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Canonical released today the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS point release to its long-term supported Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series with new kernel and graphics stacks.
Released on April 23rd, 2020, the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series receives today its second point release, Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS, which provides users with an up-to-date installation media that incorporates all the package updates and security fixes published by Canonical during the past six months.
Compared to the previous point release, Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, which was published in August 2020, the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS point release finally bumps the kernel and graphics stacks for better hardware support and an improved gaming experience since Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is recommended on Steam for many games.
As such, Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS ships with the HWE (Hardware Enablement) Linux 5.8 kernel from the Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla) release by default, as well as the Mesa 20.2.6 open-source graphics stack, also from Ubuntu 20.10. Previous Focal Fossa releases shipped with Mesa 20.0.4 and Linux kernel 5.4 LTS.
Now, considering the fact that Linux 5.4 is an LTS (Long Term Support) kernel and benefits of long-term upstream support for the next four years (at the moment of writing), you might want to stick to it on your existing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS installations. The Linux 5.8 HWE kernel from Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS is intended for newer installations where the hardware is not fully supported by Linux kernel 5.4 LTS.
Ubuntu Desktop 20.04.2 LTS comes with the GNOME 3.36.8 desktop environment by default, while Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Kylin flavors feature the KDE Plasma 5.18.5, LXQt 0.14.3, Xfce 4.14, MATE 1.24, Budgie 10.5.1, as well as UKUI 2.0.2 desktop environments respectively.
You can download the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS flavor of your choice right now using the direct download links below. Existing users need only to ensure their installations are up to date at all times by installing all the latest updates from the repositories using the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade command.
Canonical provides maintenance updates for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) for 5 years, until April 2025, for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud, and Ubuntu Core flavors, while the rest of the official flavours will be supported for 3 years. until April 2023. The next point release will be Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS, in six months.
Update 09/02/21: Canonical said that there’s a bug in the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS desktop images for all official flavors using the Ubiquity installer, affecting OEM installations, which will end up without a kernel, thus unbootable. The issue shouldn’t affect many users, but new ISO images have been recreated and you can download them here.
Last updated 3 years ago
