Upgrade linux kernel

Upgrade of the kernel in Debian or Ubuntu Linux

Use apt-get command. First find your kernel version:
$ uname -r
$ lsb_release -a

Ubuntu release history

Edit the source list under /etc/apt/sources.list and add
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ Ubuntu releases main restricted

Update the source list using the following command
$ sudo apt-get update

Next find available kernel images
$ apt-cache search linux-image | more (aptitude search linux-image)

and install the new kernel using the following command:

aptitude safe-upgrade

or

$ sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-2.6.xx-generic linux-headers-2.6.xx-linux-headers-2.6.xx-generic linux-image-2.6.xx-generic linux-restricted-modules-2.6.xx-generic linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.xx-generic

Remove the Gutsy repository from your sources.list you can simply comment it.
$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted

Is safe-upgrade completed, then new kernel will be ready for use.
Reboot the system to boot into the new kernel image:

$ sudo init 6
$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo reboot

THE NEXT WAY:

$ cd /usr/src
$ apt-get source kernel-image-xx
$ cd kernel-image-xx/config

Now copy the config file that matches your architecture into your kernel source directory
Usually the current kernel configuration is saved in a file under /boot
$ cp /boot/config-xx /usr/src/kernel-source-xx/.config

$ make menuconfig
Then run the following commands:
$ make dep
$ make-kpkg clean
$ akeroot make-kpkg –revision=custom.xx kernel_image

and if everything is ok your machine should come up with the new kernel. You can run

$ uname -a

If no error occurs you will find the new kernel as a Debian package called kernel-image-xx_custom.xx.deb under /usr/src.

$ cd ../

Now you can install the new kernel by doing the following:

$ dpkg -i kernel-image-xx_custom.xx.deb

We are almost finished now. Reboot your machine:

$ shutdown -r now