What is HWE?

Ubuntu Hardware Enablement Stacks (HWE) are a feature aimed at providing an Ubuntu LTS release with hardware enablement support that has been introduced and provided in newer Ubuntu releases. These hardware enablement stacks are incorporated into install media for select Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) point releases. The harware enablement stacks themselves are composed of updated kernels and graphics stacks. The following table maps the Ubuntu 14.04.x LTS point release media, the corresponding HWE Stack and HWE Stack EOL date:

The HWE path can be obtained in 2 ways:

1. Installing Ubuntu from the point release media
2. Manually installing the Ubuntu HWE packages

Further reading:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack (HWE details)

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Support (Kernel team)

And why should I care?

Starting Aug 4, 2016, systems using an interim HWE Stack older than the Xenial HWE Stack will no longer receive software updates for the kernel and, if you're running it, the graphics stack. We encourage all Ubuntu 14.04 HWE Stack users to update to the final Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial HWE Stack or fully upgrade to the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release.

How do I know if I'm affected?

You can:

1. Use a the ‘’’hwe-support-status’’’ command line utility
2. Examine your installed package set

hwe-support-status

The command line utility is called hwe-support-status and is provided in the update-manager-core package in Ubuntu 14.04. It contains the central logic used by other mechanisms/software to alert the user of HWE EOL notifications. On affected systems, it provides command line instructions for updating those systems to a supported HWE Stack.

It can be run with the following command:

hwe-support-status --verbose

Packages

Check your running kernel version:

uname -r

• You are affected if it shows a kernel with the following version: 3.16 or 3.19 or 4.2
• You are not affected if it shows a kernel with the following version: 3.13 or 4.4

This method does not check for a HWE graphics stack. However, you cannot get a HWE graphics stack without a corresponding HWE kernel unless you've done things manually. Note that such a combination (HWE graphics with non-HWE kernel) is not supported.

What to do if I'm affected?

You have the following options:

1. Update to the Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial HWE Stack (v4.4. Kernel)
2. Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
3. Fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

1. Install Ubuntu 16.04 Xenail HWE Stack

Run the ‘’’hwe-support-status’’’ tool and follow the instructions.

2. Upgrade to 16.04 LTS

For servers: run the ‘’’hwe-support-status’’’ command line utility and follow the instructions. For desktops, invoke update-manager:

update-manager -p

For both servers and desktops it's strongly recommended to ensure a system is in a good state before upgrading. Here are some tips:

• Perform a backup of important data
• Check the availability of enough free space (2x the size of all installed packages)
• Update all packages

• Run sudo apt-get autoremove to clean up old packages

3. Fresh install of 16.04 LTS

Redeploy with a fresh copy of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

FAQ

• I am running 14.04.2 HWE. From August 4, 2016 onwards my system will no longer receive package updates?

Not true. Such a system will only stop receiving updates for the kernel and the graphics stack. The rest of the software will continue to get updates.

• So if I am running 14.04.3 (as seen from lsb_release -d) then starting from August 4, 2016 my kernel and graphics stack will no longer receive package updates?

Not true. 14.04.3 is not 14.04.3 HWE. And since HWE (and thus a new kernel series) cannot be introduced through regular package updates it is possible to update a non-HWE system to arrive at a later point release, such as 14.04.3, and still preserve the EOL date of April 2019.