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.

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rstat1 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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

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yjftsjthsd-h 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Okay, but 6.1 is still from December 2022. Like... it's an improvement, but as my desktop sits at 6.19 and 7.0 is impending, I have to question why they lag so much.

	▲	almyfha 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		OP was talking about that they now have and pursue the intention of upgrading the kernel during the lifetime of the device. Instead of device launching with LTS kernel, which is supported for many years upstream, and always using it, instead LTS kernels are supported for 2 years (or extended like here), and the devices keep moving on to the next lts branch during their lifetime (usually not immediately, but after the regressions fixed for next branch, tested well before that in avf VMS etc)

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b112 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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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the_biot 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It could be, but are vendors actually upgrading kernels along with firmware updates? In my experience it's more like, ship 5+ year old kernel and then forget it forever.

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yjftsjthsd-h 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So long as they keep up with patches that can be fine, but newer kernels also have useful feature improvements. If nothing else, performance tends to improve over time.

	▲	izacus an hour ago \| parent [-]
		In practice upgrading kernel can easily cause performance regressions and cause multiple other issues (reduced battery life) so there's a lot of risk for zero reward for an OEM to do that. After all, they're on the hook for not breaking users already working devices and don't get anything by risking lawsuits and recalls.

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Palomides 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

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charcircuit 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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.