Is Kernel up to date

[thebear]

Hello all,
I've just done a new install of 18.3 XFCE 32-bit and have run the update manager. I'm a little bit confused about kernels (in general) and whether or not mine is up to date (particularly in regard to Meltdown and Spectre). The terminal says I am running 4.10.0-38-generic. Update Manager is showing two unticked updates for the kernel, one being a software update, the other a kernel update. Do I need to do anything?

[Moem]

Yes, you do. Please see this thread: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=261343

[thebear]

Thanks for that. I'm wondering what you do if you have a 32-bit system like mine. According to the link there is no fix for it yet. Can you run a 64 bit version on a 32 bit processor?

[kc1di]

Thanks for that. I'm wondering what you do if you have a 32-bit system like mine. According to the link there is no fix for it yet. Can you run a 64 bit version on a 32 bit processor?

no you can't
you can go to the update manager Icon and click on that and the select view tab and kernels and add and remove kernels for there.

[jglen490]

The last I heard was that in the Ubuntu and Linux Mint world, the only kernels being updated for Meltdown/Spectre are 3.13, 4.4, and 4.13, being that these are in use with the current Ubuntu LTS distros. 4.8 and 4.10 are either no longer being updated, or will lose support shortly as they are not in Ubuntu LTS distros. Ubuntu LTSes come out every two years with 5 year support. The non-LTS Ubuntus come out every 6 months and have 9 month support cycles. Thus the focus on 3.13, 4.4, and 4.13.

[kc1di]

The last I heard was that in the Ubuntu and Linux Mint world, the only kernels being updated for Meltdown/Spectre are 3.13, 4.4, and 4.13, being that these are in use with the current Ubuntu LTS distros. 4.8 and 4.10 are either no longer being updated, or will lose support shortly as they are not in Ubuntu LTS distros. Ubuntu LTSes come out every two years with 5 year support. The non-LTS Ubuntus come out every 6 months and have 9 month support cycles. Thus the focus on 3.13, 4.4, and 4.13.

As far as I kow what jglen490 posted is correct.
if you want to see which upstream kernel the ubuntu lts kernel is based upon you can enter this command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/version_signature

it will return something like this:

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Ubuntu 4.13.0-32.35~16.04.1-generic 4.13.13

the upstream kernel is the last numbers in the string, in my case 4.13.0-32.35 Ubuntu kernel is based on the upstream kernel 4.13.13.

[Termy]

Upstream kernel as in the actual kernel before Ubunu patches/tweaks it and what-not? Like what you get from https://www.kernel.org/?