kernel updates

[bartgrefte]

Hi,

I just ran sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to update my Mint KDE 13 x64 install in VMWare Workstation. I was expecting it to update the kernel to 3.6, which it did not.

It was updated from 3.2.0-23-generic to 3.2.0-31-generic and now both that command and the Update Manager claim it's up to date. And yes, I checked level 5 (and 4) updates in the update manager.
It's the same with Synaptic, also showing nothing newer than 3.2.0-31.

Is there a reason why it won't show newer kernel updates?

[eanfrid]

Kernel 3.6 is not yet packaged but... if you use LM13, it is based upon 3.2. LM13 will not go higher until newer kernels are available and backported from newer LM or Ubuntu versions. If you want an official up-to-date kernel, you have to wait for and go to LM14.

[bartgrefte]

Well, then what about the kernels between 3.2 and 3.6, what about those?

[squeezy]

Same story with the other kernels. If they're not packaged, they're not available to install.

[bartgrefte]

Hmm, okay.

Did managed to get kernel 3.6 though

Install Linux kernel 3.6 On Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

You can install Linux Kernel 3.6 in the following Linux distributions:
- Ubuntu 12.10 / 12.04 / 11.10 or older
- Linux Mint 13 /12 or older

Open the terminal and run these commands for 32-bit and 64-bit systems:

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cd /tmp
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47950494/upubuntu.com/linux-kernel-3.6 -O linux-kernel-3.6
chmod +x linux-kernel-3.6
sudo sh linux-kernel-3.6

Restart your system to finish the installation. You can next check the kernel version with this command:

Code: Select all

uname -r

To revert back to the previous kernel, you can uninstall kernel 3.6 with this command:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.6.0-030600

If you get boot problems or unable to start your system after upgrading to this new kernel, check this tutorial which will help you uninstall a Linux Kernel using Recovery Mode.

[eanfrid]

Fetching your kernel from unofficial sources is as risky as downloading Windows on a P2P network Plus: you will have to manually follow up the kernel updates for bugs and security issues... IMO Should be better to compile it yourself to make sure it is not compromised by malicious bits. Is this kernel available in official Ubuntu 12.10 repos yet (IIRC official kernel for Ubuntu 12.10 is 3.5) ?

[bartgrefte]

Is http://kernel.ubuntu.com/ unofficial? That's where the script gets the kernel from
To be more exact: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/ma ... .6-quantal

There's nothing wrong with downloading Windows discs from P2P/torrent etc, as long as you verify the md5 and SHA-1 hash with the hashes from original discs

Hmm, so the update manager will not detect updates for this kernel?

[eanfrid]

LM13 is based on Precise Pangolin. As long as the newer kernels from QQ are not backported to PP, they can't be backported to LM13 and available in standard or romeo repos.

kernel.ubuntu.com is official but fetching a script from a userspace on dropbox.com is not

[bartgrefte]

Kernel 3.6 is not yet packaged but... if you use LM13, it is based upon 3.2. LM13 will not go higher until newer kernels are available and backported from newer LM or Ubuntu versions. If you want an official up-to-date kernel, you have to wait for and go to LM14.

LM14 is released, but not with an up-to-date kernel, it seems to be released with 3.5 instead of 3.6.

[AlbertP]

Right, it is 3.5; but upgrading to 3.6 is easy with this how-to: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=40185

The -quantal kernels from there can be installed on 14; they won't install on 13. Mint 13 users can upgrade to 3.3 or 3.4-precise using the how-to.

By default the kernel is kept at the same version in Mint to avoid breaking things (newer kernels might contain bugs); dist-upgrade does only install bugfix updates: only the number after the - sign goes up.

[bartgrefte]

If I update the kernel that way, will the update manager show newer versions of that kernel?

[AlbertP]

No. It does not update kernels by default anyway, since this is considered risky; you should not need to install any kernel update unless you have a problem with your current kernel.

[bartgrefte]

Okay.