I installed UKUU and updated to the v4.19 a month or two ago... Now I am getting daily notices from UKUU that there are major updates available or v4.20. When I open UKUU, it shows that I am running v19.11, and have installed v4.19.7 thru 10. And it show that v4.19.13 thru 15, andn v4.20 are available... Should I update to the newest kernel?
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1I have no experience with UKUU, but this might be a duplicate of Does Ubuntu update kernels upgraded by ukuu?, or at least you might find the info you need there. – wjandrea Jan 16 '19 at 21:41
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"Should I update to the newest kernel?" Only you can answer that. "What decided to update to v4.19 in the 1st place?" could be a question I would ask myself. – Rinzwind Aug 01 '19 at 12:25
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TL;DR: use an Ubuntu kernel, either 4.15.xxx or the series of supported HWE kernels.
Security is important, and kernel updates are critical to security. So you should use a kernel that gets regular updates.
As you know, ukuu == Ubuntu Kernel Update Utility. As noted at Does Ubuntu update kernels upgraded by ukuu? - Ask Ubuntu, you have to periodically do a separate step to update ukuu kernels, beyond your usual package update procedures. In addition, note that the kernels installed by ukuu aren't tested with Ubuntu.
So unless you really need the latest mainline kernel now (e.g. for a problem with new hardware), and are willing to keep it updated and test it each time a new release comes out, ukuu sounds like a bad option.
Ubuntu offers 2 kernel options for LTS releases. You should probably use the default kernel (4.15.xxx for 18.04) unless it doesn't support your hardware. That is the easiest, default, and most thoroughly tested approach.
If you have hardware or some unusual configuration that 4.15 doesn't support, you can use the HWE kernel (currently 4.18 for 18.04, but soon 5.0 when 18.04.3 is released in August). This requires a special one-time apt install step outlined in Kernel/RollingLTSEnablementStack - Ubuntu Wiki. That will automatically keep you updated with the series of HWE kernel releases that will change 3 more times, for 18.04.3, 18.04.4 and 18.04.5 (which use the 19.04, 19.10 and 20.04 kernels).
And of course, in both approaches, security patches and other kernel upgrades will come out regularly and be automatically installed via your normal package update procedure. That's a key advantage of sticking with the Ubuntu kernels.
For more detail, see Should I upgrade to the "mainline" kernels? - Ask Ubuntu
nealmcb
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