Ubuntu – Hasn’t the Kubuntu 14.04 LTS upgraded to the 4.4 kernel series

14.04kernelkubuntu

In this question, I learned that Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS has moved to the 4.4.* kernel series. I installed Kubuntu 14.04.0 when it was fresh, and have been happily running on the 3.13.* series (currently at 3.13.0-96-generic) since — and never have I been prompted to upgraded the kernel outside the 3.13.* series. My system reports the following version information:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

but my kernel version shows:

$ uname -a
Linux Kubuntu64 3.13.0-96-generic #143-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 29 20:15:20 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The question I linked above is about Ubuntu, and I'm running Kubuntu, with the nVidia 352 driver (which shows as "recommended driver"). I use Synaptic instead of the default package installer, and have a root password set up (because when I came to Kubuntu I was used to using root to do certain things on Mepis 11), but I've made no other significant system changes.

So — is this something I should try to correct (by manually upgrading to a 4.4.* series kernel metapackage), or something that makes little difference, or something I should avoid because of, say, nVidia drivers? FWIW, my Kubuntu 16.04.1 installation has 4.4.* kernel, and nVidia 361 drivers, but I still use my 14.04 for daily use, because I don't like some of the interface changes in Kubuntu 16.04.

My system is old — Core2Quad CPU with a compatible motherboard, and though my OS lives on a SSD, that uses SATA, which is fairly old as well. The only reasonably up-to-date hardware I have is my video, a GTx750, but that's managed by the nVidia drivers, and shouldn't require an updated kernel.

Best Answer

You need to install the Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) to get to the 4.4 kernel.

Run the following command from a terminal window to update your 14.04 to a 4.4 kernel:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-core-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-xenial

Even though this references Xenial, this is not upgrading the OS to 16.04. It is only upgrading the Kernel to that of 16.04 (Xenial). Since Xenial is LTS, this Kernel version will continue support until April 2019. The 3.13 Kernel will also remain on the system and you can always go back to it by selecting Advanced during the bootup of the system.

Kernel support schedule: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Support

More information can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

Hope this helps!

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