At the request of many Softpedia readers, we've decided to write a quick tutorial about how to install Linux kernel 4.0 on the Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) operating system.
Announced by Linus Torvalds on April 12, Linux kernel 4.0 brings nice features, such as the new live patching infrastructure that does not require you to reboot the system when updating the kernel.
The following tutorial is targeted at Ubuntu 15.04 users who don't want to wait for Ubuntu 15.10 and want to install Linux kernel 4.0 on their Vivid Vervet distributions today.
In other words, with this guide, we will teach you, step-by-step, how to install Linux kernel 4.0 on your existing Ubuntu 15.04 installation, replacing the current kernel of the distribution.
Canonical does not recommend updating your kernel manually
Before we begin, we feel obliged to let our users know that Canonical does not recommend updating the Linux kernel packages manually, despite the fact that the Linux kernel 4.0 packages are hosted on their PPA repository.
We also want to warn our users who decide to use the guide below to install Linux kernel 4.0 on their Ubuntu 15.04 systems that it might not be a safe procedure and that issues with various hardware components might arise.
Instructions for 64-bit Ubuntu 15.04 systems
To begin, you will have to download the .deb packages required to install Linux kernel 4.0 from Canonical's repository. Therefore, open a terminal window and execute the following commands, one by one, hitting the Enter key after each one.
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_amd64.deb
Instructions for 32-bit Ubuntu 15.04 systems
Same as above, you will have to download the .deb packages required to install Linux kernel 4.0, so proceed by opening a terminal window and executing the following commands:
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-headers-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_i386.deb
Also, keep in mind that the version number of the files mentioned above might change in time, so you will have to manually download them from Canonical's PPA repository. If you succeed on installing Linux kernel 4.0 on other Ubuntu distros, do not hesitate to drop a comment below.