constant kernel version in xenial

[Raiman, Timor]

Thanks Andy.

Would a solution using apt-cacher also work?

I'd assume it too would maintain any package that was downloaded through the cache in an LRU manner.

But yes, I suppose if we know that kernels need specific attention a selective mirror would be better.


-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Whitcroft [mailto:apw at canonical.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 22:31
To: Raiman, Timor <timor.raiman at intel.com>
Cc: kernel-team at lists.ubuntu.com; Tim Gardner <tim.gardner at canonical.com>; Kamal Mostafa <kamal at canonical.com>; Feldman, Shani <shani.feldman at intel.com>
Subject: Re: constant kernel version in xenial

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 09:26:47AM +0000, Raiman, Timor wrote:

> We need to configure a pool of machines to use the exact same kernel 
> version.  We found that some kernels appear in the Ubuntu repositories 
> and then are removed when a newer package is available (eg, 
> 4.4.0.24.25 is not available since 4.4.0.28.30 was uploaded).

> Can we rely on certain kernel versions to remain available in the 
> repositories for a significant length of time?
> For example, I see that 4.4.0.21.22 has been available for a while
> (18 Apr 2016)

The package versions above are for the linux-meta package.  The purpose of this package is to always point to the latest released kernel and as such will always move forward as we release Stable Release Update (SRU) to the kernel.  These typically occur every three weeks in step with the SRU release cadance.

The Ubuntu respositories (the archive pool) only holds kernels which are currently published in an archive pocket (you will see discussion of Xenial Release, Security, Updates and Proposed).  Essentially these are the current supported kernel and any pending kernels which are in testing for release.  There is an anomoly with the version which was in the Release pocket when 16.04 LTS was released.  That pocket is frozen at the time of the release and therefore the version in that pocket is also available in the archive pool indefinately (4.4.0.21.22 in 16.04 LTS); rapidly becoming stale.  All other kernels are transitory as they are replaced by later updates.

>From an apt-get perspective we only expect to see the most recent stable kernel as avialable for install.  That said the launchpad librarian always maintains a copy of every kernel produced.  Pointers to these can be found on the publishing history page for the linux package:

	https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+publishinghistory

Where people wish to have greater control over versions and the application of updates for local systems it is normal to maintain a separate local archive from which those systems update and to which updates are applied as and when is appropriate by local policy.  This is typically done as a selective mirror of the Ubuntu archive.  Another option would be to use a launchpad PPA with the appropriate versions copied over from the main archive.

Hope this makes sense.

-apw
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