Providing opt-in upgrade path to the OEM Archives from the Ubuntu Archive

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

I have added this to the next Techboard Meeting on the 8th of October
20:00 London time.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda

On Wed, 28 Aug 2019 at 15:23, Dimitri John Ledkov <xnox at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> As part of the collaboration between Canonical and OEMs public OEM
> archives exist that ship additional open-source patches, fixes and
> hardware-specific documentation. These archives are used by default on
> the Ubuntu pre-installed SKUs as sold by OEMs. The updates in those
> repositories are sensitive in timing by OEMs and Canonical, to match
> hardware release cycles and thus are performed outside of the SRU
> process.
>
> Often enough the updates are prepared in private, using codenames of
> unreleased hardware, and are made available simultaneously with the
> hardware releases / announcements for Ubuntu support. Ahead of
> integration in vanilla kernels. Eventually, all fixes make it into all
> the relevant upstream projects, and eventually integrated into vanilla
> ubuntu. This happens across multiple releases / LTS-point releases.
>
> To provide a better experience on vanilla Ubuntu installations I would
> like to ship stub meta-packages with Modaliases metadata in the Ubuntu
> Archive. These stub meta-packages would pull in OEM signing key as a
> trusted key, and enable the correct OEM repository matching the
> hardware in question. Usually, it involves switching machines from
> linux-generic to the linux-oem kernel flavour. Both kernel flavors are
> maintained in the public Ubuntu Archive by Canonical Kernel Team).
> Thus this would allow users of vanilla installations to opt-into OEM
> updates, fixes, firmware updates, and documentation to be installed
> after the next `apt full-upgrade`. Such a solution is very
> transparent, as one can disable the OEM repository and uninstall the
> OEM vendor meta package from the GUI software-properties app &
> ubuntu-drivers CLI tools.
>
> This is atypical request for the Ubuntu Project, as it's a new type of
> archive that users would be guided to choose and enable. The closest
> similarity is the Canonical Partner repository, however, the key
> difference is that OEM repositories contain open-source software that
> already exists in the Ubuntu Archive with additional hardware-specific
> fixes to particular machines. These repositories might contain
> proprietary things too - i.e. specific laptop model documentation,
> manuals and service guides.
>
> I am seeking permission from the tech board to ship OEM Archive
> keyring in the Ubuntu Archive, together with meta-packages that
> declare certified OEM Modaliases to make users an offer to opt into
> receiving updates from the OEM Archives for their hardware.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Dimitri.



-- 
Regards,

Dimitri.