Anyone using Ubuntu LTS with "mainstream" kernel updates?
Hi all, As just the latest chapter of some of my recent distribution-hopping adventures, I find myself needing to investigate the use of Ubuntu (or to be specific Kubuntu) LTS version. It's mainly because of third-party support, stuff that I want to use is officially supported on Ubuntu LTS, RHEL and clones (ie, Rocky) and little else. What I want is community-supported on Fedora, CatchyOS and elsewhere, but that means going through hoops and update-breakage risks that I'd care to avoid. Here's the problem: my newish hardware isn't fully supported by kernels older than 6.16.9 and *ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS ships with 6.8. There are two ways to get newer kernels with Ubuntu LTS. One, "Hardware Enablement" (HWE) goes up to 6,14, closer but not quite. Another path, the "Mainline kernel PPA <https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/dashboard.html>" offers kernels as current as 6.18-rc7 but is unsupported and not recommended for anything but experimental systems. My main problem should alleviate on February 12 when Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS is scheduled for release, with the HWE kernel will be at oldest 6.17. Between now and then I must choose between (a) hardware that isn't fully functional, (b) a provided-but-unsupported kernel update that is not recommended for anything but testing. My question here is whether anyone reading this has any experience with Ubuntu LTS using Mainline kernels. If so, how stable was it? Thanks! -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
I have Kubuntu 24.04.03 LTS (along with Linux Mint and LMDE) on VirtualBox. I use them to cross-compile for embedded boards, and also to see how they compare. Try compiling your latest kernel yourself. See if it compiles... tar -xJf linux-6.17.9.tar.xz cd linux-6.17.9 export KBUILD_OUTPUT=6.17.9-test export LOCALVERSION=-test make kernelversion --> it should print "6.17.9" cp /boot/config-6.14.0-36-generic $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config make olddefconfig Here, check and enable special hardware supports you want. You may need to install few packages, like "ncurses-dev", "flex", "bison", "build-essentials", and "kdms". make menuconfig make kernelrelease --> it should print "6.17.9-test" time make -j4 all Share the result in the morning. On 2025-11-30 17:52, Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote:
Hi all,
As just the latest chapter of some of my recent distribution-hopping adventures, I find myself needing to investigate the use of Ubuntu (or to be specific Kubuntu) LTS version. It's mainly because of third-party support, stuff that I want to use is officially supported on Ubuntu LTS, RHEL and clones (ie, Rocky) and little else. What I want is community-supported on Fedora, CatchyOS and elsewhere, but that means going through hoops and update-breakage risks that I'd care to avoid.
Here's the problem: my newish hardware isn't fully supported by kernels older than 6.16.9 and *ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS ships with 6.8. There are two ways to get newer kernels with Ubuntu LTS. One, "Hardware Enablement" (HWE) goes up to 6,14, closer but not quite. Another path, the "Mainline kernel PPA <https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/dashboard.html>" offers kernels as current as 6.18-rc7 but is unsupported and not recommended for anything but experimental systems.
My main problem should alleviate on February 12 when Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS is scheduled for release, with the HWE kernel will be at oldest 6.17. Between now and then I must choose between (a) hardware that isn't fully functional, (b) a provided-but-unsupported kernel update that is not recommended for anything but testing.
My question here is whether anyone reading this has any experience with Ubuntu LTS using Mainline kernels. If so, how stable was it? Thanks!
-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
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On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I have Kubuntu 24.04.03 LTS (along with Linux Mint and LMDE) on VirtualBox. I use them to cross-compile for embedded boards, and also to see how they compare. Try compiling your latest kernel yourself. See if it compiles...
tar -xJf linux-6.17.9.tar.xz cd linux-6.17.9
export KBUILD_OUTPUT=6.17.9-test export LOCALVERSION=-test
make kernelversion --> it should print "6.17.9" cp /boot/config-6.14.0-36-generic $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config
hmmm. These are really unnecessary steps if you are only building a one off.
make olddefconfig
I would suggest using make localmodconfig instead of make olddefconfig.
localmodconfig will check what modules are loaded and set those to "m" in .config while turning off unused config options.
Here, check and enable special hardware supports you want. You may need to install few packages, like "ncurses-dev", "flex", "bison", "build-essentials", and "kdms".
Ubuntu/Debian - sudo apt install bc binutils bison dwarves flex gcc git make openssl \ pahole perl-base libssl-dev libelf-dev
make menuconfig
Unnecessary since you already did the make oldconfig
make kernelrelease --> it should print "6.17.9-test"
time make -j4 all
so, just do lscpu to get a core count, and 4 x NR_CPUS (or if you don't have enough RAM 2x should be fine)
But really, why don't you just install from the PPA? If it fails, you can always fall back to the older booting kernel. Dhaval
On 2025-12-01 04:09, Dhaval Giani wrote:
On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
make menuconfig
Unnecessary since you already did the make oldconfig
Actually, this is central point. The NEW hardware most likely defaults to 'n'. Evan has to check that it is 'y' or 'm'. I use "make olddefconfig" just to avoid all those questions about NEW parameters. There would be a lot, going from 6.14 to 6.17. Usually, I don't care, because I don't have all those hardwares. I can go directly to "make menuconfig", but the menu dialog hides messages that may or may not be relevant. So, I make sure "olddefconfig" passes without messages. Then, I go to "menuconfig" to adjust those NEW parameters, if what I need is different from the defaults. After things are installed (to /boot and /lib/modules), Evan has to add to grub menu. It's been long time since I did that, so can't write off top of my head.
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
Actually, this is central point. The NEW hardware most likely defaults to 'n'. Evan has to check that it is 'y' or 'm'. I use "make olddefconfig" just to avoid all those questions about NEW parameters.
I want to avoid all that too. So just working with the preconfigured .deb files is good enough for me. After things are installed (to /boot and /lib/modules), Evan has to add to
grub menu.
That's what grub-mkconfig is for 🙂. Easy peasy. - Evan
I just tried compiling 6.17.9 on Kubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (kernel 6.14.0-36-generic). It errors out make[3]: *** No rule to make target 'debian/canonical-certs.pem', needed by 'certs/x509_certificate_list'. Stop. And, I can't find the file on my system. All for naught... On 2025-12-01 17:21, William Park via Talk wrote:
On 2025-12-01 04:09, Dhaval Giani wrote:
On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 9:49 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
make menuconfig
Unnecessary since you already did the make oldconfig
Actually, this is central point. The NEW hardware most likely defaults to 'n'. Evan has to check that it is 'y' or 'm'.
I use "make olddefconfig" just to avoid all those questions about NEW parameters. There would be a lot, going from 6.14 to 6.17. Usually, I don't care, because I don't have all those hardwares. I can go directly to "make menuconfig", but the menu dialog hides messages that may or may not be relevant. So, I make sure "olddefconfig" passes without messages. Then, I go to "menuconfig" to adjust those NEW parameters, if what I need is different from the defaults.
After things are installed (to /boot and /lib/modules), Evan has to add to grub menu. It's been long time since I did that, so can't write off top of my head.
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On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 6:46 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I just tried compiling 6.17.9 on Kubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (kernel 6.14.0-36-generic). It errors out
make[3]: *** No rule to make target 'debian/canonical-certs.pem', needed by 'certs/x509_certificate_list'. Stop.
And, I can't find the file on my system. All for naught...
There's always https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.17.9/ They built it successfully for all targets except *i386*, which has been failing for so long I don't know why they bother even trying anymore. - Evan
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I just tried compiling 6.17.9 on Kubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (kernel 6.14.0-36-generic). It errors out
make[3]: *** No rule to make target 'debian/canonical-certs.pem', needed by 'certs/x509_certificate_list'. Stop.
And, I can't find the file on my system. All for naught...
I remember seeing that and remember needing to unset CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS CONFIG_SYSTEM_REVOCATION_KEYS Thanks! Dhaval
On Tue, Dec 2, 2025 at 4:59 AM Dhaval Giani via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 3:45 PM William Park via Talk < talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I just tried compiling 6.17.9 on Kubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (kernel 6.14.0-36-generic). It errors out
make[3]: *** No rule to make target 'debian/canonical-certs.pem', needed by 'certs/x509_certificate_list'. Stop.
And, I can't find the file on my system. All for naught...
I remember seeing that and remember needing to unset
CONFIG_SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS CONFIG_SYSTEM_REVOCATION_KEYS
One of the first things in the log of the Mainline build <https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.17.9/amd64/log> appears to be a script that generates canonical-certs.pem - Evan
On Mon, Dec 1, 2025 at 4:09 AM Dhaval Giani via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote: But really, why don't you just install from the PPA? If it fails, you can
always fall back to the older booting kernel.
Er, yeah, that's where I was going, should the answer to my query be "trying a Mainline kernel is OK until 24.04.4 comes out and I can get official support for the kernel rev I need (6.17)". I have no personal interest in kernel building if I can possibly avoid it. If I did, I'd probably be staying on Fedora rather than pulling an Ubuntu LTS "Back To The Future" move in order to get official vendor support for Steam and ROCm (both of which are currently causing me grief). Even easier than the PPA is a command-line tool, "Mainline" <https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-kernel-ubuntu/>, that facilitates the process of downloading and installing the three .deb files for each kernel rev. It also indicates the general usability status of each known release <https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/> (FWIW the non-rc version of 6.18 was added today <https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.18/>). My original query was less "how do I do it" than "what have been the [stability|security|etc] experiences of others who have done it". - Evan
participants (3)
-
Dhaval Giani -
Evan Leibovitch -
William Park