Look at the kernel packages for Ubuntu here. I am going to list the steps I intend to take for upgrading my kernel on a 64-bit Linux Mint system. I assume that if one has a 32-bit system, one would replace the identifier "amd64" with "i386", below.
Based upon the comment by Tom C. here, it seems prudent to remove VirtualBox, which I don't believe I use anyway.
sudo apt-get purge virtualbox virtualbox-guest-utilsI did so and rebooted and all was well.
Next begins the task of upgrading the kernel. I have read that proprietary drivers may encounter problems following a kernel upgrade, but I don't believe I am using any on the particular machine I have in mind for this experiment.
Note: the specific commands to upgrade to the next kernel version, 3.8.3, may be found at the end of this post.
cd /tmpReboot. Assuming the system now boots. . . open a terminal and enter
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.2-raring/linux-headers-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.2-raring/linux-headers-3.8.2-030802_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_all.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.2-raring/linux-image-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.2-raring/linux-image-extra-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.8.2-030802_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-extra-3.8.2-030802-generic_3.8.2-030802.201303031906_amd64.deb
uname -rto verify the kernel has been upgraded. I will now follow the above steps and see what happens. I feel ambivalent about the risk. If my OS is borked, then I will simply install the latest version of OpenSuse, 12.3, which was released today, by the way.
Post Scriptum.
After rebooting, all was well. I opened a terminal and typed uname -r and found that the kernel was now 3.8.2. I am using Firefox and Ktorrent without any issues so far. . . however, I do notice that the font on my blog looks correct for the first time in a long time. I don't know why a kernel upgrade would change that, but I'm not complaining.
Post Post Scriptum.
I had good fortune with the kernel upgrade on Linux Mint Nadia KDE. It may be my imagination but I believe Ktorrent is downloading and uploading faster after the kernel upgrade, but I change so many settings on the fly in Ktorrent that I don't know whether to trust my hunch.
I had bad luck upgrading the kernel on Linux Mint Nadia XFCE, in which my system was rendered completely silent. I believe the problem concerned not XFCE but rather the optical S/PDIF audio output of my htpc system. Linux support for optical S/PDIF has always presented difficulty, because I always have had to edit configuration files to get the sound working right. After the kernel upgrade, I did not know how to get the sound configured and did not feel like researching it all over again, so I opened up Synaptic and completely removed all the files associated with the new kernel. Then I rebooted and found myself back at kernel 3.5, with sound working again.
One has to weigh the advantages of a new kernel--minor, insignificant--with the disadvantages--no sound?!
03/18/2013 Update: Upgrading to Linux kernel version 3.8.3
To upgrade to Linux Mint to kernel version 3.8.3. . .As you can see, just a few minor changes to the filenames are required to install a different kernel version. I added this section because I used it and may use it again in the future.
cd /tmp
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.3-raring/linux-headers-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.3-raring/linux-headers-3.8.3-030803_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_all.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.3-raring/linux-image-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb
wget kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.8.3-raring/linux-image-extra-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.8.3-030803_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-extra-3.8.3-030803-generic_3.8.3-030803.201303141650_amd64.deb