Upgrading the Linux kernel in Ubuntu shouldn’t be done by everyone, and if you decide to do it, make sure it’s tested and compatible with your system before upgrading or you may render it inoperable. It’s wise to upgrade your kernel with Ubuntu updates, as it has been tested and approved for use in Ubuntu by Canonical.

The Linux kernel is the main operating system kernel used my the various Linux operating systems, including Ubuntu. It is the kernel that has direct access to your system’s hardware. Without it, your Ubuntu or other OSs may just be fancy applications without hardware to run on.

This brief tutorial is going to show you how to easily upgrade to the latest Linux kernel in Ubuntu 12.10 / 12.04 and previous versions that’s compatible with it. If your system isn’t compatible with the latest kernel version, please don’t do it.

The simple reason you may want to upgrade your kernel in Ubuntu is to take advantage of the latest features that have been added since the last kernel release. As always, new kernels have support for newer technologies and hardware. So if your current kernel isn’t compatible with some  of your system’s hardware, you may want to upgrade to the latest kernel to use it.

Now, be very careful when do this and also make you’re upgrading to the latest stable or well tested kernel.

To get started, go to the link below and download a compatible kernel version for your system. If you’re using a 32-bit architecture, download the i386 .deb packages. For 64-bit, download the amd .deb packages.

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

You must download these three (4) pacakges:

  • linux-headers-x.x.x-generic_i386.deb
  • linux-headers-x.x.x_i386_all.deb
  • linux-image-x.x.x.x-generic_i386.deb
  • linux-image-extra-x.x.x-generic_i386.deb

In most cases, you may want to download the ones with the generic tag. linux-headers—generic, etc.

When you’re ready, change into the ~/Downloads folder in your home directory. (cd ~/Downloads)

Next, go to the download page and right-click on each of the link to you wish to download and select ‘Copy Link Location’

 

kernel_upgrade_ubuntu

 

Then in the terminal, begin the line with wget command and paste the url after it.

 

kernel_upgrade_ubuntu_1

 

Do it for each of the link you’re downloading (linux-hearders, linux-image, linix-image-extras) and press Enter.

 

kernel_upgrade_ubuntu_2

 

After downloading all the the files, run the commands below to install or upgrade the kernel on your system.

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

 

kernel_upgrade_ubuntu_3

 

Finally, run the command below to update grub, then reboot your system.

sudo update-grub2

 

To verify, run this command

uname –r

 

Enjoy!