How to update any Peach distro to the latest Ubuntu accepted Linux Kernel

  • 16 February 2016
  • Administrator

Setup Peach to boot to a newer or newly installed Linux Kernel.

This is a common issue in different flavors of Ubuntu and you can find plenty of information on the web about a distro of Ubuntu not automatically updating the grub boot menu. Below I will give you what I believe is the simple method to get Peach to boot to a newer Kernel but there are other methods. To look at a couple of those methods and a brief explanation as to why Peach OSI or any Ubuntu derivative does not automatically boot to a newer kernel - take a look at the following URLs.

http://statusq.org/archives/2012/10/24/4584/

and

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/36648.aspx

 

With that said and hopefully read - here is how we suggest that you update Peach OSI to a newer kernel.

 

Setup Peach to boot to a newer installed Linux Kernel.

You will be using two programs already pre-installed in Peach OSI.

The two programs are Grub Customizer and Ubuntu Tweak.

 

First install the newer Kernel if given as available via the Software Updater (Orange Icon in the bottom dock of your desktop window with two half turned arrows.)

 

Reboot after update or upgrade installation.

 

Open from the top left - Applications/Settings/Grub Customizer

 

Enter password

 

Select to not open Burg

 

Allow the program to populate all of the current boot options

 

Your newer Linux Kernel will not be on the populated list

 

It is available to you from the right side menu

 

Usually the newer Kernel will be listed under "Advanced Options for Ubuntu"

 

Expand the "Advanced Options for Ubuntu" folder

 

Underneath the folder heading will be Ubuntu, with Linux ...... showing the newer Kernel option

 

Right click on the top item under “Advanced Options for Ubuntu”  and click on add.

 

If you want to have the recovery mode available at bootup right click on the next

item  under “Advanced Options for Ubuntu” and add it to the populated list.

 

Now you have two new menu items with Ubuntu as their title - don't worry - this will not default to the look or feel of Ubuntu -

 

I usually edit these Ubuntu items by right clicking and changing the Ubuntu to Peach OSI but you can rename it however you like - or not at all. For instance in the Peach TV distro I'll edit the title to something like: Peach OSI TV.14.04.77.64bit.Wine, with Linux 3.13.0-77-generic

 

Once satisfied with your menu - click on "File" at the top left of the open window

 

Then click on "Save" - Wait for it to finish saving and then -

 

Then click on "File" again at the top left of the open window,

 

 Then click on "Install to MBR" and then OK in the popup window. Allow it to finish.

 

Shutdown Grub Customizer by File/Quit

 

You are now ready to reboot to the newer Kernel - the old kernel will still be there in the Grub menu should you have an issue with the newer kernel.

 

You can edit the populated list however you like. You can move menu items up and down and remove them as well if no longer needed. I usually reboot to the newer kernel before removing any options to make sure the newer kernel has no issues with Peach. (I have never had any issues.)

 

Overtime you will accumulate many menu items for different installed Kernels if you do not delete some of the older ones that you have saved.

 

In order to completely delete an older Kernel perform the following. First remove it from your bootable list via Grub Customizer as used above.

 

(Please note, you should keep 1 or 2 older kernels even if they are not available to boot from Grub. In this way if you happen to have issues with a newer kernel you can always return to an older more stable kernel. However, Ubuntu Tweak’s Janitor function will delete any and all Kernels that are not actively stored in your Grub boot options and currently available to boot from via Grub.)

 

To completely delete older kernels from your computer.

 

First make sure that you remove any old kernels from the Grub boot menu while using Grub Customizer. Follow the instructions above on loading Grub Customizer and from the active menu - right click on the older kernel and select to remove it from the menu. This does not delete the older kernel - it just removes it from the selection list. After making your changes save the changes and then install the changes to the MBR, (Master Boot Record) as you did before in the instructions above.

 

Reboot again to confirm that your changes were correct, your system boots and the older kernel is no longer visible in the Grub boot menu.

 

To Remove the older kernel(s)

 

Top Left got to - Applications/Settings/Ubuntu Tweak/Start Janitor

 

Click on all the boxes on the left column of Ubuntu Tweak

 

Once the list of available deletable items populate click on all the boxes on the left of the populated options

 

Then click “Clean” on the bottom right corner

 

You will usually be asked to enter your password twice.

 

Let Ubuntu Tweak do its magic.

 

This will remove any older Kernels that are not placed in the populated list that you boot with.

 

When Ubuntu Tweak completes

 

Reboot

Enjoy

Jim

Comments

Chinese Sausage

Wed, 02/24/2016 - 09:55

I have two sets of kernels on my system, one being the latest (updated) default kernel that came with Peach (just in case a newer kernel does not work well), and the other, I added a PPA from *****://launchpad.net/~nick-athens30/+archive/ubuntu/trusty4, so I can have the latest BFQ kernel available (I use BFQ kernel for its advantages in desktop performance). I find it practical to remove the unwanted old kernels with Ubuntu Tweak as well. Of course, you may also choose to do this from the terminal. So far my systems have been very stable. Regards, Ed.

Administrator

Sat, 03/05/2016 - 10:09

Hi Ed,

  As always I do appreciate your input. With that said I need to place more information here as a follow-up to your usage of the latest BFQ kernel. At present, the integration of BFQ into the Linux main development branch seems very unlikely, as Linus Torvalds has already made it clear that he doesn't want to maintain multiple schedulers (BFQ currently use the BFS scheduler). In addition, the Linux distributors tend to prefer a single kernel image that achieves optimum performance on a wide variety of systems without requiring special configuration. It could be that the CFS developers will improve their scheduler in the areas covered by BFS – a bonus for the Linux user community.

 Since the schedulers used in BFQ are stand alone initiatives (aka not supported by the standard kernel) then the mere fact of including it would mean to focus people toward those 3rd party schedulers (security patch, maintenance patch, speed up adaptation to new kernel releases, ...). It means a financial investment for a project that is still unsure about it's existence in the near future.

They are still quite young. The best example is what is explained on the FAQ of BFS at "How scalable is it?".

Behind the scenes of this issue it tells us that BFQ has performance issues when you have a lot of logical CPUs. This single point takes itself out of the running for servers and high end PCs (the number of 16 is given so it means that a simple $1000 USD server would have performance troubles with this kernel). If you exclude Ubuntu Server from this patch, you also exclude physical bi CPU configurations that now easily reach this number (16).

Ubuntu and thus Peach OSI can't reach the masses if they use another scheduler, which as I stated above, (Linus Torvalds has already made it clear that he doesn't want to maintain multiple schedulers). In this case scalability wins out over any minor gains in performance.

As always, with the many "ifs" ... :

  • If every user of Ubuntu/Peach is a desktop user
  • If every machine(s) of each Ubuntu/Peach user are using the correct PC for their individualized schedulers - not to mention their own personal or business related choices.

In fact the best approach is the current one : Let the user apply the schedulers they want and see fit to install if they indeed have the hardware included in the BFQ kernel and are interested in different schedulers. So kudos to you, Ed, for using whatever that you think is best for your situation. Isn't that what makes the Linux kernel a thing of rare beauty? But each user needs to do their own research into BFQ and find out if the kernel can actually work in their particular machine's environment.

Also, applying BFQ and a different scheduler may work better for some during different specific periods of time (because, as I've said, the scalability is a big issue and in the future hardware improvements will always increment the total number of available processors). But this will give serious troubles to a setup that limits the number of available processors to what is currently available at the time of its implementation. Which is what BFQ does at present. Not to mention that most of the information about BFQ from the developer is stale dated from 2010.