Newer "mainline" versions of the kernel are available from the Ubuntu kernel team, e.g. 3.4 and 3.5, while Ubuntu 12.04 is on 3.2.
- What are the mainline kernels?
- Are they better than my existing kernel?
- What are the pros and cons of upgrading to a mainline kernel?
- Will I easily be able to go back?
Best Answer
Upgrading to a mainline kernel is usually not a good idea
1. They are provided only for testing and are unsupported
2. They will often break drivers, especially Nvidia/AMD and wireless (Broadcom)
3. You should only install these if you believe they may fix a critical problem you are having with the current kernel
4. If you install a mainline or other newer kernel, you can still choose to use your old (stable) kernel by selecting it at boot-time:
Keep Shift pressed after turning on your computer.
You will see the Grub menu as shown below. User the down arrow to go to "Previous Linux Versions" and press Enter
Select the option which has a version of x.x.x-generic, NOT one that has x.x.x-yyyyyy-generic and press Enter. This is usually the first option unless you have installed multiple mainline/custom kernels.