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How does one install the latest LTS kernel on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)?

I should note I've got a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12800H with an integrated (Intel Alder Lake-P Integrated Graphics) and a NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q]. I'm hoping the upgrade to Linux 6.1 LTS won't effect me being able to use the NVIDIA GPU.

muru
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Mohamed Bana
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3 Answers3

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Can you? Yes. Should you? Perhaps not.

But it's your system, so you're able to break it and get to keep the pieces.

The Canonical Kernel Team maintain (but importantly do not support) builds of upstream kernels, including 6.1 and newer. You can find a wiki page all about it along with the stark warning:

These kernels are not supported and are not appropriate for production use. Additionally, these kernels do not receive any security updates, therefore if you install them manually via the Mainline PPA, you will never receive a security update or patch for that version.

That said, the page details how to get the kernel, and manually install it.

There's also a handy third-party script I sometimes use to get newer kernels which also has a warning:

⚠️ Use this script at your own risk. Be aware that the kernels installed by this script are unsupported

Do not use this script if you don't have to or don't know what you are doing. You won't be covered by any security guarantees. The intended purpose by Ubuntu for the mainline ppa kernels is for debugging issues.

We strongly advise to keep the default Ubuntu kernel installed as there is no safeguard that at least one kernel is installed on your system.

So now you know how, and where to get them, but it's up to you whether you do it.

NotTheDr01ds
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popey
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Kernel 6.1 is currently in testing (lunar-proposed), and is expected to be in Ubuntu 23.04, to be released in two months. After it migrates from -proposed to main, you can test the 6.1 kernel on your hardware with a plain old 23.04 LiveUSB without installing anything.

Since you specifically asked about bolting that 6.1 kernel onto Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (not 23.04), the kernel in 23.04 will also be in the next HWE kernel update for 22.04 LTS, usually about 3-4 months later (early August 2023).

  • Keep in mind that LTS kernels are not designed or intended to be cutting-edge. Haywiring newer software onto older LTS systems is often a recipe for disaster. For newer hardware compatibility, newer software, and newer features, consider trying the 6-month releases of Ubuntu instead of LTS.
user535733
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While there is certainly some relation between upstream status and status within particular distros, it's not a rigid relationship. The base kernel for a Ubuntu LTS release is normally a LTS kernel series , but not every LTS kernel series is adopted by Ubuntu. Furthermore Ubuntu may not support each kernel for as long as upstream does.

Ubuntu has multiple kernel lines for LTS releases. As I understand it.

  • The "base" kernel. This is the kernel release series included with the LTS release from the start and is supported for the full lifecycle of the release.
  • The "hardware enablement" kernel. This is a backported kernel from a later Ubuntu release, included to better support new hardware. The precise model for HWE kernels has varied over the years, but the current model is that the kernels from the next four releases are backported and each HWE kernel is supported until the next one is backported. In particular this means that the final HWE kernel for a given lts release is the base kernel for the next lts release.
  • "OEM" kernels, these are added to support the needs of Canonicals OEM partners and can be even newer than the hardware enablement kernels. OEM kernels are maintained until the required functionality is included in a HWE kernel.

As user535733 points out, 6.1 is currently the base kernel for Ubuntu 23.04. It will likely be included in 22.04 as a HWE kernel in the future but that could till be some way off.

However it is already available in 22.04 as an OEM kernel. You can install it by doing

apt-get install linux-oem-22.04c

It is extremely unlikely however that Ubuntu will support 6.1 in the long term. Users of the OEM kernel mentioned above will likely be rolled on to a 6.1 based HWE kernel and then onto HWE kernels based on whatever kernel version is the base version in 23.10 and 24.04.

Peter Green
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