Linus Torvalds announced Linux 6.8 stable as the latest Kernel series this Sunday.
For Intel, the new kernel now includes the IAA (Intel Analytics Accelerators) crypto compression kernel driver, Qualcomm WCD939X USB subsystem Altmode Mux driver. It added support for QAT 420xx devices, and Thunderbold support for next 16th gen CPUs, QAT 420xx devices. The intel_idle driver now supports ntel Meteor Lake 14th Gen CPUs. And, the issue that the maximum frequency of Core Ultra mobile processors is 100MHz less has been fixed.
AMD PMC (Power Management Controller) driver has been updated with next-gen Zen 5 CPUs support. And, the kernel now supports AMD MicroBlaze V soft-core RISC-V processor.
Kernel 6.8 also added many new devices support. They include Samsung Exynos Auto v920, Google GS101 (Tensor G1), MediaTek MT8188, Qualcomm SM8650 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3), Qualcomm X1E80100 (Snapdragon X Elite), and Unisoc UMS9620 (Tanggula 7), as well as new Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer Chromebooks with Mediatek MT8183 SoC.
For gaming, the kernel adds driver for Adafruit Seesaw gamepad, and supports Lenovo Legion Go and Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) controllers, as well as new gaming handhelds, such as Anbernic RG351V, Powkiddy RK2023, and Powkiddy X55.
Other changes in Linux Kernel 6.8 include:
Initial Rust support for LoongArch CPU.
11% higher s390 (IBM Z) system call entry performance
Linux Kernel 6.7 is finally released! Linus Torvalds announced the release on Sunday night:
So we had a little bit more going on last week compared to the holiday week before that, but certainly not enough to make me think we’d want
to delay this any further.
End result: 6.7 is (in number of commits: over 17k non-merge commits, with 1k+ merges) one of the largest kernel releases we’ve ever had, but the extra rc8 week was purely due to timing with the holidays, not about any difficulties with the larger release.
The new Kernel release has many new and improved hardware support!
For Intel, the Turbostat command utility now supports Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake (15th gen) processors; LPSS (Low-Power Sub-System) driver now support Lunar Lake M processors; The Meteor Lake (14th gen mobile processors) graphics support now considered stable.
All the newest AMD Radeon RDNA2 and RDNA3 GPUs with Display Core Next 3.0 has Seamless Boot enabled.
And, NVIDIA has GSP support in the open-source Nouveau driver for initial GeForce RTX 40 acceleration support and improved RTX 20/30 series hardware support.
There are so many tutorials teaching how to install the latest Kernel, while, this one is going to show you how to downgrade to the original GA (General Availability) Kernel 5.15 in Ubuntu 22.04.
The GA Kernel is shipped by default in the first stable release of Ubuntu 22.04. By rolling out Ubuntu 22.04.1, 22.04.2, and 22.04.3, it now has Kernel 6.2 as default (next should be 6.5 in 22.04.4).
Don’t know why, but someone asked how to revert back the original Kernel 5.15. So, here’s the quick tips show you how.
Install GA Kernel in Ubuntu:
All current Ubuntu releases, including the next Ubuntu 24.04 Noble, include linux-image-generic package in system repositories for the Generic Linux kernel.
Simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run command to install it:
sudo apt install linux-image-generic
Run sudo apt update if the command above does not work.
Boot Your Ubuntu with Kernel 5.15
After installing the kernel package, you have to either set it as default in boot-menu or remove the HWE 6.2 Kernel.
Firstly, boot/reboot your machine, press Esc while booting to show the Grub menu. Then, select boot the Kernel 5.15 from “Advanced options for Ubuntu” -> “Ubuntu, with Linux 5.15.0-xx-generic”.
After booted into Ubuntu and logged in, verify by running command in terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T):
uname -a
To make it default, either remove the HWE kernel by running command:
For those who want to install the most recent Kernel 6.6 with new hardware support or compatibility fixes, it’s now available in the zabbly repository for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Debian 12.
Linux 6.6 was released few weeks ago as the latest Kernel series. It features PSR power saving for Intel 4th/5th CPU, initial PECI support for 4th Gen Xeon, initial support for the Intel Lunar Lake VPU4, Dynamic Boost Control support for AMD Ryzen laptops, as well as various new hardware support. See HERE for more.
As Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA is stuck at old RC5 for unknown reason, there’s NO official package for the new Kernel release.
For choice, the Zabbly repository maintained by Ubuntu core developer (quit a few months ago) has updated the new kernel package for Ubuntu 22.04 & 20.04.
Add Zabbly Repository & install latest Kernel
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run the commands below one by one to add the repository and install latest Kernel:
Download & install the key:
sudo wget -O - https://pkgs.zabbly.com/key.asc |sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc
Setup the repository via single command:
sh -c 'cat <<EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zabbly-kernel-stable.sources
Enabled: yes
Types: deb
URIs: https://pkgs.zabbly.com/kernel/stable
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo ${VERSION_CODENAME})
Components: main
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc
EOF'
This is a single command for Ubuntu/Debian. For their based systems, you have to replace $(. /etc/os-release && echo ${VERSION_CODENAME}) with jammy (for 22.04 base), focal (for 20.04 base), or bookworm for Debian 12 base.
Finally, update & install the new kernel:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-zabbly
In case the previous steps are not clear enough, or it broke things up, see this step by step detailed guide instead.
Linux Torvalds announced the release of Kernel 6.6 this Monday.
It’s the latest mainline kernel so far, that features EEVDF scheduler, and per-policy CPUFreq performance boost control.
For Intel, the new kernel added Intel Shadow Stack support to prevent ROP attacks; Initial PECI support for 4th Gen Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” platforms; And, initial support for the Intel Lunar Lake VPU4.
For old laptops with Intel 4th/5th CPU, the kernel enabled Panel Self Refresh (PSR) support for power-savings.
For AMD, the kernel has Dynamic Boost Control support, Zen 5 temperature and EDAC support for AMD 1Ah processors, and FreeSync Panel Replay support with better power saving for upcoming AMD Ryzen laptops.
The cpupower utility has been updated. Now it supports for adjusting new AMD P-State driver features, include changing the AMD P-State mode, and turbo-boost mode.
For Linux system installed on EXT4 file partition, Kernel 6.6 will have 34% improvement with many concurrent writes and Apache Kafka 10% performance boost.
Linux 6.6 has many new hardware support, they include:
GameSir T4 Kaleid Controller.
SteelSeries Arctis 1 Xbox headset
New Ethernet hardware supported, including the Broadcom ASP 2.0 72165 controller, MediaTek MT7988 SoC, TI AM654 SoC, TI IEP, Atheros QCA8081 PHY. Marvell 88Q2110 PHY, and the NXP TJA1120 PHY.
MediaTek MT7981 wireless chipset
Bluetooth support for Intel Gale Peak, Qualcomm WCN3988 and WCN7850, NXP AW693 and IW624, and the MediaTek MT2925.
Other changes include:
Better protect against the illicit behavior of NVIDIA’s proprietary kernel driver.
New driver for Azoteq IQS7210A/7211A/E touch controller
Force feedback (rumble) support for the Google Stadia controller.
New sysctl interface for disabling IO_uring system-wide
Supports AP mode on the RTL8192FU, RTL8710BU (RTL8188GU), RTL8192EU, and RTL8723BU.
USB MIDI 2.0 gadget function driver
Toggle charge mode, middle fan control for ASUS WMI supported devices.
dGPU and CPU tunables for ROG laptops
How to Install Linux Kernel 6.6
The Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA somehow stuck at v6.6 RC5. So, there’s no proper way to get the Linux Kernel 6.6 at the moment of writing besides building from the source code.
Though, you can keep an eye on the third-party trustworthy Zabbly repository, which should update for the 6.6 Kernel in next few days.
Want to install the latest Linux Kernel 6.5? It’s there in your Ubuntu 22.04 system repository!
Linux Kernel 6.5 was released a week ago with exciting new features, including initial USB4 v2, MIDI 2.0 support, much faster parallel direct I/O overwrite on EXT4, Acer Aspire 1 Arm laptop, Sony Xperia M4 Aqua phone, open-source driver support for Lenovo ThinkPad X13s laptop, enhanced load balancing for Intel hybrid CPUs, Intel SoundWire ACE2.x support, and more.
Ubuntu built the Kernel package in the Mainline PPA, which sadly only installs in Ubuntu 23.10 so far due to dependency issue.
Now, for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Linux 6.5 has been made into the main repository as OEM Kernel!
What is OEM Kernel
Ubuntu LTS has a few different Kernel series. They include GA Kernel that is default in first stable release, HWE Kernel (6.2 at the moment) backported from newer Ubuntu short-term releases and default in point release (e.g., Ubuntu 22.04.1, 22.04.2).
The OEM Kernel is an Ubuntu derivative kernel, specifically for use in OEM projects.
It is a staging Kernel series with shorter life cycle. It will get rolled off to the next HWE kernel once all the fixes have been forward-ported. Meaning, Linux 6.5 will probably be the default in next Ubuntu 22.04.4.
The OEM Kernel is made and officially supported by Ubuntu Team. It’s SAFE to run in any machine according to the Wiki page.
How to Install OEM Kernel 6.5 in Ubuntu 22.04
To install the Kernel package, simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window.
When terminal opens, run command to refresh package cache:
sudo apt update
Finally, install the kernel package via:
sudo apt install linux-oem-22.04d
When done. Restart your computer, and verify by running command in a terminal window:
uname -a
Uninstall OEM Kernel 6.5
To restore the old Kernel, first start/restart your machine and choose the previous Kernel (under “Advanced”) in boot menu.
In case you removed the old Kernels, install it back by running command:
Linus Torvalds announced the release of Kernel 6.5 this Sunday. He wrote:
So nothing particularly odd or scary happened this last week, so thereis no excuse to delay the 6.5 release.
I still have this nagging feeling that a lot of people are on vacation and that things have been quiet partly due to that. But this release has been going smoothly, so that’s probably just me being paranoid. The biggest patches this last week were literally just to our selftests.
Linux Kernel 6.5 features enhanced load balancing for Intel hybrid CPUs, Intel SoundWire ACE2.x support, and new meteor Lake-S driver.
For AMD, it now uses AMD P-State driver by default rather than CPUFreq for Zen 2 and newer systems, and support Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) subsystem for AMD Ryzen 7000 series.
The AMDGPU driver enabled FreeSync video mode by default, got performance improvements and power saving optimizations.
The release also improved LoongArch support with Simultaneous Multi-Threading, SIMD/Vector Extensions. Added support for the Alibaba T-Head TH1520 RISC-V 64-bit processor, and IBM POWER10 received DEXCR support.
Other changes in Kernel 6.5 include:
Mainline support for the Acer Aspire 1 Arm laptop, Sony Xperia M4 Aqua phone.
Enable new Permission Indirection Extensions for Armv8.9
Open-source driver support for Adreno 690 that found in Lenovo ThinkPad X13s laptop.
Mediatek Vcodec driver has added support for AV1 and HEVC/H.265 stateless video codecs.
Much faster parallel direct I/O overwrite on EXT4.
Microsoft Xbox controller rumble support
Initial support for USB4 v2.
MIDI 2.0 support
How to Install Linux Kernel 6.5 in Ubuntu
As usual, the mainline Kernel PPA build the packages available to download at the link below:
Sadly, this build only installs in Ubuntu 23.10 due to dependency updates. For modern 64-bit (x86_64) PC/laptop, select download the amd64 build packages:
For those who want to install the latest Linux Kernel (6.15.x updated), there’s a new apt repository made for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 12 Bookworm.
As you may know, Ubuntu has a mainline Kernel PPA that keeps building the latest Linux Kernel packages for testing purpose. The most recent packages however do NOT support current Ubuntu 22.04 & 20.04 LTS.
For those who need the latest Kernel for new hardware support or compatibility fixes, there’s now a new repository with all current Ubuntu LTS (20.04 & 22.04) and Debian Stable (Bookworm) support.
It’s maintained by Stéphane Graber, Ubuntu core developer and project leader of Linux containers(@lxc), who quit from Canonical last month, after working for the company for 12 years.
And, he made this repository because Ubuntu’s generic kernel that he thought has sadly decreased in quality over time.
The Ubuntu kernel includes a lot of backported fixes and occasionally, those backports go bad, resulting in missing commits, introducing bugs and regressions. Unfortunately the way the Ubuntu kernel is built, tested and published comes with a lot of delays, making fixing such regressions often take weeks if not months
Install Latest Kernel in Ubuntu via new Repository
NOTE 1: This is a trustworthy, but unofficial repository!
NOTE 2: Like Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA, the packages are un-signed, you may need to turn off Secure Boot to boot the new kernel.
First, open terminal either from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview.
1. Install the GPG Key
When terminal opens, first run command to create ‘/etc/apt/keyrings’ directory, in case it does not exist:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
Then, run command to download the key and install to that directory you just created:
sudo wget -O - https://pkgs.zabbly.com/key.asc |sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc
2. Set up the source repository
Then, run command below to create & edit the source file:
Depends on your desktop environment, replace gnome-text-editor with gedit for Ubuntu 22.04 and earlier, mousepad for XFCE, or use nano that works in most Linux.
When terminal opens, add following lines and save it:
Enabled: yes
Types: deb deb-src
URIs: https://pkgs.zabbly.com/kernel/stable
Suites: noble
Components: main
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/zabbly.asc
NOTE: You have to replace noble (for 24.04, Linux Mint 22) in the code with
jammy for Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21.
focal for Ubuntu 20.04
or bookworm for Debian 12.
Also, replace amd64 with arm64 for ARM devices, such as Raspberry Pi. For nano text editor, press Ctrl+S to save, then Ctrl+X to exit.
3. Update package cache & Install Newest Kernel
When done setting up the new source repository and GPG key, run the command below to re-index system package cache:
sudo apt update
Finally, install the latest kernel, 6.15.x so far, by running command:
sudo apt install linux-zabbly
Tips: If the last command does not work, then try the command below to specify Kernel version, which also works for Kernel 6.14, 6.13, 6.12, and 6.11, etc releases.
The minor version number varies as time goes on. Type the first half of the last command (sudo apt install linux-headers-6.15) and hit Tab to list all available choices.
4. Verify
Finally, restart your machine and run the command below to verify your Kernel version in terminal:
uname -a
Uninstall:
If you have any issue with the new Kernel, just restart and select boot an old Kernel from Grub menu under ‘Advanced Options’.
Then, run the command below to remove the Kernel from Zabbly repository:
sudo apt remove --autoremove linux*zabbly*
Depends on when you tried this tutorial, the package version varies. So, I use asterisk wildcard in command to auto-select any package start with ‘linux‘ and have ‘zabbly‘ in between of package name. Just in case, it’s better to keep an eye on terminal output before hitting ‘y’ to confirm.
Also, remove the source repository by running commands below to delete the key and source file:
Linux Kernel 6.4 was released a few days ago. Ubuntu users can now install it from Kernel Mainline PPA.
Linux Kernel 6.4 features initial Apple M2 processors support, Realtek rtl8710bu/rtl8188gu, rtl8822bs, rtl8822cs and rtl8821cs WiFi hardware support, Turtle Beach and Qanba gaming controller support, and many Kye/Genius drawing tablets, such as EasyPen M406 / M506 / M406W, EasyPen 340, MousePen 508WX / 508X, and PenSketch T609A.
There are also tablet mode switching support for Lenovo Yoga notebooks, hardware sensor support for 100+ more ASUS desktop motherboards, Apple M1/M2 keyboard backlight support, initial WiFi support for Apple M1 Pro and Apple M1 Max devices, and better MSI laptops support.
How to Install Kernel 6.4 in Ubuntu 22.04+/Linux Mint 21
NOTE: The Mainline Kernel PPA is back with Kernel 6.4 packages. However, they are not appropriate for production use. Only install it for testing purpose or for specific drivers.
The Mainline Kernel PPA has built the packages for Ubuntu and its based systems with modern 64-bit (amd64), arm64/armhf mobile, ppc64el and s390x CPU architecture types support.
1. User can select download the packages from the link page below:
2. After downloading them, right click on blank area in Downloads page and select “Open in Terminal”. Finally, install the kernel packages via command:
sudo apt install ./linux*.deb
For other CPU architecture types (run uname -m to tell), select download and install the package between arm64/armhf, ppc64el and s390x builds.
For Ubuntu server, you can download and install the kernel packages by following commands:
Once installed, restart your computer and verify by running uname -a command in terminal!
Uninstall Linux Kernel 6.4:
Restart your machine, and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu under ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Depends on your machine, you may have to press and hold ‘Shift’ or ‘Esc’ key while booting to show the Grub boot-menu.
Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 6.4 few days ago on Sunday. He wrote:
Hmm. Final week of 6.4 is done, and we’ve mainly got some netfilter fixes, some mm reverts, and a few tracing updates.
There’s random small changes elsewhere: the usual architecture noise, a number of selftest updates, some filesystem fixes (btrfs, ksmb), etc.
…
The new kernel brings many new devices support. They include initial Apple M2 processors support, Realtek rtl8710bu/rtl8188gu, rtl8822bs, rtl8822cs and rtl8821cs WiFi hardware support, Turtle Beach and Qanba gaming controller support, and many Kye/Genius drawing tablets, such as EasyPen M406 / M506 / M406W, EasyPen 340, MousePen 508WX / 508X, and PenSketch T609A.
For Lenovo Yoga notebooks such as Yoga 7 14AIL7, Yoga C940, Ideapad Flex 14API, Yoga 9 14IAP7, Yoga 7 14ARB7, Kernel 6.4 now has tablet mode switching support. Also, it adds hardware sensor support for 100+ more ASUS desktop motherboards.
Other notable changes in Kernel 6.4 include:
Install Linear Address Masking (LAM) support.
AMD Guided Autonomous Mode support to improve performance and power efficiency for AMD Ryzen and AMD EPYC servers
AMD virtual NMI support for KVM virtualization
Hibernation and suspend to disk support for RISC-V processors.
Remove Intel Thunder Bay SoC support
AMD CDX support for FPGA devices to be dynamically discovered and controlled by CPU/APU.
Qualcomm QAIC accelerator driver
4K display support with the Rockchip DRM driver.
Concurrent I/O performance optimizations for Device Mapper.
Intel Lunar Lake HD audio support.
Initial WiFi support for Apple M1 Pro and Apple M1 Max devices.
Better MSI laptops support.
Apple M1/M2 keyboard backlight support
How to Get Linux Kernel 6.4
The source tarball for the new Kernel release is available to download at the official website:
For Ubuntu users, see Mainline Kernel PPAseems broken and their’s no Kernel 6.4 build at the moment, perhaps due to this issue. So, building from source code could be the only way so far to get the latest Kernel in Ubuntu.
