How reliable are these experimental kernels? And regarding about gaming should i go with LTS or latest kernel? Could the latest one fix glitches and compatibility issues?
Depends on the kernel.
Even Kernel 5.10, which is LTS, had a lot of issues upon full release. I use release candidate kernels sometimes because I use newer GPUs and CPUs, and they were more stable on some RC kernels. Depends on hardware and what they introduced into or fixed in the kernels. Not every new kernel is the same.
Depends on hardware. If you have a newer GPU, say Radeon Navi or GTX 2000s and newer, it might be better to stay on newer kernels. AMD GPUs does better with newer kernels (depending on the GPU), because all the open source drivers are built into the kernel itself and newer kernels sometimes have a lot of fixes for those GPUs. Not to mention a lot of fixes for newer CPUs as well such as newer Ryzen CPUs. Some stuff are backported or older kernels, but not everything.
Also, not every newer kernel fixes issues with specific hardware / software. Phoronix does pretty good explanations on what each new kernels introduce / fixes.
i.e. Linux 5.11 per Phoronix. Note: this is from December 2020, there were more fixes and stuff if you read the newer updates.
I had my Radeon RX 5700xt since kernel 5.5, and my gaming experience has gotten better as newer kernels got released. This is anecdotal for my specific hardware.
Could? Of course! But not always. Depends on your specific hardware and software setup, and how it interacts with the newer kernel. I had a ton of compatibility issues with my 5700xt originally, and some of the newer kernels fixed them!
Some kernels have progression with specific hardware, some kernels have regressions for specific hardware.
My GPU is an Intel UHD 620, i know it’s not the ideal but it’s better than my old Xbox 360 slim, my CPU is an I5 8265U 8th gen
How can i determine if there were any regressions regarding my hardware?
Regarding your specific CPU (and iGPU), kernel 5.4 should be fine, though you did say:
You can either go back to that kernel, and ask for help fixing the issue on this forum. Or go to Kernel 5.10 and ask for help fixing that issue. Or just try kernel 5.11, which might fix your issue on it’s own.
If you noticed your FPS is lower in games for example. Or maybe compiling packages is slower on one kernel versus another. Or read articles.
For example, kernel 5.11 had some regressions specifically on AMD computers, which is why I didn’t swap. But now that it’s fixed, I’ll probably swap to it.
I am always on /r/linux_gaming, because plenty of people talk about regression and progression of kernels for some hardware.
I haven’t had any issues with kernel 5.10 so far, it’s just this game that started tearing and stuttering, my other games are running the same or just a bit better than on kernel 5.9
As I said:
Kernel 5.11 would be the first thing I’d do. If that doesn’t work, go to Kernel 5.10, and ask for help.
Seeing that you mentioned a Windows game, I assume you’re using Proton from Steam. You can also try using GloriousEggroll’s Proton to see if it fixes anything. It fixes a lot of game issues I have. Whenever I have a game related issue, I typically swap to GloriousEggroll’s proton first to see if that fixes stuff.
Directions on how to use that version of proton is in the readme, it’s pretty simple.
This issue is happening with all Proton version including Proton GE, perhaps i coud just try kernel 5.11
I just tested kernel 5.11 and the issue still persists, actually it got worse because the tearing is happening in the menus now too, the stuttering on the other hand got a little bit better.
PS: Proton 4.11 fixed it
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OMG, thanks for the news…
I thought we were up to 510 now… with 511 experimental, Linux 59 is there - but it’s time to move up to 510 or drop back to 54 LTS or419 LTS…
Indeed, opening my ‘default Manjaro kernel’ app from the menu, I see a list…
If you are using an EOL kernel - then yes.
Manjaro has no default kernel - unless you mean what is installed from an ISO - and in that case you could call it default - but as an ISO only reflects any given point in time - the ISO kernel will not be same with the next ISO - not even after the first update.
The latest mainline kernel is 5.11 - which I have been using on my systems for a while now - and the current LTS kernel is still 5.4 now 5.10.
EDIT/UPDATE 2021-02-25T16:07:00Z
I just checked with kernel.org and 5.10.18 is listed as LTS (2021-02-23).
And my server runs on 5.4 (maybe update the kernel - but with a server? such action must not be taken lightly).
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