The sixth maintenance release of Linux kernel 3.12 has been released recently, which brings several ARM and x86 improvements, numerous updated drivers (Radeon, i915, HID, hwmon, md, Ethernet, wireless, DVB, USB), various filesystem improvements (Btrfs, XFS, NFS), as well as sound and networking fixes. See the changelog for details.

Linux Kernel 3.12.6 is a very big release, Greg Kroah-Hartman recommended users of 3.12 kernel series upgrade to this release as soon as possible.

Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.12.6:

Users of Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Linux Mint, and their derivatives can easily get the DEBs of this kernel from Ubuntu Kernel page. Or follow the steps below:

1. Download the Kernel DEBs:

For 32 bit:

cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb

For 64 bit:

cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb

2. Install the DEBs:

cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.12.6-*.deb linux-image-3.12.6-*.deb

Restart your computer and done.

If you’re using proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with new kernel.

If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run commands to remove Linux Kernel 3.12.6:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.12.6-* linux-image-3.12.6-*