The default Ubuntu 20.04 kernel is 5.4. It’s a bit old, sure, but that’s what the distro decided on back then. Canonical keeps pushing patches into that 5.4 line too. That said, the Ubuntu 20.04 repos do actually have a 5.6 kernel in them, named linux-oem-20.04. You can just install it. sudo apt install linux-oem-20.04 So what’s this kernel for? Canonical’s official explanation is that it’s “a kernel with some drivers and tweaks for certain OEM vendors’ devices” — if you’re installing on a laptop or desktop that’s been “Ubuntu certified,” there’s a decent chance your drivers are sitting in this kernel. Mine’s a ThinkPad, so I’m definitely fine.

Lately I’ve been feeling like my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop is kind of slow, but every time I complain about it on X, some people crawl out of the woodwork to tell me to switch to Arch + KDE. And this is exactly why Arch users are so annoying. It’s like the moment you mention the word Linux, Arch people show up like they’ve been triggered into PTSD, frantically recommending Arch, and bundling KDE into the pitch while they’re at it, like cult members who never once consider whether the other person can even stand them.

Same old problem: every kernel update, VMware’s module build shits the bed. This time it’s Linux 5.3. The fix is to patch the kernel’s VMMON code so it plays nice with the new kernel.

Yep, another kernel update just landed in the Ubuntu repos.

A few days ago both Phoronix and OMGUbuntu ran articles saying Fedora has done a ton of optimization for power saving, plus some bullshit claiming you have to use Fedora to get the battery life improvements. Fedora’s Power Tweaks Dropped The Power Use On A ThinkPad By ~30% https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-Battery-Numbers-2018 For Better Battery Life on Linux Try Fedora http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/02/better-battery-life-on-fedora-linux Which is total bullshit, honestly. Because Ubuntu can do it too.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon 5th couldn’t use its TrackPoint under Linux at all. Plenty of people were discussing the problem, but nobody had actually fixed it. Then a while back, with the X280 and X1 Carbon 6th entering internal testing, the issue finally got some attention, and it got solved.

BBR is a new TCP congestion control algorithm researched and developed at Google. More details here.

Linux kernel 4.10 is out, and supposedly it brings a lot of improvements, so let’s take it for a spin: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-kernel-team/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install linux-headers-4.10.0-8-generic linux-image-4.10.0-8-generic linux-image-extra-4.10.0-8-generic linux-headers-4.10.0-8 A reboot should do it. Then you’ll find VMware no longer works — the modules fail to compile again.

Same situation as when I swapped in the Intel 8260AC: no whitelist required, it’s supported out of the box.

Ubuntu LTS releases used to pick up the newer MESA and kernel whenever the next regular release came out. Apparently they’re switching things up now — you can install the Rolling LTS Enablement Stack to get the kernel from the latest stable Ubuntu release. So basically, if you’re on 16.04 with the default 4.4 kernel, this gets you up to a supported 4.8 kernel. There’s an official schedule: