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jauntywundrkindyesterday at 5:02 PM4 repliesview on HN

Are we seeing Android phones upgrade their kernels yet? This Samsung S22 is still on 5.10. I thought that part of the idea for Android GKI was that phones would start getting kernel upgrades. But I'm not sure if that's actually happening.

I wish there was more pressure for this. Especially as Android Virtualization Framework starts really arriving & being useful, having a more modern kernel could be a very nice help, could offer neat new capabilities.


Replies

rstat1yesterday at 6:57 PM

Google did it with the Tensor-powered Pixels a while back, from w/e they shipped with to 6.1

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b112yesterday at 5:59 PM

Why would there be a need to upgrade the kernel? Security updates are often backported, so it can still be 5.10 but patched...

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Palomidesyesterday at 5:52 PM

there's basically zero intersection between mainline linux version support timelines and android kernels as deployed on phones

charcircuityesterday at 8:18 PM

GKI is only stable within the point release. It means that 5.10 LTS Linux can be safely updated to the latest versions 5.10 LTS Linux. The regular LTS branch has no compatibility guarantees that drivers for one release will be compatible with the next release on that branch.