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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Upgrading Ubuntu Linux Kernel

Sometimes there are problems with the kernel that a Ubuntu distro ships with. For example, on 16.04 LTS release image, my ThinkPad Yoga 14 S3 often fails to resume from sleep. And the latest version of this writing, 4.13.12, caused intermittent WiFi issue which required me to re-connect to the AP periodically.

In short, sometimes there are needs to switch to different kernel versions (sometimes older) to find the one that is the most stable for the hardware in subject.

Here's how you upgrade Linux Kernel:
1. Pick the kernel to update to in:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

2. Download the 'generic' version of the right architecture (3 deb files)

3. Install the kernel from terminal
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

4. Reboot your system!

Tips:
You can boot to a different kernel version in Ubuntu. While booting up, once you get into GRUB bootloader, pick "Advanced Option" and select the version of kernel you want to use.