Possible to update the kernel on a SBC running off a Cortex A9?

For context I don’t know much about Linux and this is my first time using it, also not too familiar with SBCs.

Anyways I have this old SBC called a RIoTboard and it runs off of a Cortex A9 and uses a 32-bit ARMv7l. Documentation for the board is fairly dead but I found a BSP OS img file that works, but it runs Ubuntu 11.10 and I can’t figure out how to update it thru the terminal (lots of failed to fetch errors, using the old packages dist links in the apt file). I have trouble going to any HTTPS link (get an SSL error) so this might be causing the issue but I have the HTTP version of the link in the file.

I can’t get any other version of a Linux distribution installed onto the board. Assuming this is either because it’s not a BSP, or because the kernel is too old. Thing is, in the old ass forum I found for the board, I see people using other, newer distributions (newest I saw was Ubuntu 14.XX but the forum and support for the board died in 2016).

any way to understand how to get a BSP version of a Linux OS image? Seems like regular images don’t work so much be something with the SBC hardware.

I have access to a ton of info that the board puts out thru a UART debug header I’m just not familiar with computer stuff beyond microcontrollers.