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I'm running 14.04 and installed the 4.02 kernel several months ago because it supported my hardware better (ThinkPad T450s) than the 3.13 kernel.

When I run software update, however, it does not update the 4.x kernel at all -- just the 3.13 one.

I also see that 4.0.x is marked EOL at kernel.org and that 4.1.3 is now listed as the current stable kernel.

Questions:

  • Do I need to install the newest kernel manually as I did with 4.0 in the first place?
  • And what would happen if I just removed 3.13 from my system? Would that cause the Software Updater to look for 4.x updates?

Thanks!

Dan Gillmor
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2 Answers2

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Kernels that are not supported by Ubuntu will never be updated.

You can install the latest stable supported Ubuntu kernel 3.19 by running

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

It will get updates.

If you just remove 3.13, you will get no kernel updates at all.

Pilot6
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I assume, you have installed the kernel manually without a PPA or from the Ubuntu repositories. Therefore you will never get an update and also not, if you remove you 3.x kernel.

To install a supported kernel, follow @Pilot6 answer or search a PPA for a kernel with version 4+.

Or install a kernel via deb packes from here, but you have to repeat this procedure for each new kernel version.

Eg (replace the filenames with you preferred kernel version):

  1. Download the packages

    For 64 bit systems

    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_all.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
    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
    

    For 32 bit systems

    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_all.deb
    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_i386.deb
    wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-image-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_i386.deb
    
  2. Install the packages

    sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.0.0-*.deb linux-image-4.0.0-*.deb
    
  3. Update grub

    sudo update-grub
    
  4. Reboot your system

A.B.
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  • Many thanks for replies -- I'll give this a try. (And yes, it's how I did it before.) – Dan Gillmor Jul 29 '15 at 01:13
  • Installed without difficulty -- looks like I'll continue to do so until the meta its-wily packages are available. – Dan Gillmor Jul 29 '15 at 01:57
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    Don't thank me! ;-) If you like my answer, just click the little grey under the "0" now turning it into beautiful green. If you do not like my answer, click on the little grey down-arrow below the 0, and if you really like my answer, click on the little grey checkmark and the little up-arrow... If you have any further questions, go to askubuntu.com/questions/ask – A.B. Jul 29 '15 at 04:40