How to Install Linux Kernel 5.15 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

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Linux 5.15 LTS is out so I wrote this tutorial to show you how to install this kernel on your Ubuntu or Linux Mint distribution in a few easy steps.

 

Linux kernel 5.15 was released on Halloween, October 31st, 2021, and it brings some interesting new features, such as a new NTFS file system implementation that doesn’t require you to rely on third-party software like NTFS-3G to fully manage your NTFS formatted external disk drives.

 

It also brings some new features for users of the Btrfs and XFS file systems, support for Nintendo Wii consoles, support for per-VLAN multicast, an in-kernel SMB server, a new r8188eu Realtek wireless LAN driver to replace the old rtl8188eu driver, and many other goodies.

 

Best of all, Linux 5.15 is an LTS (Long-Term Support) kernel series, supported for at least two years.

 

And now for the eternal question… why upgrade your Linux kernel? If the features mentioned above aren’t good enough for you to upgrade the kernel packages of your GNU/Linux distribution, then don’t do it.

 

But if you need support for existing or new hardware that’s supported by Linux kernel 5.15, or if you’re experiencing hardware issues with your current kernel version, why not give it a try.

 

Fair warning! Before anything else, please be aware of the fact that Linux kernel 5.15 was just released and it may not be supported by all software or drivers, such as the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver. So if you rely on your NVIDIA GPU for gaming or anything else, stop reading and wait until NVIDIA adds support for Linux 5.15.

How to install Linux kernel 5.15 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

This tutorial uses the mainline Ubuntu kernel PPA archive offered by the Ubuntu developers. These kernel packages are not signed, which means that they can’t be installed on UEFI/Secure Boot systems if Secure Boot is enabled. Therefore, you will have to first disable Secure Boot to install Linux kernel 5.15.

 

The installation is very easy and all you have to do is download the latest release, which is Linux kernel 5.15 at the moment of writing, in a folder on your Home directory. Below are the direct download links for 64-bit systems, but you can also install Linux kernel 5.15 on ARM64, s390x, and ppc64el systems.

 

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.15/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-051500-generic_5.15.0-051500.202110312130_amd64.deb
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.15/amd64/linux-modules-5.15.0-051500-generic_5.15.0-051500.202110312130_amd64.deb

Now, you must open a terminal window in the folder where you’ve downloaded the new kernel packages by right clicking and selecting the “Open in Terminal” context menu option. Make sure that you don’t have other DEB packages in that folder expect for those two, and run the following command.

 

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

This will install the Linux 5.15 kernel, so wait until the installation process is complete and then reboot your computer. That’s it, you’re now running Linux 5.15 LTS and you can start enjoying its new features.

 

To upgrade to future point releases, such as Linux kernel 5.15.1, 5.15.2, etc., check the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA Archive whenever you see it released upstream (I always post these updates on Twitter).

 

If you want to Linux kernel 5.15 from your system, simply remove the packages you’ve installed using this tutorial with a graphical package manager software like the every popular Synaptic Package Manager.

 

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