How To Install Linux Kernel 4.3.0

The Linux Kernel development team has announced the latest stable Kernel version 4.3.0 on November 1, 2015. Linux Torvolds wrote in the release notes:

So it *felt* like the last week of the rc series was busy, to the
point where I got a bit worried about the release. But doing the
actual numbers shows that that really was just my subjective feeling,
probably due to the kernel summit and travel back home from Korea. It
wasn't actually a particularly busy week, it's just that the pull
requests were more noticeable in the last couple of days.

We had a network update and a late fix for a x86 vm86 mode bug
introduced by the vm86 cleanups, but other than that it's just a
collection of various small oneliners all over. Ok, the vm86 mode
thing was a one-liner too, it was just slightly more nerve-wracking
because it looked scarier than it was before people (Andy) figured out
what was going on.

The changes from rc7 are dominated by the network stuff, but as you
can tell from the appended shortlog it's not anything particularly
scary.

So on the whole, this remains a rather calm release cycle until the
very end. And with the release of 4.3, obviously the merge window for
4.4 is open, and let's keep our fingers crossed that that will be an
equally calm release. Especially since apparently Greg has decided
ahead of time (as an experiment brought on by discussion at the kernel
summit) that 4.4 will be another LTS release.

Install Linux Kernel 4.3.0

In this tutorial, we will see how to compile and install Linux Kernel 4.3.0 latest stable version in Ubuntu and CentOS.

First, we will see how to install Kernel 4.3.0 in Ubuntu 15.10 server.

1. Install Linux Kernel 4.3.0 in Ubuntu

The following steps are tested in Ubuntu 15.10 server edition. However, the same steps might work on Debian, and other Ubuntu derivatives such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS etc.

Run the following command to find the current Linux kernel version installed on your system:

uname -r

Sample output:

4.2.0-16-generic

As you see in the above input, the currently installed version is 4.2.0. Let us upgrade it to 4.3.0.

To do that, first download the Kernel 4.3.0 stable version from the official website using the following command.

On 64bit Ubuntu systems:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-image-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_amd64.deb

On 32bit Ubuntu systems:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-headers-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.3-wily/linux-image-4.3.0-040300-generic_4.3.0-040300.201511020949_i386.deb

After downloading the necessary Kernel packages depending upon your Ubuntu system’s architecture, run the following commands to install Kernel 4.3.0:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

If the above command doesn’t work, run the following commands instead.

sudo apt-get install gdebi

sudo gdebi linux-headers-4.3*.deb linux-image-4.3*.deb

Update the Grub boot loader using command:

sudo update-grub

Sample output:

Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.3.0-040300-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.3.0-040300-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.2.0-16-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin

If you’re using BURG boot loader, then run:

sudo update-burg

That’s it. Reboot your system to log in to your new Kernel.

After successful log in, run the following command to check if the new Kernel has been updated.

uname -r

Sample output:

4.3.0-040300-generic

Or, use -a flag to view the complete details:

uname -a

Sample output:

Linux server 4.3.0-040300-generic #201511020949 SMP Mon Nov 2 14:50:44 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

In case, you have some issues or end up with an unresponsive system after installing new Kernel, just reboot your system and login with your old Kernel.

Select ‘Advanced options for Ubuntu’ from the Boot menu to log in to your old Kernel.

Select the previous working kernel version, which is 4.2.0 in our case.

Then, run the following command to remove the newly installed Kernel:

sudo apt-get remove linux-header-4.3* linux-image-4.3*

Reboot your Ubuntu system to apply the changes.

2. Install Linux Kernel 4.3.0 in CentOS

Now, we will see how to install/update Linux Kernel 4.3.0 in CentOS. The steps are tested in CentOS 7, however the same steps should work on RHEL 7, Scientific Linux 7 and Fedora etc.

Kernel 4.3.0 is not included in the CentOS default repositories. In order to install the Latest stable Kernel version, we will add ELRepo. ELRepo is an RPM repository for Enterprise Linux packages. ELRepo supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and its derivatives (Scientific Linux, CentOS & others).

To install ELRepo, follow the steps given below.

First of all, Import the public key:

rpm --import https://www.elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org

To install ELRepo for RHEL/Scientific Linux/CentOS-7:

rpm -Uvh http://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-7.0-2.el7.elrepo.noarch.rpm

To make use of ELRepo mirror system, please also install yum-plugin-fastestmirror too.

yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror

On Fedora 22 or later:

dnf install yum-plugin-fastestmirror

To install ELRepo for RHEL/Scientific Linux/CentOS-6:

rpm -Uvh http://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-6-6.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm

To make use of ELRepo mirror system, please also install yum-plugin-fastestmirror too.

yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror

To install ELRepo for RHEL/Scientific Linux/CentOS-5:

rpm -Uvh http://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-5-5.el5.elrepo.noarch.rpm

To make use of ELRepo mirror system, please also install yum-plugin-fastestmirror too.

yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror

After installing ELRepo, let us find out the current Kernel version using command:

uname -r

Sample output:

3.10.0-123.9.3.el7.x86_64

Now, let us install the latest stable Kernel version 4.3.0 using command:

yum --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml

Note: Here, Kernel-ml refers the current mainline stable version i.e 4.3.0. the letter “ml” is the short form of mainline. The kernel-ml packages are built from the sources available from the “mainline stable” branch of The Linux Kernel Archives.

Sample output:

Type ‘Y’ to continue.

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
elrepo-kernel | 2.9 kB 00:00:00 
elrepo-kernel/primary_db | 824 kB 00:00:04 
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: centos.excellmedia.net
 * elrepo: mirrors.thzhost.com
 * elrepo-kernel: mirrors.thzhost.com
 * extras: centos.excellmedia.net
 * updates: centos.excellmedia.net
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel-ml.x86_64 0:4.3.0-1.el7.elrepo will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================================================================================================================
 Package Arch Version Repository Size
========================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel-ml x86_64 4.3.0-1.el7.elrepo elrepo-kernel 37 M

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package

Total download size: 37 M
Installed size: 169 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: Y

That’s it. Reboot your system after the installation is completed.

Now, you’ll see the Kernel 4.3.0 entry is added to the Boot menu. Select it and hit enter to log in with new Kernel.

To check the Kernel details, run:

uname -r

Sample output:

4.3.0-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64

Or,

uname -a

Sample output:

Linux server1.unixmen.local 4.3.0-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Nov 3 20:15:39 EST 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

If you have any problem after updating the latest Kernel and want to remove it, then reboot your system. Select your previous working Kernel from the boot menu:

Then, run the following command to remove the newly installed Kernel:

yum remove kernel-ml -y

Reboot once to use the old Kernel.

That’s all for now. Hope this tutorial will be useful for you.

Cheers!