I've just installed Ubuntu 20.04 on Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05. The touchpad doesn't work and I read on multiple forums it's a common problem.

I tried to update kernel using Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Installer GUI app to 5.10.2 but I probably need (according to ) to apply this patch:

I can't figure out how to do that. I've downloaded the compressed tar.gz file but now I'm stuck since I don't know how to do the patch.

I've tried sudo patch linux-47a0001436352c9853d72bf2071e85b316d688a2.tar.gz but that seems to do nothing (just hangs).

Do you know how to fix it? It should be fixed in the next kernel version but I can't wait.

EDIT: The touchpad works in BIOS.

EDIT: After following @dariofac's answer, it looked good but it raises error:

BTF: .tmp_vmlinux.btf: pahole version v1.15 is too old, need at least v1.16
Failed to generate BTF for vmlinux
Try to disable CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF
make: *** [Makefile:1164: vmlinux] Error 1

5

1 Answer

The following is a simple guide to compile and install a kernel starting from sources. I did not test this guide with the .tag.gz linked, so my recommendation is to take a backup of the whole system before trying to install it.

Requirements

To compile a kernel, you need to install some requirements first. To do so, issue:

sudo apt install git fakeroot build-essential ncurses-dev xz-utils libssl-dev bc flex libelf-dev bison

Extract sources

From the directory where you downloaded the archive, issue:

tar -xvzf linux-47a0001436352c9853d72bf2071e85b316d688a2.tar.gz

Move to the newly created directory using cd linux-47a0001436352c9853d72bf2071e85b316d688a2.

Configure kernel

Before compiling the kernel, you need to select which modules to include.

To copy the modules of your current kernel, just issue:

cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config

If now you issue make menuconfig a configuration window opens up and from there you can enable or disable every available module.

Compile and install kernel

To start compiling the kernel, issue:

make

and answer to the questions which may arise (they depend on the starting kernel and the kernel being compiled). This step will take a lot of time.

After this step, you have to install modules by issuing:

make modules_install

Also this step will take some time to complete.

Finally, to install the kernel issue:

sudo make install

Enable kernel on boot

To enable kernel on boot, issue:

sudo update-initramfs -c -k <version>

where you need to replace <version> with the version you actually compiled.

After this, update grub by issuing:

sudo update-grub

3

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