How to Install Linux Kernel 6.0 on Ubuntu 22.04

The kernel is the core part of any Linux-based operating system. It acts as a bridge between the software and hardware of the computer system. It also provides the interfaces needed for users and applications to interact with the computer. The kernel provides many functionalities, including scheduling processes, resource allocation, device management, interrupt handling, memory management, and process. At the time of writing this article, the latest version of Kernel is 6.0 and it included many fixes, performance improvements, enhancements, and new hardware support.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to install the Linux Kernel 6.0 on Ubuntu 22.04.

Prerequisites

• A server running Ubuntu 22.04.
• A valid domain name is pointed to your server IP.
• A root password is configured on your server.

Getting Started

Before starting, it is recommended to update and upgrade all system packages to the latest version. You can update all of them by running the following command:

apt update -y
apt upgrade -y

Once all the packages are updated, restart your system to apply the changes.

reboot

Next, verify the current Kernel version using the following command:

uname -a

You should see the following output:

Linux ubuntu2204 5.15.0-33-generic #34-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 18 13:34:26 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Download Linux Kernel 6.0

The latest Kernel is not included in the Ubuntu 22.04 default repository. So you will need to download the Kernel source and compile it on your system.

First, install all the dependencies required to compile the Kernel using the following command:

apt install build-essential dwarves python3 libncurses-dev flex bison libssl-dev bc libelf-dev zstd gnupg2 wget -y

Next, download Kernel 6.0 using the following command:

wget https://git.kernel.org/torvalds/t/linux-6.0-rc7.tar.gz

Once the download is completed, extract the downloaded file using the following command:

tar xvf linux-6.0-rc7.tar.gz

Configure Kernel 6.0 Modules

Next, you will need to specify the needed kernel modules to compile the Kernel.

First, navigate to the extracted directory and copy the existing Kernel configuration using the following command:

cd linux-6.0-rc7/
cp -v /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config

Next, configure the Kernel with the following command:

make menuconfig

You should see the following screen:

Here you can make more configurations and click on the Save button. You should see the following screen:

Next, disable the SYSTEM_REVOCATION_KEYS using the following command:

scripts/config --disable SYSTEM_REVOCATION_KEYS
make localmodconfig

Compile Kernel 6.0

After creating the .config configuration file, compile the Kernel using the following command:

make bzImage

You should see the following output:

SYNC    include/config/auto.conf.cmd
  HOSTCC  scripts/kconfig/conf.o
  HOSTLD  scripts/kconfig/conf
  SYSHDR  arch/x86/include/generated/uapi/asm/unistd_32.h
  SYSHDR  arch/x86/include/generated/uapi/asm/unistd_64.h
  SYSHDR  arch/x86/include/generated/uapi/asm/unistd_x32.h
  SYSTBL  arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h
  SYSHDR  arch/x86/include/generated/asm/unistd_32_ia32.h
  SYSHDR  arch/x86/include/generated/asm/unistd_64_x32.h

Next, install the Kernel modules using the following command:

make modules
make modules_install

Finally, install the Linux Kernel 6.0 using the following command:

make install

After the installation, you can verify the newly installed kernel at /boot directory:

initrd.img-6.0.0-rc7
vmlinuz-6.0.0-rc7

Update Grub Boot Loader

Next, you will also need to update the Grub boot loader to apply the changes:

update-grub

You should see the following output:

Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-rc7
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-rc7
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-46-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.15.0-46-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.13.0-30-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.13.0-30-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin

Next, restart your system to boot from the newly installed kernel.

reboot

After the system reboot, verify your system Kernel using the following command:

uname -a

You should see the newly installed kernel in the following output:

Linux ubuntu2204 6.0.0-rc7

Conclusion

Congratulations! you have successfully installed Linux Kernel 6.0 on Ubuntu 22.04. I hope this will improve your system performance and fixes some hardware-related issues.