Using The Latest Ubuntu Kernel

I recently bought a rather new headset; the Cloud Alpha S from HyperX. Since I am currently using Kubuntu 20.04 for my desktop OS, which comes with the 5.4.x kernel, the headset didn’t fully work out of the box. The headphones were detected but the microphone was not.

You can see the issue resolves here: https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/4/4/246

So to get my new headset to work I’ll need a new kernel. Those kernel packages reside here: https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.12/

Thankfully, this is Linux, where the user has full control. So we’ll just update to the latest kernel like so:

# make a place to store the .deb files
mkdir -p ~/tmp/5.7.12/
cd !$

# get the files we need
wget https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.12/amd64/linux-headers-5.7.12-050712_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_all.deb
wget https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.12/amd64/linux-headers-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb
wget https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.12/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb
wget https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.7.12/amd64/linux-modules-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-image-unsigned-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-5.7.12-050712_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-5.7.12-050712-generic_5.7.12-050712.202007311339_amd64.deb

# Now that the kernel is installed we'll update grub.
sudo update-grub

# Since I'm using a proprietary nvidia driver that I installed manually I'll need to be ready to re-install it.
# I'm going to download the latest Vulkan Beta driver version. 450.56.02
wget https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-beta-4505602-linux
# go ahead and make it executable
chmod +x vulkan-beta-4505602-linux
# Now keep this in mind:
# to boot into terminal only, press 'e' at grub menu and add a 3 to the end of the linux line. Then press F10.
# If you don't see the grub menu, try holding left-shift or pressing escape when grub menu should appear.
# Now reboot. If you need to update the nvidia drivers, boot into terminal only, cd to the tmp dir, and run sudo ./vulkan-beta-4505602-linux