I am using a Dell Latitude 3420 (Ubuntu 22.04.3) and it uses a slightly older OEM kernel 5.14.0-1048-oem
.
The generic kernels keep getting upgraded but are never used. The current generic that I have is 6.2.0-26-generic
and 5.15.0-79-generic
.
So I have 2 questions
- Should I leave the kernel as it is? Some threads online say it’s better to leave it as it is as an OEM kernel is better for Ubuntu-certified laptops
- If I should change the kernel, what would be the best way? I don’t want to hard-code the kernel version.
- If I have issues in the latest generic kernel, I should be able to roll-back to the OEM kernel.
Related links
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/OEMKernel
Unless you know that you need/want features/fixes not (yet) part of the OEM kernel you should stay with that.
You can go with generic, build your own, or even go for the mainline kernel. But you might find some hardware not supported.
I was going through the wiki and found this line
Since the latest kernel SHOULD have all the hardware-specific commits of the OEM, right?
My details on how canonical handle their kernels are very limited. I’m no Ubuntu fan, I just manage Ubuntu servers.
You can check the delta here: https://staging.kernel.ubuntu.com/oem-delta/