Flavours

Revision 4 as of 2010-11-29 13:28:53

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Kernel Flavours

This document aims to document the flavours which exist in each release and further to document any transitions between flavours you may need to make.

What is a Kernel Flavour?

It is impossible to build a single kernel for every occasion, any such configuration cannot be optimal for all use cases. As a result we offer a number of kernel variants for each release, these variants termed flavours. We commonly refer to those flavours using the flavour name, for example: generic, generic-pae, and server.

How do we choose which Flavours are supported in a release?

At the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) we will discuss the current flavours and their applicability. During this discussions we will make recommendations for additions to or removals from the supported flavours. Those recommendations feed into the development for that upcoming release.

Current Flavours

Below are the flavours as found in each release, for each there is a description of the likely use case for that flavour and where support is forthcoming; Distro (Ubuntu Kernel team) or Ports (community). Note for release which are no longer supported these are for information only.

Natty

Arch

Flavour

Description

Support

amd64

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use

Distro

amd64

server

Kernel optimised for Server use

Distro

amd64

virtual

Distro

armel

versatile

Distro

i386

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (< 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

generic-pae

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (>= 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

virtual

Distro

powerpc

powerpc

Ports

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Ports

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Ports

Maverick

Arch

Flavour

Description

Support

i386

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (< 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

generic-pae

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (>= 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM, XEN, and EC2 use

Distro

amd64

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use

Distro

amd64

server

Kernel optimised for Server use

Distro

amd64

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM and XEN, and EC2 use

Distro

armel

versatile

Distro

armel

omap

Distro

armel

omap4

Distro

armel

dove

Distro

powerpc

powerpc

Ports

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Ports

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Ports

Lucid

i386

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (< 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

generic-pae

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (>= 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

386

Kernel optimised for i486 processors

Distro

i386

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM and XEN use

Distro

i386

ec2

Kernel optimised for EC2 use

Distro

amd64

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use

Distro

amd64

server

Kernel optimised for Server use

Distro

amd64

preempt

Distro

amd64

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM and XEN use

Distro

amd64

ec2

Kernel optimised for EC2 use

Distro

armel

versatile

Distro

armel

imx51

Distro

armel

dove

Distro

armel

omap

Distro

armel

st1-5

Distro

ia64

ia64

Ports

lpia

lpia

Ports

powerpc

powerpc

Ports

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Ports

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Ports

sparc

sparc64

Ports

sparc

sparc64-smp

Ports

Karmic

Arch

Flavour

Description

Support

i386

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (< 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

generic-pae

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use (>= 3.5GB of RAM)

Distro

i386

386

Kernel optimised for i486 processors

Distro

i386

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM and XEN use

Distro

i386

ec2

Kernel optimised for EC2 use

Distro

amd64

generic

Default kernel optimised for Desktop use

Distro

amd64

server

Kernel optimised for Server use

Distro

amd64

virtual

Kernel optimised for KVM and XEN use

Distro

amd64

ec2

Kernel optimised for EC2 use

Distro

armel

imx51

Distro

armel

dove

Distro

ia64

ia64

Ports

lpia

lpia

Ports

powerpc

powerpc

Ports

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Ports

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Ports

sparc

sparc64

Ports

sparc

sparc64-smp

Ports

Hardy

Arch

Flavour

Description

Support

i386

386

Distro

i386

generic

Distro

i386

server

Distro

i386

virtual

Distro

i386

rt

Ports

i386

xen

Ports

i386

openvz

Ports

amd64

generic

Distro

amd64

server

Distro

amd64

rt

Ports

amd64

xen

Ports

amd64

openvz

Ports

hppa

hppa32

Distro

hppa

hppa64

Distro

ia64

itanium

Distro

ia64

mckinley

Distro

lpia

lpiacompat

Distro

lpia

lpia

Distro

powerpc

powerpc

Distro

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Distro

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Distro

sparc

sparc64

Distro

sparc

sparc64-smp

Distro

Dapper

Arch

Flavour

Description

Support

i386

386

Distro

i386

686

Distro

i386

k7

Distro

i386

server

Distro

i386

server-bigiron

Distro

amd64

amd64-generic

Distro

amd64

amd64-k8

Distro

amd64

amd64-server

Distro

amd64

amd64-xeon

Distro

hppa

hppa32

Distro

hppa

hppa32-smp

Distro

hppa

hppa64

Distro

hppa

hppa64-smp

Distro

ia64

itanium

Distro

ia64

itanium-smp

Distro

ia64

mckinley

Distro

ia64

mckinley-smp

Distro

powerpc

powerpc

Distro

powerpc

powerpc64-smp

Distro

powerpc

powerpc-smp

Distro

sparc

sparc64

Distro

sparc

sparc64-smp

Distro