Old kernels on Linux Mint 17.x

[Monsta]

Speaking of Mint 17.x, I'm wondering if people still run kernel 3.16 in 17.2 and 3.19 in 17.3.

[JeremyB]

I would say yes there are people still using 3.16 and 3.19 kernels in LM18 and I would say the same for Ubuntu 14.04.2 and 14.04.3

[Monsta]

Well, they're EOL since August 2016. It was briefly mentioned at http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3083 along with other news...

[Moem]

Speaking of Mint 17.x, I'm wondering if people still run kernel 3.16 in 17.2 and 3.19 in 17.3.

I'm sure they do. After all, how are they going to know that's not advisable? I bet most Mint users do not read the forums or the blog. I can't blame them... I never read a Windows forum or blog and I used Windows for 20 years.

[JeremyB]

Not much we can do about it. Forcing them to switch to LTS kernel may cause issues as they could lose support for hardware either way as some dkms packages might not be patched for the 4.4 kernel in the trusty repos and a lot of new hardware isn't supported in 3.13

[Cosmo.]

I just found, that I forgot to link the source for my post

mintupdate:
...
mint notices

It is taken from here (scroll to the "planned" section and look at the "Mint tools" department)

[Moem]

In this case the users would get informed about the problem, but would have to take the appropriate measurement on their own, so that a sudden breakage of hardware support could be avoided.

That seems like as perfect a solution as we can hope for. Like you said: for 17.x and 18.x, yes please.

[stormryder]

Well I'm still running 3.19 because I can't find which grub menu to update to point to the new kernel whenever I install it, tried every one I could find. So even though I know about it there is nothing I can do about it. Oh, I know its my fault for wanting to keep my windows partition and obviously not setting up triple boot properly, but no one else is gonna do it for me.

That seems like as perfect a solution as we can hope for.

Seems like a better solution would be to use a kernel that is supported for the same amount of time as the point release. Will 18.3 have a short term kernel too?

[Hoser Rob]

I think the basic issue here is really that Mint (other than LMDE) is Ubuntu based, and as of 14.04 Ubuntu is putting out Long Term Service releases that do not use LTS kernels. Not even Ubuntu Server edition.

What the frak type of sysadmin is going to install a server ... and they amost always install LTS versions of whatever distro it is ... without an LTS kernel?

I don't think installing a 4.x series kernel in 17.3 is such a great idea though. Some people do it for hardware support issues but using a newer kernel is as likely to break something as to fix something.

[sarge816]

Using 3.19.80 on all three of my computers using 17.3 Rosa. The reason? Two of the units are laptops and the 4.x Kernel breaks resume when opening the lid after a suspend. The other unit is a desktop with AMD APU Radeon/graphics and just wasn't interested in wrestling with Linux without the FGLRX until the open source drivers are more mature. My HTPC is also 17.3 Rosa and I keep the kernel upgraded through the update manager and no issues.

Will skip 18.x altogether and when 2019 rolls around I'll see what's available, Mint or otherwise.

[JeremyB]

Using 3.19.80 on all three of my computers using 17.3 Rosa. The reason? Two of the units are laptops and the 4.x Kernel breaks resume when opening the lid after a suspend. The other unit is a desktop with AMD APU Radeon/graphics and just wasn't interested in wrestling with Linux without the FGLRX until the open source drivers are more mature. My HTPC is also 17.3 Rosa and I keep the kernel upgraded through the update manager and no issues.

Will skip 18.x altogether and when 2019 rolls around I'll see what's available, Mint or otherwise.

Have you tried the newest 3.13 kernel in the Update Manager's kernel list? You will need to use the Grub Menu to boot into the 3.13 but the 3.13 kernel has many security updates that 3.19 never got

[JeremyB]

Well I'm still running 3.19 because I can't find which grub menu to update to point to the new kernel whenever I install it, tried every one I could find. So even though I know about it there is nothing I can do about it. Oh, I know its my fault for wanting to keep my windows partition and obviously not setting up triple boot properly, but no one else is gonna do it for me.

That seems like as perfect a solution as we can hope for.

Seems like a better solution would be to use a kernel that is supported for the same amount of time as the point release. Will 18.3 have a short term kernel too?

A triple boot? What is the third OS? You might have to run sudo update-grub from the third OS if it was the last installed and it also uses Grub

[sarge816]

Have you tried the newest 3.13 kernel in the Update Manager's kernel list? You will need to use the Grub Menu to boot into the 3.13 but the 3.13 kernel has many security updates that 3.19 never got

Thanks and Done. It seems to be fine. I really wasn't all that worried about security fixes as most of the issues seem somewhat obscure for a normal user, but you never know. It's so easy to install different kernels in Mint I decided to not be lazy. 3.13 is an LTS kernel so I assume that means it will be supported until end of life for 17.x (2019). I'm committed and I've uninstalled all the other kernels so it boots directly without having to enter grub. Will be installing it on the other computers soon. Thanks again.

[stormryder]

A triple boot? What is the third OS?

I was trying out Debian til I busted some sound stuff trying to get a bluetooth speaker working. I just installed mint over the Debian partition thinking I might try to see if I could fix the sound problem but gave it up as a lost cause. I just haven't gotten around to installing anything else on the partition with no sound yet.

You might have to run sudo update-grub from the third OS if it was the last installed and it also uses Grub

Yes, I found it hidden in the advanced options on the grub menu, I can't get to the desktop with either the 3.13 or 4.4 series. 4.4 complains of nvidia issues, 3.13 just black screen after I see the lm logo. Perhaps when I've got more time I'll make an inquiry about it in the Installation and Boot section. I never had any issues like that when I installed.