How To Update and Upgrade Linux Kernel?
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.
1 | $ dpkg -l | grep "linux-image" |
List Current Linux Kernel
Fedora, CentOS, RedHat
We will use rpm command in order to list currently install Linux kernel version for Fedora, CentOS, RedHat.
1 | $ yum list installed | grep kernel |
List Current Linux Kernel
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.
1 | $ sudo apt-get update linux-image* |
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.
1 | $ sudo yum update kernel-* |
