My old PC (with 24.04) has been off the last 4 weeks. So when I booted it up yesterday there was a significant upgrade waiting (I assume to Release 24.04.3 LTS). Two things I noticed immediately was the system fonts appeared much smaller which was easily correctable. The other was the sensor performance data seems to be more accurate. Prior to the upgrade, my system temperatures bounced all over between 10 and 45 degC. That is for cpu and disk drives. Now the temps are steady with disk drives around 30 and cpu around 45. I also have a much newer PC ( one year vice 10 years old) with the same OS and I did not observe these changes on the newer PC after the upgrade.
I would explain that by that fact that the "drivers" or "compatibility layer" that is applicable to your specific
- MotherBoard, or
- CPU
have been either
- corrected (bug fix for specific hardware handling),
- improved (to deal with possible rounding errors), or
- specifically recognized and properly coded (where previously it was only handled by a generic, and possibly ill-fitting driver)
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I'll give a comment that you may want to consider.
Ubuntu MATE being a flavor still follows the package choices in regards kernel stack, of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop and earlier; which differs to Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS; the default stack being set by your install media.
Thus an install of two different Ubuntu MATE 24.04.3 LTS systems using different install media can result in different packages, and using different kernels (kernel modules are commonly called 'drivers'). Have you explored what kernel stacks exist on your two machines? Are they the same? or different?
The uname -r command will show you what kernel is running (the first two numbers are what matter here only; not the patch level & additional details)
Ubuntu MATE 24.04.3 LTS if using the GA kernel stack will be using the 6.8 kernel or the same kernel used at install (just security patches are added), where as Ubuntu MATE 24.04.3 LTS where using the HWE kernel stack changed from 6.11 (24.04.2) to 6.14 with the 24.04.3 updates.
Some hardware can get noticeable performance increases with newer kernels, though other hardware can also have no change, or rarely but still possible - worse performance or problems with a newer kernel; reasons why Ubuntu LTS releases offer us kernel stack options.
Installs of Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS made with the initial or .1 point release media uses the GA kernel stack, where as installs made with .2 or later point release media install & use the HWE kernel stack.
This is really just different kernel packages installed, and when you release-upgrade your default will follow you to your newer release. It can be changed post-install, and both kernel stacks (and/or OEM too) can co-exist on the same install as long as certain closed-source kernel modules (which can prevent multiple stacks from existing) aren't installed (eg. some nVIDIA kernel modules can prevent multiple stacks from co-existing).
6 Likes
I strongly recommend NOT upgrading.
I have 10 + years of experience.
Just for clarification, both systems were built the same week several months ago the same week using the same network and USB stick for media.