The new update of Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS has already been released do several days and in it changes related to improved hardware support included, Linux kernel and graphics stack updates, installer and bootloader bug fixes.
As well includes the latest updates for several hundred packages to address vulnerabilities and stability issues, plus similar updates are released for Ubuntu Budgie 20.04.3 LTS, Kubuntu 20.04.3 LTS, Ubuntu MATE 20.04.3 LTS, Ubuntu Studio 20.04.3 LTS, Lubuntu 20.04.3 LTS , Ubuntu Kylin 20.04.3 LTS and Xubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.
This third point version brings together all the software updates released to date, as well as the various security patches and extensive bug fixes.
Main new features of Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Ubuntu LTS 20.04.3 includes some of the improvements of Ubuntu version 21.04 of which we can find that the update has been made for the packages together with kernel version 5.11, since Ubuntu 20.04 and 20.04.1 used kernel 5.4 and 20.04.2 used kernel 5.8.
As usual, HWE (Hardware Enablement Stack) has been updated with the arrival of Linux kernel 5.11 This version includes several enhancements to Btrfs, highlighting the mount options to use when recovering data from damaged file systems, as well as removing support for the previously deprecated mount option "inode_cache". prepared the code to support blocks with metadata and data smaller than a page (PAGE_SIZE), as well as support for zoning space.
Besides that a new mechanism has been added to intercept system calls, based on prctl () and that allows to throw exceptions from user space when accessing a specific system call and emulating its execution. This functionality is requested in Wine and Proton to emulate Windows system calls, which is necessary to ensure compatibility with games and programs that directly execute system calls without going through the Windows API.
For architecture RISC-V, support for Contiguous Memory Allocator memory allocation system has been added (CMA), which is optimized to allocate large contiguous memory areas using the page movement technique. For RISC-V, there are also tools implemented to limit access to / dev / mem and to account for interrupt processing time.
On the part of the controllers we can find Table 21.0, besides that also the desktop environment has been updated with GNOME Shell 3.36.9, LibreOffice 6.4.7, Mozilla Firefox 91, GCC 10.3.0, Python 3.8.10, containerd 1.5.2, ceph 15.2.13, snapd 2.49, cloud-init 20.4, and other system applications.
On the part of the components of the graphics stack that have been updated, they include X.Org Server 1.20.11 and Mesa 21.0, which were tested with the Ubuntu 21.04 version. New versions of video drivers have been added for Intel, AMD and NVIDIA chips.
For server systems, a new kernel has been added as an option in the installer, plus new assemblies will now be used for new installations only: previously installed systems can receive all changes present in Ubuntu 20.04.3 through the standard update installation system.
We must remember that a continuous update support model is used to deliver new kernel versions and the graphics stack, whereby backported kernels and drivers will be supported only until the next Ubuntu LTS branch patch update is released. For example, the Linux kernel 5.11 proposed in the current release will be supported up to Ubuntu 20.04.4, which will offer an Ubuntu 21.10 kernel. Initially shipped, the base kernel 5.4 will be supported for a full five-year maintenance cycle.
Unlike previous versions of LTS, newer versions of the kernel and graphical stack will be involved in existing installations of Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 by default, and are not offered in the form of options. To revert to base kernel 5.4, run the command:
How to update to the new Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS update?
For those who are interested and are on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, they can update their system to the new update released by following these instructions.
If they are Ubuntu Desktop users, just open a terminal on the system (they can do it with the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T) and in it they will type the following command.
sudo apt install --install-recomienda linux-generic
At the end of the download and installation of all the packages, although it is not necessary, we recommend carrying out a computer restart.
Now for those who are Ubuntu server users, the command they must type is the following:
sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-20.04
Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details In the following link.