I  have Ubuntu systems and I have old kernel. I want to upgrade my Linux system kernel. How can I do that? Linux kernel can be upgraded by two ways one way is getting source code compiling and installing it. Second way is by using package manager to update kernel. We will look how to update kernel for different distributions. Keep in mind that upgrade operation needs root privileges.

What Is Linux Kernel?

Linux is actually not a complete operating system. It is just a kernel. Kernel means the low level part of the operating system which mainly provide system resources to the applications and high level services. Linux kernel management resources like RAM, CPU, Disk, Input/Output Graphics etc. Linux kernel also manage processes and user rights.

List Current Linux Kernel

Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Kali

We will use dpkg command in order to list currently installed Linux kernel version.

Fedora, CentOS, RedHat

We will use rpm command in order to list currently install Linux kernel version for Fedora, CentOS, RedHat.

Get New Linux Kernel

During the update of the Linux kernel we need root privileges so we will use sudo command with the package management commands yum and apt

Ubuntu, Debian

As Linux kernel is named as linux-image in deb based distributions we will upgrade all linux-image packages with the following apt command.

Fedora, CentOS

And distributions like Fedora, CentOS, RedHat names Linux kernel package as kernel and we will update the kernel package with the following yum command.