Install Liquorix Kernel on Ubuntu 20.04
If you’ve ever felt your PC is slower than a snail after a big driver update, the Liquorix kernel can give it a healthy boost. This guide walks through adding the PPA, pulling in the new image, and getting back to life without breaking anything.
1. Add the Liquorix PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:liquorix/daily
The PPA hosts the daily builds that are tailored for recent Ubuntu releases. Adding it lets apt pull the latest Liquorix packages instead of hunting through source trees.
2. Update your package list
sudo apt update
A fresh update is critical; otherwise, you’ll get “package not found” errors because the repo index hasn’t been fetched yet.
3. Make sure you have headers for your current kernel
sudo apt install linux-headers-generic
If you skip this step I’ve seen “depends on linux‑headers‑linux‑…” errors pop up. The Liquorix image needs the same header set that matches the mainline kernel.
4. Install the Liquorix kernel and headers
sudo apt install linux-image-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-liquorix-amd64
Why both images and headers? The image is the actual running kernel; the headers are needed for compiling modules (think NVIDIA drivers, VirtualBox guest additions). Without them you’ll hit “module load failed” later.
5. Verify installation
dpkg --list | grep linux-image | sort
You should see a line like linux-image-liquorix-amd64 among the list. To double‑check what will actually boot:
uname -r
If it still shows your old kernel, you’ll need to reboot.
6. Reboot and select Liquorix in GRUB
A simple sudo reboot is usually enough; on most installs GRUB picks the newest kernel automatically. If that fails or you want to test first:
1. Hold Shift (or press Esc for UEFI) during boot.
2. In the Advanced options submenu, pick the Liquorix entry.
What if it crashes? I’ve seen this happen when someone installs a newer kernel but keeps an old NVIDIA driver that doesn’t play nicely with the new module interfaces. If you hit a black screen, choose the previous Ubuntu kernel from GRUB and reinstall your graphics stack.
7. Clean up old kernels (optional)
sudo apt purge linux-image-5. # replace with version numbers you know are safe to remove
Be careful: keep at least one fallback kernel in case Liquorix turns out buggy on your hardware.
That’s it—your Ubuntu 20.04 should now be running a kernel that’s been tuned for smoother desktop performance and better audio latency. If something feels off, you can always switch back to the stock kernel via GRUB or by reinstalling linux-generic.
