Is Kubuntu supported under Ubuntu Pro and ESM?

[stevecoh1]

I see from your "Currently Supported Releases" page that release 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) will no longer be supported after April. But there is now Ubuntu Pro and ESM available and users can enroll up to five computers for free. Does this apply to Kubuntu as well?

My reason for asking this is that I have JUST purchased a new Lenovo laptop that CANNOT, as of now, be upgraded past 22.04. OEM hardware drivers for 24.04 have not been released.

sudo do-release-upgrade

fails. I don't want to discuss technical details here. I have discussed them elsewhere until I'm blue in the face, and there is apparently no solution until Ubuntu and Lenovo get in synch on this. Trust me on that. Independently of that issue, I am thinking of switching to Kubuntu. I simply want to know

1. if Ubuntu Pro covers Kubuntu to extend the life of support
2. how can I insure, if I do a complete reinstall with Kubuntu 22.04 that the appropriate hardware drivers now installed on the system get installed under Kubuntu.

[oshunluvr]

Yes...

[stevecoh1]

Yes...

Uh, yes, what? Yes, Kubuntu is supported under Ubuntu Pro? That's good. Thanks.

How about my question 2? If I switch to Kubuntu on this new machine (via reinstall) how can I ensure that all the OEM drivers that are now installed, will still be installed after the switch?

[oshunluvr]

Sorry, I flew by too quickly and didn't see the second question, lol

[claydoh]

Which model?
What kernel version do you have, currently?
Canonical have a whole Lenovo repo, though mostly is not driver related.

1. Yes....and no.
Kubuntu=Ubuntu 100% as an operating system. Kubuntu is just an official but community supported 'spin'.

The ESM /Ubuntu Pro only covers the Ubuntu OS parts on Kubuntu or it's fellow "Flavours".
The Kubuntu desktop bits are not part of this at all. It really can't be, since KDE doesn't support the old version of Plasma et, so there will not be any security fixes or updates there.

BUT

At the kernel and driver level, those parts are fully supported for the full five years (and more).

You will be using an older and unsupported desktop and related applications, but the hardware level support will be exactly the same.

2: You need to add the OEM's apt repo to get OEM drivers (if any) and software tools -- you'd need to find that out, or copy the source list(s) from your existing install so you can add them back after install Kubuntu.




BUTT:

3: I suggest, if you are going to wipe and install fresh anyway, to simply try Kubuntu 24.04 out. You might be surprised that you may not even need the OEM drivers, they aren't likley closed source, or may already be incorporated into the kernel and driver stack in Linux.

Ubuntu OEM kernels usually have things from more current kernels backported to them (driver modules, among other things) , so the current *bubntu releases may very likley just work without any additions.

Thinkpads are extremely well known, well used, and extremely well supported by the Linux. Again, assuming we are talking about Thinkpads here.

Knowing the model, I'd be willing to bet actual Ozzie dollaridoos ( the exchange rate is favorable and I have some spare USD lol ) that you don't even need any of the OEM components. This is why I suggest giving 24.04 a test run before going back to 22.04.

of course I have zero idea about warranty support, but the sheer number of people using current models AND current *buntu releases makes me think this is not much of an issue.

[stevecoh1]

You sound like you want some gory details. Here they are:

$ uname -a
Linux xyz 6.8.0-51-generic #52~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Dec 9 15:00:52 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS"

This is what Lenovo is sending with a brand new Thinkpad P16 Gen2 with upgrading disabled.

Here is the best discussion I had (on the "Discourse" channel) which is the one place I've found that doesn't use much moderation to silence annoying questions. Unfortunately someone did try to split the conversation off to another question which then led to confusion, and to him putting the two conversations back together. It's all there but not necessarily in chronological order.

[claydoh]

So, have you tried what popey (who I and others highly respect) and I have suggested-- try the 24.04 image in a live session to see how things go?
Seriously, this is a no-brainer, and easy to do, without installing or anything. Just booting.

Some notes: your kernel/driver stack is identical to the stock Ubuntu 24.04, so no OEM kernels or anything -- LTS Ubuntu do regularly upgrade kernels for a while. This supports our suggestion to find if everything is working in the live session (minus nvidia) . WiFi should Just work -- it is Intel^® WiFi 6E* AX211, well supported, I *think* I have had one of those in the recent past.

If it has Intel graphics only, it will Just Work
If it has Nvidia graphics, the kernel and driver versions available will be identical to what you have in 22.04, and as far as I can see the Ada cards use the normal Nvidia drivers, nothing special or OEM-y. You probably have to install them yourself via the driver manager after install, I think. Check the version used in your Ubuntu install, it has a driver manager as well.

What I can't answer is what those weirdly named Canonical and Lenovo repos actually contain.

Ok, I lied. I went down the rabbit hole

jiyai provides OEM recovery image related software and settings.
http://oem.archive.canonical.com/dis...amd64/Packages
note this package:
Package: manage-distro-upgrade

Description: Disable upgrade for OEM.
This package will disable upgrade for OEM.

But let's ignore that since we are looking for 24.04 clean installs

In my (un)-educumated guess, this repo is safe to disable -- and won't be of any use to add to Kubuntu in any version, or Ubuntu past 22.04, since it uses a completely different installer now, and a good number of the packages there use it.
Plus we are ignoring manage-distro-upgrade anyway. (uninstalling this *might* help for upgrading, but these rabbit holes are getting narrow, and I am a portly dude It probably just helps change the upgrade settings )
If you generate a recovery image or already have one, keep it around.

Now, on the Sutton one, that one does have a noble repo.
http://lenovo.archive.canonical.com/...amd64/Packages
it looks to be for the webcam.
This is the hardware that probably does not work OOTB in 24.04. It *may* be supported in 24.10, and probably 25.04 (both are non-LTS if that matters)


For a clean install of Kubuntu, you can add the Noble repo and install the needed package.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IntelMIPICamera#Install_the_userspace_stack_manual ly_from_individual_OEM_archive

Now, i am back to 'real' work, and it is late, time to play catchup.

[stevecoh1]

I have not followed popey's advice - YET - but my plan now is to do so. Thank YOU for your further explanations on what these packages do. What I saw previously mentioned only "hardware" which sent up red flags in my uninformed mind.

One question: why does it seem to me that everyone who has offered me useful advice is Australian? :-)

[claydoh]

One question: why does it seem to me that everyone who has offered me useful advice is Australian? :-)

I am not Australian, actually. I do happen to be there for the past few months, though. Permanently, eventually.
So I am sort of the night shift here, if you will.


I am from the US
Popey over on Ubuntu's Discourse is from the UK.
But really, it is quite a worldwide thing.

[stevecoh1]

Well, you all mentioned Australia.

Good news: I successfully installed Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS and everything seemed to work. I will now install Kubuntu 24.04.1 and keep whichever I like better.

[stevecoh1]

Now, on the Sutton one, that one does have a noble repo.
http://lenovo.archive.canonical.com/...amd64/Packages
it looks to be for the webcam.
This is the hardware that probably does not work OOTB in 24.04. It *may* be supported in 24.10, and probably 25.04 (both are non-LTS if that matters)

I did not do anything about sutton. The camera worked and I thought I was done.

However I suppose I should see if I can install it, since it is available for 24.04.

But I'm not sure how to do that in Kubuntu. In Ubuntu/Gnome the update manager lets me add repositiories, but I haven't found how to do it in Kubuntu. I'm sure there is some way to do it on the command line but I don't know how.

[stevecoh1]

And now, Discover won't launch!

[claydoh]

I did not do anything about sutton. The camera worked and I thought I was done.

However I suppose I should see if I can install it, since it is available for 24.04.

But I'm not sure how to do that in Kubuntu. In Ubuntu/Gnome the update manager lets me add repositiories, but I haven't found how to do it in Kubuntu. I'm sure there is some way to do it on the command line but I don't know how.

My link to the Ubuntu Wiki provides a one-line command to do this. The add-apt-repository command
There is an update/sources manager in Kubuntu, but the recent move to a new format for sources files prevents it from appearing in Discover's settings area. Those devs have not fixed this as of yet.
However a workaround is to go to System Settings and open the Driver Manager, which is just a tab in the tool.

imo using this to add repos is OK, but I haven't used it in ages to do so -- it used to be a bit buggy for me.
The command takes care of everything, and I trust this over using the GUI to do it, but the GUI should work fine.
So, if there are issues with the Software Sources tool, you can fall back and use the command.

Discover not launching, I can't say much about. That is odd.

[claydoh]

Also, if the cam is working for you in all the applications or tools you would use it for, then there is zero reason to bother using the repo.