Linux Daily

In case you need to use an older kernel version in your new all shiny Ubuntu 8.10 preloaded with kernel version 2.6.27, there’s a very easy way to do it.

Instead of compiling it yourself and have to build a god forsaken config file for the compilation, you can install a linux-image package from the repositories. If you do a quick

sudo aptitude search linux-image

You can see the fine result:

p   linux-image-2.6.25-2-386 – Linux kernel image for version 2.6.25 on i386

so if you install the package with

sudo aptitude install linux-image-2.6.25-2-386

You’re all set. The kernel will be automatically added to your grub menu.

Want a specific kernel version? No worries, checking the package details page you see a list of related packages further down to the right. Shitload of kernel versions, if you manually download the package and install it afterwards, I’m guessing it should work ok.

Follow-up: The package I suggest you install suffers from Bug #291487 in launchpad. If you try to compile something booted in this kernel it won’t work. The error if you try to run make should be something like

make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.25-2-386′
make[1]: Makefile: No such file or directory
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `Makefile’.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.25-2-386′
make: *** [all] Error 2

Following the somewhat stupid workaround suggest in the bug report solves the issue.

Tags: 8.10, can't, compilation, compile, different, downgrade, error, fail, fails, header, headers, install, kernel, linux-image, make, package, ubuntu, version