I have added this to the next Techboard Meeting on the 8th of October 20:00 London time.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TechnicalBoardAgenda On Wed, 28 Aug 2019 at 15:23, Dimitri John Ledkov <[email protected]> wrote: > > As part of the collaboration between Canonical and OEMs public OEM > archives exist that ship additional open-source patches, fixes and > hardware-specific documentation. These archives are used by default on > the Ubuntu pre-installed SKUs as sold by OEMs. The updates in those > repositories are sensitive in timing by OEMs and Canonical, to match > hardware release cycles and thus are performed outside of the SRU > process. > > Often enough the updates are prepared in private, using codenames of > unreleased hardware, and are made available simultaneously with the > hardware releases / announcements for Ubuntu support. Ahead of > integration in vanilla kernels. Eventually, all fixes make it into all > the relevant upstream projects, and eventually integrated into vanilla > ubuntu. This happens across multiple releases / LTS-point releases. > > To provide a better experience on vanilla Ubuntu installations I would > like to ship stub meta-packages with Modaliases metadata in the Ubuntu > Archive. These stub meta-packages would pull in OEM signing key as a > trusted key, and enable the correct OEM repository matching the > hardware in question. Usually, it involves switching machines from > linux-generic to the linux-oem kernel flavour. Both kernel flavors are > maintained in the public Ubuntu Archive by Canonical Kernel Team). > Thus this would allow users of vanilla installations to opt-into OEM > updates, fixes, firmware updates, and documentation to be installed > after the next `apt full-upgrade`. Such a solution is very > transparent, as one can disable the OEM repository and uninstall the > OEM vendor meta package from the GUI software-properties app & > ubuntu-drivers CLI tools. > > This is atypical request for the Ubuntu Project, as it's a new type of > archive that users would be guided to choose and enable. The closest > similarity is the Canonical Partner repository, however, the key > difference is that OEM repositories contain open-source software that > already exists in the Ubuntu Archive with additional hardware-specific > fixes to particular machines. These repositories might contain > proprietary things too - i.e. specific laptop model documentation, > manuals and service guides. > > I am seeking permission from the tech board to ship OEM Archive > keyring in the Ubuntu Archive, together with meta-packages that > declare certified OEM Modaliases to make users an offer to opt into > receiving updates from the OEM Archives for their hardware. > > -- > Regards, > > Dimitri. -- Regards, Dimitri. -- technical-board mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/technical-board
