2.6.38 Kernel Release Promises BIG Improvements

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Soldato
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Yep, I'm very interested. Particularly for stuff like GNS3/Dynamips - true apps where multitasking is needed. Do you know any kind of kernel release schedule?
 
Soldato
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Yep, I'm very interested. Particularly for stuff like GNS3/Dynamips - true apps where multitasking is needed. Do you know any kind of kernel release schedule?

Might be a couple of months away sadly, 2.6.37 is currently on rc2, so I guess that will hit stable around the start of December. Then we might see a 2.6.38 early January. I don't think there is any strict release schedules though.
 

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Yeah thats true. Could be interesting to see whether the patch actually works or whether it just works in a test lab in specific conditions.
 
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It's not super tricky to compile your own. Grab the patch here, then follow the instructions here. Before you run
Code:
make-kpkg clean
patch the Ubuntu kernel source with
Code:
patch -p1 < whatever_you_saved_the_patch_as
It'll probably fail and spit out some errors for the bits it couldn't change since the original patch is for the linux-2.6.37 so the lines in the files will be a little different. You can manually edit in those few lines. After that carry on with the kernel compiling tutorial above.
 
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Alternatively you can install the liquorix kernel which some nice person has already patched (along with some other tweaks for desktop machines), made the deb files and even setup a repo for you. All you have to do is
Code:
sudo echo "deb http://liquorix.net/debian sid main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/liquorix.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install '^liquorix-([^-]+-)?keyring.?'
sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6-liquorix-686
Then restart.
 
Soldato
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how would I update that on my lubnuntu install and would it brake anything?

Easiest way is to wait until it officially hits the ubuntu repositories.

You can do it yourself by compiling it from source, there is a good tutorial on this here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile but it is a time consuming process and will likely brake things at first. Kernel compiling usually takes a few attempts when you're new to it to get right :)
 
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what difference do these kernels make? I know it's a basic question but I find it hard to fathom.

To be honest with 95% of kernel upgrades you wont notice any difference (unless you require a specific feature addition), except sometimes with things like extended driver support.

This specific kernel release though contains the new patched Completely Fair Scheduler, which Sir Linus described as:

So I think this is firmly one of those "real improvement" patches. Good job. Group scheduling goes from "useful for some specific server loads" to "that's a killer feature".

So basically this is the first kernel in sometime that should hopefully offer a noticeable performance boost with multi tasking on desktops :) (Hopefully it isn't all hype :p)

Arch Linux has it in the testing repos hopefully wont be long till it hits stable :)
 
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