How to switch to a new version of the Kali Linux kernel?

Question

When I boot in to the Kali Linux (from Live USB mode with encrypted persistence) it automatically goes in the 4.12.0-kali1-amd64 (current uname -r). Even thought I made apt-get update and apt-get install linux-image-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,') linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's,[^-]*-[^-]*-,,')

After running the second command it downloads and installs the image and header file of the 4.12.0-kali2-amd64 kernel version. (I can see them installed in the "Synaptic Package Manager" too).

Any other possibilities to switch to the newly installed kernel, because as I already mentionted rebooting wont help at all.

Answer 1

Normally you don't install a specific version, you install/update a meta-package(*). It pulls the latest kernel image (and associated packages....), add them to the set of bootable images, possibly uninstalls old ones, and sets up grub. To update all your stuff:

sudo apt update  # gets the latests package lists from the repos
sudo apt upgrade # upgrades everything

If you want to handle things manually at your own peril, at least run update-grub after installing the new image (requires sudo of course):

sudo update-grub

(*) On Ubuntu and derivatives, it's either linux-generic or linux-hwe-generic. The first is stable, the second (hwe: HardWare Enablement) is updated more often to keep your kernel up to date with recent hardware.