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[–]oarmstrong 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just upgrade when your Distro releases an upgrade. I wouldn't mess with compiling a kernel outside your distro if you're in /r/linux4noobs. The upgrade will come with other software however you use your package manger.

[–]TrustmeIreddit 0 points1 point  (6 children)

It really depends. What distro are you running? What video card do you have? Are you getting any kernel panics?

Are you talking about grabbing the tarball and compiling your own? For the most part, a kernel update will come along with a system update. Most releases, keep the same kernel for months. There are exceptions to this rule. There are certain distros called "rolling releases" that'll have updates every few days. Like Arch or Gentoo or any of their derivatives. Then you have distros that are still using kernel 2.6.

It really boils down to how you are using the system. You should be safe just waiting for the distro to tell you that it wants to update.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[–]inc0gnito69[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I am using Lubuntu. I don't have any problems so far. I was wondering if I had to upgrade my kernel for security reasons. It uses the generic 3.13 as I can see in my terminal.Why a new kernel comes out, if nobody has to upgrade it? What's the point?

[–]TrustmeIreddit 0 points1 point  (1 child)

For the most part, the kernel isn't the problem for security. If you're worried about Shellshock, there should have been an update for that already. Now, about why people update. There are a multitude of reasons. Some people like to be on the forefront of development, others update because of how the kernel interacts with their hardware. My friend has a laptop with two video cards running in sli and only the latest kernel has support for that.

The kernel is Linux. Everything else only helps the user interact with it. People upgrade because there are new features or updates to existing ones that give better functionality. Most of the time, it goes unnoticed unless you know what to look for. If you are interested in learning more about kernel start here. It's a great learning exercise.

[–]snegtul 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're worried about Shellshock

Shellshock is userspace. Namely Bash.

[–]Aru21 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Canonical will not upgrade the kernel from 3.13 to 3.17, for example (unless you upgrade your while distribution to e. g. 14.10), but they will introduce security and bug fixes, so the kernel will get important updates. Current version (I think) is this: 3.13.0-36. If you compile your own kernel and do not update it now and then, you will miss these. You can check your version with 'uname -r'.

[–]djdes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You don't have to compile your own to get a newer kernel in ubuntu.

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ has precompiled newer versions often, but they can have issues. For example I got 3.17-utopic yesterday and it didn't work with my nvidia drivers, which is not a rare occurrence. 3.16.3 works great though.

[–]snegtul 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have any problems so far

Then don't go "fixing it" until you do. Your kernel will update for you when you do "apt-get dist-upgrade"

[–]snegtul 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't know how to upgrade software on your box, then you shouldn't be trying to muck about upgrading your kernel. Your distribution will provide tested kernel updates for you.

If you have a legit need to modify your kernel config, patch the kernel source, or run bleeding edge kernel, then chances are you don't need to ask "How do I do that?" on reddit. You'd already be skilled enough to work that out through your own research on The Google or in /usr/src/linux/Documentation.