why am I showing "4.10.0-42 generic" when running command uname -r

Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS Release: 16.04 Codename: xenial

muru
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crypme
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  • This link shows that 16.04 LTS should have the following kernel version - 16.04 Xenial Xerus 4.4 or newer https://askubuntu.com/questions/517136/list-of-ubuntu-versions-with-corresponding-linux-kernel-version – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 02:38
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    16.04 lts has the 4.10.0-42 kernel as of this writing. So that comment does not make sense. This is on the linux-generic-hwe-16.04 package. – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 02:41
  • You probably didn't do the hwe update, but stayed with the ga kernels. – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 02:43
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    If you installed the LTSEnablementStack then your kernel will be the 4.10 version. If not, it would stay at 4.4. – Terrance Jan 10 '18 at 02:44
  • Per the schedule on this page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack the hwe kernel should go to the 4.13 family next month. I hope they don't expect us to wait till then for the patch! – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 02:47
  • Ah, the bottom of this page explains it. They will push 16.04.3 hwe to 16.04.4 early. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/SpectreAndMeltdown

    Ubuntu 17.04 and 4.10 HWE early end of life

    Ubuntu 17.04's note that it will not be getting the Meltdown/Spectre fixes.
The Rolling HWE kernel for Ubuntu 16.04 will go to 4.13 early, instead of also fixing 4.10 HWE kernel.
    – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 02:50
  • wow... this is all so confusing. Windows 10 has the patch out... so maybe it is best going back to this. I would rather stay with Ubuntu... but i can't figure out if there is a patch or not?! is there a patch for any version of Ubuntu yet? Should I downgrade... upgrade to new version like 17.10? – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 02:51
  • @OrganicMarble i am sorry... but that page you linked to really does not explain anything to me. If linux (unbuntu) wants to start being accepted by the masses, they are going to need to figure out how to communicate important things like this in a way that can be understood by non techies. I have no idea whether there is a fix for me or not. – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 02:52
  • I will write an answer and try to explain. – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 02:53
  • @OrganicMarble thank you... i appreciate it :) I try to get my friends and family over to Ubutnu or Mint... but it is times like this where they will not look at it and just stick to the same old with Windows. – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 02:55

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Please refer to this diagram from the page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack enter image description here

If you are running 16.04.3 LTS and using kernel 4.10.0-42-generic, you can see that the schedule planned to have your system updated to 16.04.4 and the 4.13 kernel family next month.

Instead of patching the 4.10 kernel family, which would only be used for a few weeks, the plan is to update these systems to 16.04.4 early, which will pull in the patched 4.13 kernel instead.

Bottom line, sit tight and wait for the update to show up. I would guess it will be tomorrow.

Reference: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/SpectreAndMeltdown

Organic Marble
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  • OK :) Thank you! I can work with tomorrow :) Will running this command in terminal do the upgrade $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 02:59
  • I have tried to upvote your answers and comments... but my reputation is not high enough yet. I really appreciate your responses and time – crypme Jan 10 '18 at 03:00
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    Yeah, that would be my guess as well that the 4.13 will be released soon considering I just saw the hwe-edge-tools-4.13 just go autoremove today, as they normally set that for autoremoval right before the kernel gets updated. – Terrance Jan 10 '18 at 03:00
  • @crypme you can monitor the xenial updates here: https://www.ubuntuupdates.org/?type=dists&vals=xenial – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 03:01
  • I have several 16.04 systems so I've been watching this closely as well. – Organic Marble Jan 10 '18 at 03:02