I have just upgraded my Linux installation to kernel 4.0. This new kernel brings me many benefits. One of those is that the radeon drivers finally work and I no longer need to install the kernel source and try and compile the ATI drivers that you download from the Internet. I just load up my desktop and everything works. I tested this with glxgears and got a very good framerate. Using Google maps in Firefox is a little slow, but otherwise, this is a very good development. Firstly, I had to unpack the kernel sources thusly.
tar -xvf linux-4.0.2.tar.xz |
Then move into the directory and run this command to make sure the source tree is clean.
make mrproper |
Now we are ready to begin customizing the kernel.
menuconfig |
Step through the menus and set any pertinent options. Once this is finished, exit and write a .config.
After you have saved a configuration file it is time to begin the compilation of your kernel. This command will build the entire kernel and the modules in one long process.
make && make modules |
Once this very long process has completed, install the kernel modules.
sudo make modules_install |
And now install the actual kernel image and other associated files.
sudo make install |
This will also add the kernel to the GRUB configuration to allow you to boot into it. Now you are ready to boot into your new kernel. Reboot your machine and Ubuntu will be running with an all new kernel. That is how easy this is, compiling a new kernel from source. This way you do not need to wait for a kernel package to come out.
If you wish to install the kernel sources, run this command first. Then copy the sources to /usr/src/linux.
sudo make clean prepare |
This is required if you want to use VMware and the drivers need to be built against the running kernel.