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Rasmus
Asked: 2012-08-22 08:47:39 +0800 CST

How can I ensure I am running the current stock kernel?

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At some point, I installed a new kernel, for no particular purpose but to try.

I am having some problems, and would like to ensure that they are not caused by the kernel I installed.

How can I generally find out whether I'm using the newest available official kernel? If I'm not, how can I then change (up- or downgrade) to the latest official version?

(I'm using Ubuntu 12.04, running kernel 3.3.0-030300-generic)

upgrade

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer
    • Use uname -r to find your running kernel version/variant
      • For example, 12.04 stock 64-bit returns 3.2.0-29-generic
    • Note that stock/official kernels only have 2 or 3 digits after the "points", e.g. -29 here.
    • The mainline/custom kernels have six digits, so the 030300 you are running is NOT a stock kernel
    • You can update to the latest stock kernel by running sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic or ...generic-pae, depending on what your uname -r output shows you
    • You can choose kernels at boot from the GRUB menu, just keep Shift pressed down
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  2. I think, the current officially released kernel, for update, is 3.2.0-29, because I keep my machine updated and I've got no notifications for kernel updates.

    Note that it is not recommended to manually update the kernel. You should just keep your Ubuntu updated using Update Manager and that would take care of everything.

    If you do want to try out the new kernels, download the kernel from the Ubuntu PPA.

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