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Joined 10 days ago
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Cake day: February 13th, 2025

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  • One way is to donate to devs who are working on some specific features in the Linux kernel. The two I remember are Hector Martin who lead the Asahi Linux project and Kent Overstreet who is the main dev behind bcachefs, a new CoW FS.

    But I guess this only works if there is some dev already working on a feature and is accepting donations. I wish we had community linux project or something similar which was funded by donations and hired kernel devs to work on things the community voted on.






  • tl;dr Run sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-24.04 in the terminal to get the latest kernel version available (v6.11.x)

    Linux Mint uses whatever kernel the latest Ubuntu LTS (24.04) is using which happens to be v6.8.x. Ubuntu LTS and thus Linux Mint will by default remain on this kernel version for two years after its release i.e. until the release of the next major version of Ubuntu LTS. This is for stability (hence the LTS moniker - Long Term Stable). You do get security updates and fixes in point releases of the kernel.

    So yes kernel versions are tied to your Linux Mint version. But Ubuntu also offers newer kernel versions, however those will be less stable so are not recommended unless you have some hardware that doesn’t work with your current kernel version. Just run sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-24.04 in the terminal which will install v6.11.x. This will also install newer versions of drivers (mesa) and other related stuff. Note that this kernel version is not fixed, you will get updated to a newer major kernel version every 6 months.

    *And if you have an Nvidia GPU, you would also want to install the Nvidia driver for the newer kernel. I think Mint provides an app for that (drivers or something).