As you remember, I got the Linux Mint Debian Edition 4 installed on my Dell XPS laptop.
Being Debian based, this setup is rather stable. But also, it means the latest available Linux Kernel is still 4.20.x branch, meaning you would miss out on the benefits and improvements of the Linux Kernel 5.x branch.
Backports in Linux Mint Debian Edition
I decided to upgrade Linux Kernel and realised that it’s much easier than I expected.
Turns out, LMDE4 already has backports repository activated by default in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list file (see the last line):
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com debbie main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free
Searching for Available Linux Kernels with apt
All we do is list all the packages named linux-image, using the apt search:
root@xps:~ # apt search linux-image
To save you a bit of time, here’s the list of packages available for the latest and greated Linux Kernel 5.6:
root@xps:~ # apt search linux-image | grep 5.6
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686:i386 - Linux 5.6 for older PCs (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-dbg:i386 - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae:i386 - Linux 5.6 for modern PCs (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae-dbg:i386 - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae-unsigned:i386 - Linux 5.6 for modern PCs
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-686-unsigned:i386 - Linux 5.6 for older PCs
i linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 - Linux 5.6 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64-dbg - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64-unsigned - Linux 5.6 for 64-bit PCs
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-cloud-amd64 - Linux 5.6 for x86-64 cloud (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-cloud-amd64-dbg - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-cloud-amd64
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-cloud-amd64-unsigned - Linux 5.6 for x86-64 cloud
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-686-pae:i386 - Linux 5.6 for modern PCs, PREEMPT_RT (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-686-pae-dbg:i386 - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-686-pae
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-686-pae-unsigned:i386 - Linux 5.6 for modern PCs, PREEMPT_RT
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-amd64 - Linux 5.6 for 64-bit PCs, PREEMPT_RT (signed)
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-amd64-dbg - Debug symbols for linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-amd64
p linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-rt-amd64-unsigned - Linux 5.6 for 64-bit PCs, PREEMPT_RT
I'm a principal consultant with Tech Stack Solutions. I help with cloud architectrure, AWS deployments and automated management of Unix/Linux infrastructure. Get in touch!
Linux Kernel 5.6 in LMDE4
