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I just bought a new motherboard Z97M Plus. The problem is the kernel in Ubuntu 14.04 does not fully support it. For example I have trouble setting up fan control. So my question is, is it ok to install Vivid kernel in Trusty and how to do it? Will it fix the issue?

THpubs
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2 Answers2

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In LTS versions of Ubuntu (eg 12.04, 14.04) you can install the Kernel (and X and graphics drivers) from the next standard releases, leaving everything else as-is. These "hardware enablement stacks" are supported for the life of the standard release (9 months currently), by which time you either have to upgrade to the next standard stack, upgrade to a newer LTS or downgrade to the LTS default major versions.

It can take some time for a HWE stack to be released. Utopic is latest version advertised, installable via:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic

But it seems there are some Vivid packages starting to become available. Some of the X server components are missing but if you just need the Kernel, you can install it with (Warning this didn't boot for me but it might work for you. As I say, it's early days):

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-vivid

There will be one more HWE stack for Trusty, after which you'll need to hop to 16.04 LTS via a full upgrade to keep getting major kernel updates.

Alternatively, install the latest version of Ubuntu you want, and install the Elementary packages over the top from their PPA.

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Oli
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  • Great thank you very much! Is it safe to upgrade the kernel like this? – THpubs May 22 '15 at 08:55
  • Safe enough, sure. If it all goes wrong, you can always pick an older kernel from the boot menu (and then remove the HWE stack once booted). Sidebar: I've just noticed that the Vivid packages do exist now, so I've altered the package names above. If you give me two minutes, I'll install them here and let you know if it works for me. – Oli May 22 '15 at 08:58
  • It is NOT safe to upgrade this way. This command upgrades xorg too and it is not correct. It will remove half or all Ubuntu desktop. – Pilot6 May 22 '15 at 09:02
  • @Pilot6 Can you back that up? I've run the upgrade to the Utopic HWE stack on several machines without issue. – Oli May 22 '15 at 09:05
  • I did that many times too and always had issues with removing of many packages. Maybe the best solution is to leave only kernel command, since OP asked about that? The problem is with i386 dependencies. – Pilot6 May 22 '15 at 09:07
  • There were always issues with that. In 12.04 libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-xxxx:i386 needed to be included. – Pilot6 May 22 '15 at 09:10
  • I just checked and it looks like the xserver-xorg-lts-utopic package is already installed in here by default (At least in Elementary version) – THpubs May 22 '15 at 11:00
  • There is no "elementary version", Elementary OS is not supported here. – xangua May 22 '15 at 14:45
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You can upgrade kernel to 3.16 by

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-utopic

to 3.19 by

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-vivid

But there is no guarantee that it fixes all issues with your hardware. But upgrading kernel this way is safe and can easily be reverted.

You can also upgrade graphical stack too, but the command from Ubuntu wiki is not correct. You can read HERE about installing of graphical stack HWE.

Pilot6
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