2

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. My question is: Will running "apt-get upgrade" update the kernel? I have read in some untrusted places that only running "apt-get dist-upgrade" will update the kernel.

Is it true?

P.S.Logically I don't think it should update, as it is LTS (stable release).

2
  • Is this a XY problem? If yes, ask yourself 5 times "why" you want to know that and write it down
    – PythoNic
    Mar 24, 2014 at 12:06
  • @PythoNic Well, I have been using fedora for some time and it crashed after an update and threw "CPU lockup" error every time I wanted to boot. I had exactly same problem while trying to boot into opensuse liveCD. I am guessing it's because my AMD laptop has some issues with newest kernels (3.13.x). That's is the reason I installed LTS, to have stable OS, which does not crash after an update.
    – khajvah
    Mar 24, 2014 at 12:14

3 Answers 3

2

Only those installing from the 12.04.2 or newer point release media will automatically receive a newer enablement stack by default.

To remain on the original Precise stack, Install from a previous 12.04.0 or 12.04.1 point release and update. The previous 12.04.0 and 12.04.1 releases are archived here.

Source: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack

2
  • As I understood, the last kernel update for current LTS will be 3.13.x or 3.14(if it is released) (14.04's kernel), am I right?
    – khajvah
    Mar 24, 2014 at 16:27
  • According to the 12.04 release schedule, point releases will stop with the new 14.04 LTS. So the latest HWE stack will be the saucy one. Mar 24, 2014 at 16:32
0

It's complicated.

apt-get upgrade will upgrade existing packages but not install new ones or remove existing ones. Apt-get dist-upgrade will install or remove packages if needed to upgrade other packages.

The bootloader will normally boot the newest kernel you have installed by default.

There are essentially 3 types of kernel upgrade that can happen within a ubuntu lts release.

  1. Updates where the kernel package names and (hopefully) the kernel ABI remain the same. These will happen with apt-get upgrade.
  2. Updates where the kernel ABI has changed (unfortunately some bugfixes affect the kernel ABI) but still within the same upstream release series. These will normally be pulled in by apt-get dist-upgrade but not apt-get upgrade.
  3. Hardware enablement kernels. These are essentially backports of the kernel for a newer releae. They will only be pulled in if you have the relavent hardware enablement metapackage installed.

Whether you have the hardware enablement metapackage installed depends on the installation media you used (see Sylvain's answer for details).

-1

Well Your answer is YES. but by some steps as follows:

  1. Add kernel repository

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kernel-ppa/ppa
    
  2. after this this ask you for password . you can enter your password and hit enter and now again run following command.

    sudo apt-get update
    
  3. Now again follows command to check did you add Kernel properly.

    apt-cache showpkg linux-headers
    
  4. now one more and you done :).

    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.8.0-26 linux-headers-3.8.0-26-generic linux-image-3.8.0-26-generic --fix-missing
    

Now You can restart you system and you done. :)

1
  • 1
    The user is not asking how to upgrade to the latest version. for LTS releases, new kernels comes with a new Hardware Enablement Stack and can be listed with apt-cache search linux-generic lts. Moreover you're strongly encourage to install both linux-generic-lts-saucy AND xserver-xorg-lts-saucy, not only the kernel in case you want to get new hw support. Mar 24, 2014 at 12:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .