I am trying to figure out the HW certification policy for older HW (my interest is servers). When a new point-release or HWE is available, it usually includes a Linux kernel update. Is there a certification procedure for new kernels with existing/old HW?
I'll give an example for clarification: this is the certification page for HP DL380 Gen9. As you can see, it is certified for 12.04.5, 14.04.1 and 16.04. Does that mean that 12.04.4 (which includes a different Linux kernel) is not certified? 14.04.2 is based on kernel 3.16 (certified) while 14.04.1 is kernel 3.13. Does that mean that if I want a certified system I cannot upgrade to latest 14.04 point-releases?