How to make Ubuntu update the kernel less frequently?

Question

Recently Ubuntu updates the linux kernel very frequently. Most of the times it's actually the same version that is being installed (probably slightly different super minor version number).

Normally, this should be a good thing, but for me, each kernel update means I have to drop to TTY, stop lightdm, rebuild my Nvidia driver, start lightdm again and login. Then I have to rebuild and reinstall my ndiswrapper module.

It's easy, but it's annoying.

I know I can make updates less frequent in general, but I still want to get the other updates. I don't want to stop updating the kernel altogether either.

I am looking for a way to tell ubuntu to update the linux kernel less frequently, or even better, to tell it to update the linux kernel only if the minor number of the version changed.

Is this at all possible?

Answer 1

As you have written yourself, your issues are caused by two other problems and not by the updated kernel package itself. It should be easier to fix those issues and have a normal Ubuntu running than applying some kludges that may not work in the next Ubuntu release.

Finding the Nvidia driver version number

The version number of the driver is stored in meta data of the corresponding package.

$ aptitude show nvidia-current-updates
Package: nvidia-current-updates          
State: not installed
Version: 295.49-0ubuntu0.2
...

This for instance shows that nvidia-current-updates contains version 295.49. Other Packages available in the repository are nvidia-96, nvidia-173 and nvidia-current as well as packages with the -updates suffix. The package names may change between releases. You can also get newer drivers from the X Updates PPA, if you need to. If you are more comfortable using a web interface instead of the command line that's also possible via Ubuntu's packet search web interface.

Choosing a Ubuntu supported WiFi card

Your DLink DWA-110 seems to be a WiFi G standard (54 MBit) USB dongle. Apart from being a bit dated and that a USB 3.0 port wouldn't improve its performance, the really bad thing is that it needs ndiswrapper to work. Getting WiFi to work on Linux did cost a lot of effort some years ago if you didn't get one of the few good cards, but Linux support for WiFi has improved and today it's even easier to get a card or dongle that works out of the box. Which is what everyone should be aiming for when buying hardware for Linux.

My advice: Go to your local computer store or electronics discounter, make a list of what's on the shelves or compare prices of online shops, then look up the exact model number (some vendors sold cards with minor model number changes with a completely different chipset) in the compatibility list. Avoid everything with ndiswrapper, cards using the ath9k driver should be a good choice. Also take care of the date in the last updated column, don't pick one that worked 3 years ago.