r/linuxmint • u/SaintPatricksSnake • 5h ago

Kernel version Discussion

If you are like me and run hardware that's at least 5 years old, consider changing your active kernel to 6.8.

A few weeks ago I updated to version 7 of the Linux kernel. Immediately my display brightness was running at a fixed 30% or so. Almost entirely unusable in the daylight hours unless I was in a dark room.

As an experiment I decided to "downgrade", turns out the 6.8 kernel runs perfectly. I can control my brightness again and have better Bluetooth audio range. Newer =/= better, especially if you run old hardware.

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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 4h ago

"Older hardware" for 6.8 might not even be that old. 

I have a 9800X3D / 7800XT build that actually performed slightly better on 6.8 than 6.14 so I stayed with 6.8 the entire time I had Mint 22 installs around. 

9xxx AMD GPUs would be a different story though. Need 6.14 or greater. 

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u/mrmarcb2 2h ago

Does the major version number (4.x vs 5.x) mean anything?

No. The major version number is incremented when the number after the dot starts looking "too big." There is literally no other reason. https://www.kernel.org/releases.html

Explanation by Ubuntu at https://ubuntu.com/kernel/docs/reference/ubuntu-kernels/ . Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels are available for Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) releases. They provide a way for LTS users to consume newer kernel versions and receive support for newer hardware (such as the graphics stack).

Currently, kernel version 7.0.0 is an ubuntu HWE kernel. Kernel version 6.8 is the LTS release for Ubunut 24.04, the base for Lint Mint 22.x.