Installing 4.19 on Ubuntu 14.04

I'm playing with AF_XDP and this feature requires very fresh kernel. I decided to use 4.19 kernel from Ubuntu Kernel PPA.

But unfortunately, these packaged depend of very fresh version of linux-base package and it availabe only in Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04. And I will help with this :)

First of all, install linux-base:

sudo apt-get install -y  linux-base

And then we will repack deb package to remove dependency on very fresh linux-base. I used guide from ServerFault.

Download original packages:

cd
mkdir -p deb_4_19_kernel_hacked_package
cd deb_4_19_kernel_hacked_package
wget -c http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.19/linux-image-unsigned-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64.deb

Unpack deb:

ar x linux-image-unsigned-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64.deb
tar -xf control.tar.xz
rm control.tar.xz

Remove nasty dependency:

sed -i 's/linux-base (>= 4.5ubuntu1~16.04.1)/linux-base/' control

Pack control file again:

tar --ignore-failed-read -cvJf control.tar.xz {post,pre}{inst,rm} md5sums control

Build deb package again:

ar rcs linux-image-unsigned-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64_fixed_dependencies.deb debian-binary control.tar.xz data.tar.xz

And install it:

wget -c http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.19/linux-modules-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-modules-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-unsigned-4.19.0-041900-generic_4.19.0-041900.201810221809_amd64_fixed_dependencies.deb

Finally, rebuild grub configuration:

sudo update-grub

And confirm that Grub added new kernel to configuration:

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg 

After that, prepare keyboard, monitor, IPKVM and start reboot process :) If you're lucky guy then you can get following:

uname -a
Linux flab1 4.19.0-041900-generic #201810221809 SMP Mon Oct 22 22:11:45 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux