How To: Upgrade your kernel, painlessly.

[antikythera]

Are there certain kernel versions that aren't yet stable or simply won't work well with certain Mint versions? I'd like to upgrade Julia from 2.6.35-22 to 2.6.39.3. Would this be a problem? The hardware is a 2 year old Core 2 Duo & ATI Radeon HD laptop. Do these steps also apply to Mint Debain?

best way to get a compatible kernel is to use the folder names in the repository like I found. lucid for Isadora, maverick for Julia etc. and stick to ones without 'RC' status.

[project1017]

Thanks for the Tutorial it worked like a charm

[jesper85m]

Hi thanks for nice guide.

Got a problem, i wounder why i did get a blackscreen after installing kernel 3.0.4? i installed it on my Acer Aspire 5552g and got a blackscreen after restart. but it worked like a charm on my old netbook.

[d00med]

How do you safely remove a kernel? The one I installed isn't listed in the synaptic package manager.

[hotshot247]

How do you safely remove a kernel? The one I installed isn't listed in the synaptic package manager.

i am having the same problem also because the kernel that i patched and compiled doesn't show up in the package manager like everybody tells me that it does so i can't delete it.

[wyrdoak]

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/proper-way ... x-kernels/

[Kevin108]

Is there any reason for/against upgrading to the latest kernel on Mint 11?

[tdockery97]

Is there any reason for/against upgrading to the latest kernel on Mint 11?

For: You may get better hardware support.

Against: You may get worse hardware support on an old computer.

It doesn't hurt to try, because you will still have the option in the Grub Menu to boot into your previous kernel.

[d00med]

How do you safely remove a kernel? The one I installed isn't listed in the synaptic package manager.

i am having the same problem also because the kernel that i patched and compiled doesn't show up in the package manager like everybody tells me that it does so i can't delete it.

Turns out I already had a command to clean unused kernels.

List unused headers, images and modules

Code: Select all

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d'

Remove unused kernel headers, images and modules

Code: Select all

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Can anyone recommend a 3.x kernel from here that would be compatible with Mint 11? [edit] 3.1.5 Precise is working fine.

[podagee]

or you could use ubuntu tweak to clean old kernels from the janitor that comes with it.after that just do a sudo update-grub from terminal and it should be gone.if trying to remove a newer one you installed,what i do is...gksu nautilus /boot/ and erase the kernel and all affiliated files with the unwanted kernel and do a sudo update-grub.this works for me

[hotshot247]

If in the outside chance you feel you need to upgrade your kernel for any particular reason, this is how you do it THE EASY WAY. Note that this guide requires no compiling and works for Mint and Ubuntu only (it's probable that this works for other Ubuntu derivatives, but I haven't tested it and can therefore offer no opinion).

- 1 - Go to this website http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ and you'll see a huge directory tree of kernels. Find the directory for the kernel you want/need and click on it.

- 2 - In each of these directories you're going to see "BUILD.LOG", "CHANGES", three items that begin with "linux-headers", two that begin with "linux-image" and one that begins with "linux-source". The "BUILD.LOG", "CHANGES", and "linux-source" are completely unimportant right now. We're only worried about "linux-headers" and "linux-image".

- 3 - Download and then install the following IN THIS ORDER: first get the linux-headers file that ends with "all.deb". Second get the linux-headers file that ends with "i386.deb" or "amd64.deb" depending upon what architecture you need. Finally get the linux-image file that ends with "i386.deb" or "amd64.deb" again depending upon what architecture you need. Honestly it doesn't really matter what order you download them in, but you need to make absolutely sure that you install them in this order.

- 4 - Reboot your computer and you're done.



Disclaimer: I do this all the time and it's yet to not work for me. You do need to understand that there is an inherent risk associated with all low level system stuff like this. If it borks your system, I claim no responsibility.

i followed your instructions perfectly but it's still kinda buggy...i don't know if it's not fully optimized for linux mint yet but when i tried to get a later kernel and after i booted it up..it had an error message and then i had to hit ctrl + alt + F8 to get into linux and when i tried to shut it down, it had another error and wouldn't shut down until i held the power button. what can i do to fix that?

[chazdg24]

If in the outside chance you feel you need to upgrade your kernel for any particular reason, this is how you do it THE EASY WAY. Note that this guide requires no compiling and works for Mint and Ubuntu only (it's probable that this works for other Ubuntu derivatives, but I haven't tested it and can therefore offer no opinion).

- 1 - Go to this website http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ and you'll see a huge directory tree of kernels. Find the directory for the kernel you want/need and click on it.

- 2 - In each of these directories you're going to see "BUILD.LOG", "CHANGES", three items that begin with "linux-headers", two that begin with "linux-image" and one that begins with "linux-source". The "BUILD.LOG", "CHANGES", and "linux-source" are completely unimportant right now. We're only worried about "linux-headers" and "linux-image".

- 3 - Download and then install the following IN THIS ORDER: first get the linux-headers file that ends with "all.deb". Second get the linux-headers file that ends with "i386.deb" or "amd64.deb" depending upon what architecture you need. Finally get the linux-image file that ends with "i386.deb" or "amd64.deb" again depending upon what architecture you need. Honestly it doesn't really matter what order you download them in, but you need to make absolutely sure that you install them in this order.

- 4 - Reboot your computer and you're done.



Disclaimer: I do this all the time and it's yet to not work for me. You do need to understand that there is an inherent risk associated with all low level system stuff like this. If it borks your system, I claim no responsibility.

i followed your instructions perfectly but it's still kinda buggy...i don't know if it's not fully optimized for linux mint yet but when i tried to get a later kernel and after i booted it up..it had an error message and then i had to hit ctrl + alt + F8 to get into linux and when i tried to shut it down, it had another error and wouldn't shut down until i held the power button. what can i do to fix that?

I had the same issues you did so I removed that kernel. The instructions worked fine but for some reason issues occurred that just didn't seem using it worthwhile. I even tried Kernel 3.0.0.14 in Synaptic. That Kernel gave me a black screen at boot so I removed that as well. Oh well, I tried.

[hotshot247]

I had the same issues you did so I removed that kernel. The instructions worked fine but for some reason issues occurred that just didn't seem using it worthwhile. I even tried Kernel 3.0.0.14 in Synaptic. That Kernel gave me a black screen at boot so I removed that as well. Oh well, I tried.

yea, it installed just fine but it's a pain to try to run. i'm trying to figure out if i just need to download the source code and configure it a certain way then compile if that would make a difference. everybody that i talk to seem to know how to install it but when it comes to problems, i haven't found anybody to help me yet.

[d00med]

3.1.5 is working great here still (Mint 11). Has anyone gotten 3.2 to work in Mint?

[stefanheijnen]

3.2.0 is working just fine @ Mint 12.

Also http://duopetalflower.blogspot.com is a nice source for the latest kernel (optimized for i3, i5, i7), although it hasn't been updated for over a month.

[AlbertP]

I'm still running 3.2.0-rc7. No problems at all, it works fine even though it's an -rc release.

[d00med]

I've tried the 3.2 kernel versions from here in Mint 11 and get kernel panics with all of them. Hmm.

[AlbertP]

Perhaps this is your problem: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n ... px=MTAzNzk

[ArminasAnarchy]

I followed the guide, and got the first two packages (linux-header files) installed. The third however (the image) doesn't want to install. I double click on it to run it, but the "Install" button remains greyed out . Has anyone else had this problem? I'm running Lisa KDE RC.

I continued to reboot anyway, and I'm up and running. Is it a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", or should I be worried? Why it it the install button is greyed out?

[HealingTek]

I have 3.2.1 running fine on both Mint 11 (desktop) & Mint 12 (netbook). I didn't install the kernels from a repository, I rolled my own from scratch, but I mention it just to demonstrate that there's no inherent problem with the 3.2 series & Mint.