Kernel 4.16 or 4.17 possible ?

[vr000m]

First, I decided to re-install linux on this laptop after windows 10 pro, which ran well for over 6 months, after June update slowed down my system and introduced problems with audio/video. I shopped around and tried pclinuxos- good distro but couldn't handle encrypted partition. Tumbleweed installed but first reboot failed on amdgpu initialization- a recurring problem with suse. But both handled my rtl8723be realtek wifi adapter. PClinuxos has kernel 4.16 and tumbleweed has 4.17. Also, they both have later versions of amdgpu driver (though it didn't help suse at all).

kubuntu 18.04 has kernel 4.15, which is rather old. While it does work wih amdgpu, I feel that the drivers had lot of improvements in the next 2 versions. My notebook ran a lot cooler and quieter with even 4.16. With Kubuntu, I had an old issue with the wifi driver where it works but signal strength is very poor and so connection is very slow (unusable). Solution is to add ant_sel option for the module. This seems to have been fixed in 4.16+.

Will there be an update to a newer kernel via updates ? I am not interested in the mainline kernel PPA. I want it in the official repo so we can get updates (plus it has drivers etc added by Ubuntu).

TIA.

[jglen490]

Old is relative. 4.15 has been available for a while, but the version in the distro is hardly bone stock. At any rate, Kubuntu 18.04, even with 4.15, is better than what you have and have tried to this point.

[vr000m]

Old is relative. 4.15 has been available for a while, but the version in the distro is hardly bone stock. At any rate, Kubuntu 18.04, even with 4.15, is better than what you have and have tried to this point.

Don't know how this answers my question but whatever. All I care about is a newer version of DC code for amdgpu - version 4.15 has initial and incomplete (in terms of features) version of the merge.

Since you did bring up distributions, all of the linux distributions have their flaws and features. I just wish there weren't this many and people pooled the scarce resources to actually make one splendid distribution- also, one place to file and fix bugs. Right now, users can at best report bugs to one distro and fixes often don't make it to others. Users can try to go and report bugs to upstream projects but that would mean countless projects, knowledge of which is beyond the scope of most users' knowledge.

[claydoh]

In short, yes LTS verions have what is called the HWE stack that provides kernel/driver stacks from newer Ubuntu versions
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEn...Kernel_Support


In August, there should be a newer kernel available, similar to how they have done it for 16.04, probably called something along the lines of hwe-18.04-edge. This probably depends on whwn 18.10's kernel packaging has settled down.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Rolli...nablementStack

Also:
https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archiv...aphics-drivers
and/or
https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-...ve/ubuntu/mesa

I had no idea 6 months is old
Then again, 4.15 had such a very short lifespan

[oshunluvr]

Good luck: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/...-ubuntu-18-04/

[kc1di]

Remember when you go outside of the Ubuntu kernel releases you'll be installing a vanilla kernel without any Ubuntu patches. Which may cause other problems.

[vr000m]

In short, yes LTS verions have what is called the HWE stack that provides kernel/driver stacks from newer Ubuntu versions
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEn...Kernel_Support

In August, there should be a newer kernel available, similar to how they have done it for 16.04, probably called something along the lines of hwe-18.04-edge. This probably depends on whwn 18.10's kernel packaging has settled down.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Rolli...nablementStack

Also:
https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archiv...aphics-drivers
and/or
https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-...ve/ubuntu/mesa

I had no idea 6 months is old
Then again, 4.15 had such a very short lifespan

Thanks for the reply. It seems that the august version will also be 4.15 and earliest we may see a different version is 2/19 and that is TBD. Wonder if it is possible to also include another kernel, labeled "non-LTS" along with the LTS kernel and allow people to install that as well (or in lieu). Is it easy to in-place "upgrade" 18.04 to 18.10 when that is released ?

Regarding the need for newer kernel, its not driven by a desperate need for newest version numbers ( I actually prefer slower updates) - I already explained it in my OP. This is right around when we see drivers for AMD's newer chipsets around zen and vega/polaris etc which are increasingly becoming popular. So there is a demand for these drivers from not only PC client users but data center or compute (openCL) users as well.

[jglen490]

Again, someone has to write those driver objects, too. And then test them and release them - unless AMD has a Linux driver already written to those kernel levels, it takes time. I'm not a dev, nor do I know any, but it's about someone's resources and priorities.

[oshunluvr]

So boot to an alternate install or a USB install and install the mainline kernel. What have you got to lose?

[claydoh]

Note that the amdgpu driver in 18.04 is version 18.0.1, and was released on March 15. I believe this is the latest official release.
There are packages in one of the PPAs I linked to that are built from pre-release code, ie beta versions. What version has the important hardware support you need?
Note that the non-free AMDGPU-PRO finally has a release that supports Ubuntu 18.04, but this driver is not known to necessarily perform better than the free driver, upon which it is based, and may in fact perform worse for gaming.

In other words, a whole new kernel may not be necessary.

[vr000m]

Note that the amdgpu driver in 18.04 is version 18.0.1, and was released on March 15. I believe this is the latest official release.
There are packages in one of the PPAs I linked to that are built from pre-release code, ie beta versions. What version has the important hardware support you need?
Note that the non-free AMDGPU-PRO finally has a release that supports Ubuntu 18.04, but this driver is not known to necessarily perform better than the free driver, upon which it is based, and may in fact perform worse for gaming.

In other words, a whole new kernel may not be necessary.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...Fixes-For-4.16
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...-4.17-Released

I am not talking about X or mesa. If possible, I may give the PRO driver a shot. I believe they support more features of the card, incl uvd and vce which are disabled in 4.15. Also, power management is much better. I get upto 10 hours battery in windows 10 and in linux, 6 hours. WIth actual use such as browsing, I can get 6 hours on windows and 3 on linux !

[vr000m]

Again, someone has to write those driver objects, too. And then test them and release them - unless AMD has a Linux driver already written to those kernel levels, it takes time. I'm not a dev, nor do I know any, but it's about someone's resources and priorities.

If the code was contained in the kernel and is released, isn't it already tested ? Isn't the kernel team pretty rigorous about these things ? I am referring to the amdgpu related display code (and firmware) that started merging with 4.15 and continuing more merges with 4.16, 4.17 and so on. I see your point thoufh about other drivers not in mainline maintained by ubuntu. But that is already done for their distribution (non LTS) so just include that as addon for LTS in addition to LTS kernel with a warning upon installation.

[GreyGeek]

If the code was contained in the kernel and is released, isn't it already tested ? Isn't the kernel team pretty rigorous about these things ? ....

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...-kernel-tested

https://lwn.net/Articles/734016/

[claydoh]

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...Fixes-For-4.16
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...-4.17-Released

I am not talking about X or mesa. If possible, I may give the PRO driver a shot. I believe they support more features of the card, incl uvd and vce which are disabled in 4.15. Also, power management is much better. I get upto 10 hours battery in windows 10 and in linux, 6 hours. WIth actual use such as browsing, I can get 6 hours on windows and 3 on linux !

In this case, if you are experiencing any issues as listed in your links, then your choices at the moment are either wait for 18.10 - likely to get the 4.17 or possibly 4.18 kernel, or use the mainline builds, else move to a rolling distro that will have such kernels sooner than everyone else. 18.04 won't have an HWE kernel until February, so 4.15 is the only supported, updateable choice at the moment for 18.04 users.

[claydoh]

Again, someone has to write those driver objects, too. And then test them and release them - unless AMD has a Linux driver already written to those kernel levels, it takes time. I'm not a dev, nor do I know any, but it's about someone's resources and priorities.

AMD's drivers are free/open, and included with the kernel. It is nothing like Nvidia with their closed, proprietary binary blobs.