Updating the kernel

[AussieAnon]

I plan on updating my Linux Mint 14 desktop to the latest stable linux 3.6.7 kernel. I was just wondering what the pro's and con's are for this? Im currently running kernel 3.5.0-18.

I figured that there might be performance improvements and bug fixes etc. Will this negatively impact my Mint updates etc?

EDIT: on a side note, when I look at my system information it displays 8 cores, one running at the correct 3.1GHz and the other 7 running at 1.6GHz. Is this normal? In the benchmarking software in system information, it displays my CPU as an Intel Celeron M 1.5GHz running at 3.1GHz lol.

It also displays the correct info in System Details as an Intel Core i7 3770s x 8 @ 3.1GHz

So is the system running at the correct speeds?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

It should only affect driver updates, or similar modules that plug directly into the kernel. Userland stuff shouldn't care (unless it needs something in the new kernel, but in that case updating would fix it)

You might always hit new bugs though, I remember the switch from 2.2 to 2.4 caused random apps to crash all the time, but that got fixed through later updates.

[AussieAnon]

Well last time I tried it, it displayed a "usb-1-1.3: string disctriptor etc" message but everything seemed to work fine.

[ViperAFK]

I plan on updating my Linux Mint 14 desktop to the latest stable linux 3.6.7 kernel. I was just wondering what the pro's and con's are for this? Im currently running kernel 3.5.0-18.

I figured that there might be performance improvements and bug fixes etc. Will this negatively impact my Mint updates etc?

EDIT: on a side note, when I look at my system information it displays 8 cores, one running at the correct 3.1GHz and the other 7 running at 1.6GHz. Is this normal? In the benchmarking software in system information, it displays my CPU as an Intel Celeron M 1.5GHz running at 3.1GHz lol.

It also displays the correct info in System Details as an Intel Core i7 3770s x 8 @ 3.1GHz

So is the system running at the correct speeds?

The cpu thing sounds like a bug with that benchmarking software, I would not worry.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

It might be getting confused by the SpeedStep thing Intel has, my 3.3Ghz i5 idles on 1.2Ghz or something. I've run into similar issues (Like a game from 2006 claiming my i5 from 2011 isn't powerful enough to run it)

[AussieAnon]

Ok thanks for the information guys I appreciate it :)

Ill try out some benchmarking software and maybe a VM to see where the CPU speed reporting issue comes from. I am hoping its not an issue with Linux holding back the performance of the CPU.

[Karl L.]

Just out of curiosity, how are you planning on upgrading the kernel? Does Mint have a repository for the latest stable kernel builds that I don't know about? Are you planning on using the Ubuntu mainline kernel builds or the latest kernel from Debian experimental? Or are you planning on building the latest kernel build yourself?

Just to note, unless Mint provides an official repository for the latest stable kernel, its probably not wise to upgrade unless you have a very specific reason, such as a regression where your e1000e network adapter doesn't connect to your LAN (which has definitely NEVER happened to ME with Ubuntu 9.10!) It can certainly be done, but its not worth it in my experience without a very good reason.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

EDIT: on a side note, when I look at my system information it displays 8 cores, one running at the correct 3.1GHz and the other 7 running at 1.6GHz. Is this normal? In the benchmarking software in system information, it displays my CPU as an Intel Celeron M 1.5GHz running at 3.1GHz lol.

It also displays the correct info in System Details as an Intel Core i7 3770s x 8 @ 3.1GHz

So is the system running at the correct speeds?

Like the_decryptor said, this is most likely due to speedstep slowing down the unused cores to save power. It's normal :)