How to Install Linux Kernel 5.14 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

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At the request of many readers, I wrote this tutorial to show you how to install the latest Linux 5.14 kernel on your Ubuntu or Linux Mint operating systems.

 

Released at the end of August 2021, Linux 5.14 is the most recent kernel branch available for GNU/Linux distributions, and, now that Linux kernel 5.13 reached end of life, you might want to upgrade your computers to this newer release that brings better hardware support and many other new features.

 

Why install Linux kernel 5.14? Because it comes with new and updated drivers, as well as support for new hardware, so if you’re experiencing issues with some of your hardware components when using a previous kernel version that’s available in your Ubuntu or Linux Mint system, why not give it a try.

 

Keep in mind that you will always be able to revert to the original kernel packages of your Linux distro if you encounter issues with the newer kernel packages. Some readers reported that their Ubuntu systems failed to boot with certain versions of Linux 5.14 or that their NVIDIA GPU is not supported.

 

If you have an NVIDIA GPU, I suggest installing the latest NVIDIA 470.74 graphics driver before attempting to install Linux kernel 5.14. If that’s not the case for you and your machine is AMD-only, go ahead and follow the instructions below to install the latest Linux 5.14 kernel version on your Ubuntu or Linux Mint machine.

 

How to install Linux kernel 5.14 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

This tutorial uses the mainline kernel PPA archive offered by the Ubuntu developers. These package are not signed, which means that they can’t be installed on UEFI/Secure Boot systems when Secure Boot is enabled. Therefore, you will have to first disable Secure Boot to install these kernels.

 

The installation is easy and all you have to do is download the latest release, which is Linux kernel 5.14.8 at the moment of writing, in a folder on your Home directory.

 

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.14.8/amd64/linux-headers-5.14.8-051408_5.14.8-051408.202109260937_all.deb

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.14.8/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.14.8-051408-generic_5.14.8-051408.202109260937_amd64.deb

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.14.8/amd64/linux-modules-5.14.8-051408-generic_5.14.8-051408.202109260937_amd64.deb

Now, installing the downloaded packages is as easy as opening the Terminal app in the folder where you’ve downloaded them by right-clicking and selecting the “Open in Terminal” option, and running the following command.

 

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Wait for the kernel packages to install, and, if the operation was succesful, you should reboot your computer. When you get back into your session, you can check the kernel you’re running by executing the uname -r command in the Terminal app. That’s it!

 

Editor’s note: Please note the kernel packages showcased in this tutorial are only for 64-bit (amd64) systems. For ARM64 (AArch64), IBM System Z (s390x) or PowerPC (ppc64el) systems, or if you need the low-latency kernel flavor, visit this link for specific packages. Please also note that software that doesn’t support Linux kernel 5.14 (yet), won’t work, such as VirtualBox.

 

To update to newer releases, check the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA Archive whenever you see that a new Linux kernel 5.14 update is available (I always post these updates on Twitter). To uninstall Linux kernel 5.14 from your system, simply remove the three kernel packages you’ve installed using this tutorial.

 

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