Questions about Mainline Kernels

[YellowJersey]

Context: I built a gaming rig for my mate and managed to snag him an RX 9070 XT. I'm using Linux Mint 22.1 MATE, so I had to use Mainline to change the kernel to 6.13 to get the GPU to work properly as Mint only has official support 6.11 and long term support for 6.8. In mainline, I see a little Ubuntu logo next to 6.13.7-061307.202503131244 (This is the kernel I am currently running).

Question 1) Why does that Ubuntu logo show up for that kernel whereas the others just have the penguin?

Question 2) Sometimes, when I try to install a new kernel using Mainline, I get "download failed" with "no installable kernels specified." Does anyone know why this happens? Sometimes Mainline works and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea why.

I've attached screenshots.

[Sauron]

It's not really specified anywhere that I could find, but I assume the ubuntu logo indicates that kernel is available on the official ubuntu repositories.

 

As for why it fails sometimes, that's likely a problem with the repositories: https://github.com/bkw777/mainline/issues/354#issuecomment-2764340755

[Haswellx86]

11 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

Why does that Ubuntu logo show up for that kernel whereas the others just have the penguin?

Mint is so just based on Ubuntu. You can find so many references to Ubuntu in the operating system. I am not sure about the logo but I guess probably it's using the Ubuntu fork of the kernel or because that package is from Ubuntu repositories.

 

11 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

Sometimes, when I try to install a new kernel using Mainline, I get "download failed" with "no installable kernels specified." Does anyone know why this happens? Sometimes Mainline works and sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea why.

Yeah I never use GUI. Try to get a newer kernel from terminal using APT and you can see what error you are getting if it fails. Probably some repository or mirror error. You should try to sync and optimize your APT mirrors.

[YellowJersey]

9 hours ago, Haswellx86 said:

Mint is so just based on Ubuntu. You can find so many references to Ubuntu in the operating system. I am not sure about the logo but I guess probably it's using the Ubuntu fork of the kernel or because that package is from Ubuntu repositories.

 

Yeah I never use GUI. Try to get a newer kernel from terminal using APT and you can see what error you are getting if it fails. Probably some repository or mirror error. You should try to sync and optimize your APT mirrors.

I'm not that great at using the terminal. I did just follow a tutorial on my test machine to use mainline to upgrade the kernel to 6.14 and got the same error. I'm using the cappelikan PPA. That said, a post from yesterday (thanks @Haswellx86 ) that there are issues server-side. So it seems like it might not be my own ineptitude.

 Any other sources for kernels you'd recommend?

[Sauron]

6 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

 Any other sources for kernels you'd recommend?

well there's always https://github.com/torvalds/linux if you're willing to build from source...

[Haswellx86]

8 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I'm not that great at using the terminal. I did just follow a tutorial on my test machine to use mainline to upgrade the kernel to 6.14 and got the same error. I'm using the cappelikan PPA. That said, a post from yesterday (thanks @Haswellx86 ) that there are issues server-side. So it seems like it might not be my own ineptitude.

 Any other sources for kernels you'd recommend?

I don't use Mint so I don't know and can't check. I am on Arch and I get the very latest kernels regularly. If you are getting such a new hardware, you should have gone an Arch based distribution, like perhaps Manjaro.

 

8 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I'm using the cappelikan PPA.

AI suggests -

Quote

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kernel-ppa/mainline

 

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

well there's always https://github.com/torvalds/linux if you're willing to build from source...

Don't get the source from the GitHub mirror. That has the very latest merges and often not that tested. Newbies also forget to clone the repository with --depth 1 using git, or else you would download a lot more data that is useless to you if you don't want to view every single commit in the past. Use kernel.org instead.

[Nayr438]

 

21 hours ago, Sauron said:

It's not really specified anywhere that I could find, but I assume the ubuntu logo indicates that kernel is available on the official ubuntu repositories.

It's supposed to but its a flawed check based on the version string, https://github.com/bkw777/mainline/blob/ec8db60499941528f27de458a53fa6d662355e0b/src/Common/LinuxKernel.vala#L665

even according to their own description the installed 6.13.7 from the op screenshot is wrongly marked as not mainline.
So the only icon it can present that really matters is the red tux icon which gets assigned to anything containing the words "rc" or "unstable" in their version string. You should avoid these.

 

 

Be aware Ubuntu mainline are development testing kernels and not actual release kernels.
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.13.9/

You also need Mesa 25 for recent AMD GPU's not just a recent version of the kernel

 

[YellowJersey]

15 hours ago, Nayr438 said:

 

It's supposed to but its a flawed check based on the version string, https://github.com/bkw777/mainline/blob/ec8db60499941528f27de458a53fa6d662355e0b/src/Common/LinuxKernel.vala#L665

even according to their own description the installed 6.13.7 from the op screenshot is wrongly marked as not mainline.
So the only icon it can present that really matters is the red tux icon which gets assigned to anything containing the words "rc" or "unstable" in their version string. You should avoid these.

 

 

Be aware Ubuntu mainline are development testing kernels and not actual release kernels.
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/
https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.13.9/

You also need Mesa 25 for recent AMD GPU's not just a recent version of the kernel

 

I did somehow manage to install Mesa 25. Not sure how as instructions on how one does such a thing were pretty spotty. I've got the gpu running fine, no crashes or stuttering or anything in games, and the performance is as expected.

 I suppose now the question is this: what do I tell my mate? Should I just tell him to leave it on the current kernel if there are no performance problems and then have him switch when a Mint update/version comes out that supports the 9070xt? Or would leaving it as-is be a bad idea?

@Haswellx86 I might download and install Manjaro on his rig just to try it out. He's only using it for gaming and web browsing, so it's worth a try. Maybe it's time I step outside of my Mint comfort zone?

Thank you both for your replies, btw.

[Nayr438]

8 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I might download and install Manjaro on his rig just to try it out. He's only using it for gaming and web browsing, so it's worth a try. Maybe it's time I step outside of my Mint comfort zone?

Manjaro, Fedora, and OpenSUSE all nuke patent encumbered codecs in mesa, so if you want full support or any hardware acceleration you need to rely on community packages or stick with Flatpak packages for anything that does video encoding/decoding.

The only thing that will fully support that card for the time being using the distros own released packages is Arch which is more involved. If Mint is working and they are comfortable with it then just use it as is and upgrade when the new version of Mint lands.

Ubuntu 25.04 will release in a few weeks which should bring support for that card, Mint should rebase on this and release a new Major version towards the end of June or July.