Debian kernel stuck at 4.4.167

[Enig123]

Hi,

I am setting up a Rock64 v2 from ayufan's Debian image, while it has been done upgrading from Stretch to Buster, the kernel remains as:
    Linux rock64 4.4.167-1213-rockchip-ayufan-g34ae07687fce #1 SMP Tue Jun 18 20:44:49 UTC 2019 aarch64 GNU/Linux
which is over 1 year old.

How can I manage to upgrade the kernel to a newer version?

Thanks in advance for your kind help.

[Rocklobster]

Personally I just opted for Armbian Buster which includes the latest 5x kernel. You may want to go for Armbian Focal. Either way each Distro is rock solid and pretty much works out of the box with minimal configuration https://www.armbian.com/rock64/

[kwinz]

Check your /etc/apt/sources.list 
It should have:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ayufan/rock64-ppa/ubuntu bionic main # disabled on upgrade to bionic
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ayufan/rock64-ppa/ubuntu bionic main
or similar.
Mine were apperently commented out during a dist upgrade and I had to fix it manually.

[kwinz]

I just noticed that didn't fix it.
I had to manually add the repositories from http://deb.ayufan.eu/orgs/ayufan-rock64
And even then I didn't quite understand how to automatically install the latest version of linux-image-rockchip-4.4.
I had to install a specific kernel package manuall.
And even then the latest stable release is still over a year old at this poin 4.4.202-1237-rockchip-ayufan.
See also https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12652

[S265]

I just noticed that didn't fix it.
I had to manually add the repositories from http://deb.ayufan.eu/orgs/ayufan-rock64
And even then I didn't quite understand how to automatically install the latest version of linux-image-rockchip-4.4.
I had to install a specific kernel package manuall.
And even then the latest stable release is still over a year old at this poin 4.4.202-1237-rockchip-ayufan.
See also https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=12652

Trying to think back . .  
Armbian Buster may be the way to go - it looks like this

____            _       __   _  _    
|  _ \ ___   ___| | __  / /_ | || |   
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / | '_ \| || |_  
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <  | (_) |__   _|
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\  \___/   |_|   
                                     
Welcome to Armbian buster with Linux 5.7.15-rockchip64

System load:   0.00 0.00 0.00   Up time:       4 days 11:44
Memory usage:  5 % of 3912MB    IP:            192.168.178.43
CPU temp:      45°C            
Usage of /:    8% of 29G     

[ General system configuration (beta): armbian-config ]

[kwinz]

Trying to think back . .  
Armbian Buster may be the way to go - it looks like this

____            _       __   _  _    
|  _ \ ___   ___| | __  / /_ | || |   
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / | '_ \| || |_  
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <  | (_) |__   _|
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\  \___/   |_|   
                                     
Welcome to Armbian buster with Linux 5.7.15-rockchip64
[...]

Yeah! I see Armbian Buster recommended a lot, I will try it.

Just a general question, sorry if I am a noob:
Is it accurate that Pine only does the hardware and the Kernel is made by the community? Or does Pine employ any kernel hackers writing drivers? Is there an official Kernel?

Are there security backports of any kind?

Does/did "ayufan" (Kamil Trzciński) work for Pine?

How does the Armbian kernel compare with the other Kernels here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...edit#gid=0
in terms of Suspend to RAM, GPU acceleration, RTC, USB3, ... (see spreadsheet).

I am a bit confused to be honest. Thanks in advance!