Kernel 6.18 available for testing

Hardware Librem 5
21

I think you have to do this, because 6.18 is not the default kernel yet:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linux-image-6.18.0-1-librem5
22

Try this agrresive to reset.

sudo apt autoremove --purge && sudo apt autoclean && sudo apt clean && sudo apt update
23

Thanks to all. Seems you still have to do it manually.

24

Yes. However if you wait a handful of days, it will turn up automatically.

25

Not really, there was a bug on apt, which preventing to upgrade gnu gnulinux automatically, but superhero @dos fixed the bug time ago, so this bug could still be on your L5 if you hadnt updated and rebooted for long time now.

26

Yes:

…which was fixed in crimson before crimson was released, so not relevant here as byzantium has neither 6.12 nor 6.18 kernels.

27

:backhand_index_pointing_down:

So if Linux it is on crimson-update why not autoupdate? any reason?

28

The package linux-image-6.18.0-1-librem5 is now available in crimson-updates (since it migrated automatically after a week), but nothing depends on it so far and linux-image-6.12.0-1-librem5 is being installed by default as I haven’t changed the dependency yet. As I said earlier, I plan to have linux-image-librem5 (which is what pulls the actual kernel into the image) point to 6.18 with the next upload if no issues show up meanwhile. This is completely orthogonal to crimson-updates-proposed migrations.

So expect 6.18 to be installed by default in around 2-3 weeks.

29

I’m curious how the progress is going on mainlining all the L5 kernel changes. Are we significantly closer to the mainline kernel in LOC than, say, a year or two back?

30

Some information is given here: Sebastian Krzyszkowiak: "Linux 7.0 has now been tagged, coming with 19 com…" - Librem Social

31

Kernel 6.18.49 has now been made the default Librem 5 kernel in landing and crimson-updates-proposed.

Should there be no issues, it’s going to migrate to crimson-updates next week.

32

@dos, I have on one of my L5:

purism@old-pureos:~$ uname -a
Linux pureos 6.12.0-1-librem5 #2 SMP PREEMPT 6.12.105pureos1~cri1 2026-08-26 01:00:32 UTC aarch64 GNU/Linux

root@pureos:/home/purism# bluetoothctl --version
bluetoothctl: 5.66

and a BT keyboard works fine on a Debian live system with a 6.12.94 kernel, see:

but does not show up or pairs on the Crimson (on an Byzantium it pairs, but keystrokes are not passed and errors are in /var/log/syslog).

Is there any hope that it will work in Crimson with the 6.18 kernel? I have it to return to the seller on September 19 latest.

Thanks

33

You tell me - try it. I can’t tell you much more about some hardware I don’t own.

34

Ok. When and how can I update to 6.18?

35

See the thread above.

36

I wanted to report that so far kernel 6.18 is working well for me. Also, and more importantly, thank you very much for your work on this. I am finally getting excited again about the Librem 5 and the future of Linux mobile.

37

linux-image-librem5 still depends on 6.12. Are we still waiting?

38

Here’s the answer:

39

Yes. The clock is ticking though.

40

Kernel 6.18.49 is now the default one (for Librem 5) in both crimson and dawn.