How to upgrade Linux kernel on Debian

February 25, 2018

In this post, I’ll show how I updated the virtual machines I worked with. I mostly followed the steps in this great blog post on how to update the kernel in Debian. This post is a short version of that.

I followed the steps in root mode, that’s why you won’t see sudo here. If you enter in root mode with sudo then add it to the commands.

First, check your Linux kernel version:

# uname -r
3.16.0-4-amd64

Then do a search on the available versions of linux-image and linux-headers, like this:

# aptitude search linux-image
v   linux-image               -                                    
v   linux-image-2.6           -                                    
i A linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd6 - Linux 3.16 for 64-bit PCs          
p   linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd6 - Debugging symbols for Linux 3.16.0-
p   linux-image-3.16.0-5-amd6 - Linux 3.16 for 64-bit PCs          
p   linux-image-3.16.0-5-amd6 - Debugging symbols for Linux 3.16.0-
p   linux-image-4.1.38.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.1.38.mptcp 
i A linux-image-4.4.70.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.4.70.mptcp 
p   linux-image-4.4.83.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.4.83.mptcp 
p   linux-image-4.4.83.mptcp- - Linux kernel debugging symbols for 
p   linux-image-4.4.88.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.4.88.mptcp 
p   linux-image-4.9.60.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.9.60.mptcp 
p   linux-image-4.9.78.mptcp  - Linux kernel, version 4.9.78.mptcp 
i   linux-image-amd64         - Linux for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)
p   linux-image-amd64-dbg     - Debugging symbols for Linux amd64 c

Now to search the headers, do:

# aptitude search linux-headers
v   linux-headers             -                                    
v   linux-headers-2.6         -                                    
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-4-al - All header files for Linux 3.16 (me
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-4-al - All header files for Linux 3.16 (me
i   linux-headers-3.16.0-4-am - Header files for Linux 3.16.0-4-amd
i A linux-headers-3.16.0-4-co - Common header files for Linux 3.16.
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-5-al - All header files for Linux 3.16 (me
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-5-al - All header files for Linux 3.16 (me
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-5-am - Header files for Linux 3.16.0-5-amd
p   linux-headers-3.16.0-5-co - Common header files for Linux 3.16.
p   linux-headers-4.1.38.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.1.38.mpt
i A linux-headers-4.4.70.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.4.70.mpt
p   linux-headers-4.4.83.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.4.83.mpt
p   linux-headers-4.4.88.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.4.88.mpt
p   linux-headers-4.9.60.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.9.60.mpt
i   linux-headers-4.9.78.mptc - Linux kernel headers for 4.9.78.mpt
p   linux-headers-amd64       - Header files for Linux amd64 config

I shortened the output just to give an idea of the output. Now with this output, you can see the package name for the linux-image and linux-headers. In my case, I want to install the version 4.9.78.mptcp, so I will install like this:

# aptitude install linux-image-4.9.78.mptcp linux-headers-4.9.78.mptcp

After this I restarted the machine, and checked the kernel release with the first command of the post:

# uname -r
4.9.78.mptcp

Yey, a new version of the kernel is installed.

So if this does not work for you, I found this post very helpful.