How do you like updating your kernel.

I just got an intel AX200 to replace the killer wireless nic in my XPS 15. I dropped it in and booted into Pop Os to find there wasn’t a driver. No big deal though, I looked into the documentation and Intel says they will support it in kernel 5.1. I grab the .deb’s from Ubuntu’s site and install them. The header throws errors and I can’t fix them. I purged and tried 3 different versions with no luck. Finally figure I’d do it the lazy way and added the repo for ukuu. Tried to install it and it can’t find the package. Turns out the dev switched it to a paid license model. After more research I found I could install an old version through snap for free. Get that done, purge all my old failed kernel installs, and install 5.1.9. Reboot and nothing. No WiFi. Go back and look some more to find out that intel hasn’t supported it when they said they would. No big deal, tossed my killer back in and I’m good to go.

But it got me thinking. What’s your preferred way to update your kernel? Or do you even bother? I usually just stick with the stable release that comes with a distro but I tend to buy hardware before it’s well supported in Linux. Do you like ukuu? Do you just grab the files and do it in terminal? Is there a better way that I don’t know about yet?

eh I just update when the ubuntu version I use updates.

Just use UKUU. You can use it on LTS releases and it works fine, just avoid the kernels marked as regressions.

I did this for years without a single issue.

I understand UKUU has much the same functionality... but Manjaro just makes life easier. I have compiled my own a few times... but honestly it doesn't make a super noticable difference outside a few benchmarks. Manjaro pushes kernel patch updates pretty much weekly... and there settings manager reminds you when a new kernel line is "recommended' basically once it hits x.x-2+ versioning.

ChadD said:

I understand UKUU has much the same functionality... but Manjaro just makes life easier. I have compiled my own a few times... but honestly it doesn't make a super noticable difference outside a few benchmarks. Manjaro pushes kernel patch updates pretty much weekly... and there settings manager reminds you when a new kernel line is "recommended' basically once it hits x.x-2+ versioning.

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It's really no different under UKUU. The Ubuntu updater will push necessary kernel patches ~weekly, while UKUU will inform the user every time a recommended kernel revision is released and allows updating at the push of a button.

As someone that used to update kernels all the time for no real reason, I'm now of the opinion that if it ain't broke, there's nothing to fix. Not as a result of any issue updating kernels, but because I never really noticed any outright benefit in doing so beyond driver updates - Which have never been a problem for me.

I just get them whenever Arch pushes them.

Vermillion said:

I just get them whenever Arch pushes them.

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Any time I can use the optimized repo-ck kernel on Arch, I update as frequently as they arrive.

Vermillion said:

I just get them whenever Arch pushes them.

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I used to, but these days I just can't see the point unless I specifically have an issue. Honestly, there was nothing gained in flashing the kernel vs normal kernel patching in my experience. Bleeding edge kernels won't work with Nvidia anyway.

EDIT: Dunno why I said 'flashing' the kernel, more like force updating the kernel - You get the idea!

Mazzspeed said:

I used to, but these days I just can't see the point unless I specifically have an issue. Honestly, there was nothing gained in flashing the kernel vs normal kernel patching in my experience. Bleeding edge kernels won't work with Nvidia anyway.

EDIT: Dunno why I said 'flashing' the kernel, more like force updating the kernel - You get the idea!

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I have run NV and don't have problems with bleeding edge. Distros like Arch and Solus make it all work. If I get a kernel update there's updated NV package as well.

Vermillion said:

I have run NV and don't have problems with bleeding edge. Distros like Arch and Solus make it all work. If I get a kernel update there's updated NV package as well.

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More like, when you get an Nvidia update that supports the latest kernel you get a corresponding kernel update?

Mazzspeed said:

More like, when you get an Nvidia update that supports the latest kernel you get a corresponding kernel update?

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I have an old system with a 750ti running arch... and ya believe its on 5.2 right now. Arch pushes NV drivers for every little kernel update. Haven't noticed any issues at least so far. Granted I'm not using that machine for heavy gaming of course. No issues I have seen though. I prefer AMD and a clean kernel... but ya no issue with NV it just runs. I am not sure if they are doing a ton of work to make things run smooth or not.

ChadD said:

I have an old system with a 750ti running arch... and ya believe its on 5.2 right now. Arch pushes NV drivers for every little kernel update. Haven't noticed any issues at least so far. Granted I'm not using that machine for heavy gaming of course. No issues I have seen though. I prefer AMD and a clean kernel... but ya no issue with NV it just runs. I am not sure if they are doing a ton of work to make things run smooth or not.

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Exactly, Nvidia just released 430.40 which will be compatible with 5.2. Therefore you get 5.2.

What are you suggesting, that Arch compile the binary blobs to be compatible with bleeding edge kernels they're not compatible with? I'm not entirely sure you can do that with the binary blobs. Ubuntu uses DKMS and I can recompile the drivers after a kernel update if need be, but that's by no means 100% guaranteed to result in working drivers with bleeding edge kernels.

I think you'll find the kernel will be released once it's determined the Nvidia driver will compile against the kernel 100% in the case of the user running Nvidia hardware.

Mazzspeed said:

Exactly, Nvidia just released 430.40 which will be compatible with 5.2. Therefore you get 5.2.

What are you suggesting, that Arch compile the binary blobs to be compatible with bleeding edge kernels they're not compatible with? I'm not entirely sure you can do that with the binary blobs. Ubuntu uses DKMS and I can recompile the drivers after a kernel update if need be, but that's by no means 100% guaranteed to result in working drivers with bleeding edge kernels.

I think you'll find the kernel will be released once it's determined the Nvidia driver will compile against the kernel 100% in the case of the user running Nvidia hardware.

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Arch pushes kernels pretty much the day they release. I haven't noticed that breaking my NV setup at all. I doubt it's the work of NV frankly.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA
IME as long as you add the nvidia package hook to pacman, as they suggest switching arch kernels is extremely painless. Most issues with nvidia tend to stem from initramfs not being updated properly. Adding a hook in pacman takes care of that. It isn't hard to add to an arch install just have to create a /etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia.hook file that defines which nvidia packages you want.
As for arch packages... yes they have packages for kernels without official nvidia support. There is a Linux53-nvidia package for example. They do provide a DKMS package... but they also provide precompiled non DKMS for everything including release candidate kernels.

In any event, I'm not giving you a hard time about NV for once. lol Yes it for the most part just works as long as the distro developers are catering to NV. Arch does that... and so does basically every major distro these days. NV hardware is pretty common. Only time I have had to mess around more then I would like would be opensuse tumbleweed, although with the latest non Release candidate kernels even they are not that bad these days. (support for one click and even os first install NV non-free drivers has really picked up the last few years... I understand Ubuntu is even including NV driver packages in their install iso now)

I update when I have a compelling reason to do so. Otherwise I just upgrade when the distro I am on does. I tend to stick with stable / Lts distro's so not really that often.

KarsusTG said:

I update when I have a compelling reason to do so. Otherwise I just upgrade when the distro I am on does. I tend to stick with stable / Lts distro's so not really that often.

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My thoughts exactly. It's like updating firmware, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Not that I've ever experienced an issue updating a kernel.

Now here's something I wasn't aware of and I know many others here weren't aware of. If you're running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with the HWE (Hardware Enablement) stack enabled (which it is by default on all builds after 18.04.2) than every xx.xx.2 release you get a kernel update.

My KDE Neon install updated to kernel version 5.0 today as part of scheduled updates and what's more I've noticed that under KDE Neon I don't need to reboot after a kernel update, in fact I haven't once rebooted yet after many large updates.

This is something that really appeals to me as I have no intention of running bleeding edge kernels anyway. Good news for LTS users. My NVIDIA drivers updated at the same time.

I love updating kernels as there are always (often) a ton of new networking features I like to play with. I know VRF support is "recent" (last 2 years) and AMD OSS drivers are updated in each kernel.

I actually read through kernelnewbies to find out what exciting stuff is included in the kernel I don't yet have. YMMV of course.

the j option depends on your core count, but I prefer the below

<pull code down from kernel.org or git)
make menuconfig
make -j24 bindeb-pkg

every new version on new hardware, and then after about 6 months, whenever there's a new interesting feature I like being worked on. On older machines, I try and reboot once every quarter only because I keep them all updated to current debian unstable and I dont like being surprised that so much has changed between reboots that I dont even recognize the init system anymore in case I have to troubleshoot something no longer working. If i'm going to do that reboot, I usually upgrade the kernel too.