Is there a way to get the current version of the kernel for the Raspbian distribution, without installing it?
I don't really want only the number, I really would like a procedure to get it next year.
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Why the entire kernel? Consider what can be done with the command "insmod". Read about it and, perhaps, re-word your question to make it clearer what you want to do.– st2000Dec 1, 2017 at 13:02
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@st2000, thank you for you comment, I have reworded my question. Now it has nothing to do with modules– pimDec 1, 2017 at 13:17
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@pim Do you want only the source code?– tlhInganDec 1, 2017 at 19:07
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@tlhIngan, I'm interested in the kernel release number, not the sources– pimDec 2, 2017 at 9:07
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Ok, so you just want to know the kernel version of the current Raspbian distribution before installing it. @Millways 's answer should work. But I'll post a more generic way along with a few other places to look.– st2000Dec 2, 2017 at 15:07
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3 Answers
Looking for a generic way to determine the kernel version with out installing / running the Raspbian image appears a bit of a challenge. (I'll gladly change this answer if someone comments with a better way.)
If you look at the Raspbian release notes, you will see an occasional entry regarding the kernel. Unfortunately seldom is the kernel version included.
If you look at the Raspbian wikipedia page, you will find a table of release dates, Debian versions names and kernel versions. This page spans years of Raspbian distributions and (currently) only lags the available download images by about 3 months.
And (as @Milliways points out) you can download the *.info file for the distribution you are interested in. Start in this directory:
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/
...then drill down into the release of interest, download the file ending in .info and search for "Linux version". Here is the entry from the newest Raspbian distribution:
Uname string: Linux version 4.9.59-v7+ (dc4@dc4-XPS13-9333) (gcc version 4.9.3 (crosstool-NG crosstool-ng-1.22.0-88-g8460611) ) #1047 SMP Sun Oct 29 12:19:23 GMT 2017
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/raspbian-2017-12-01/2017-11-29-raspbian-stretch.info contains details of the "latest", including kernel version.
The parent directories have all versions, so you would have to select the latest.
answered Dec 1, 2017 at 22:57
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I voted up this one, since this is what I'm asking, but is there a way to know if there is a kernel update, like packages.debian.org or packages.ubuntu.org? And I will accept it in some days if there is no better anwer ;)– pimDec 2, 2017 at 9:05
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You could do
apt updateand check ifraspberrypi-kernelis listed - this was not the question you asked. Dec 2, 2017 at 10:47 -
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updateDOES NOT install anything, merely update the list of installation candidates. This question is a moving target - you should edit additional detail into the question. You haven't even explained what utility there is in knowing the magic number of the latest supported kernel. Dec 2, 2017 at 22:16
Get the Packages file for the raspbian distribution, for jessie:
wget http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/dists/jessie/main/binary-armhf/Packages
Get the raspberrypi-kernel package version :
cat Packages | grep raspberrypi-kernel_
Result :
Filename: pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/raspberrypi-kernel_1.20170703-1_armhf.deb
The interesting part is 1.20170703-1, this number can be found on the Rasperry PI's kernel page on gitub and search for the this release number. This will show :
Merge remote-tracking branch 'stable/linux-4.9.y' into rpi-4.9.y
In this case the kernel is 4.9.
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the '1.20170703-1' piece of information can be retrieved as easy like this: 'apt-cache show raspberrypi-kernel-headers'– sparkieDec 4, 2017 at 9:30