How to upgrade to the latest kernel

Question

I'm looking at the official repo, https://github.com/torvalds/linux - how would I replace the ubuntu 15.04 kernel (3.x) with the latest, 4.x one? My current system has the x86_64 architecture.

Solution 1

Download the kernals:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-image-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_amd64.deb

Install using:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.0.0*.deb linux-image-4.0.0*.deb

Note: Canonical does not recommend updating your kernal via this method, yet. Some hardware components may not work properly.

Solution 2

Go here: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ Scroll to the bottom Download 3 (maybe 4) debs to a folder somewhere:

linux-headers-VERSION-NUMBER_all.deb
linux-headers-VERSION-NUMBER_amd64.deb
linux-image-VERSION-NUMBER_amd64.deb
linux-image-extra-VERSION-NUMBER_amd64.deb   # if available

Install the debs with whatever package manager front-end you use (is gdebi still around?), or use these commands:

cd /path/to/folder/where/you/put/the/debs
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Comments

[Gabor]

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/lin‌​ux-headers-4.0.0-040‌​000_4.0.0-040000.201‌​504121935_all.deb is needed to fix the missing dependency error

[Hi-Angel]

Worth mentioning: you probably don't want kernels postfixed with -rcδ, they're, like, pre-release kernels for testing.