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XKM Multi-Kernel Manager — Wiki

Overview

XKM is a GTK4/libadwaita graphical frontend for managing Linux kernels on Ubuntu-based systems. It wraps the system's apt package manager and dpkg tooling into a unified interface, letting users browse, install, remove, hold, and manage kernels across three families — XanMod, Liquorix, and standard mainline/Ubuntu kernels — without writing any terminal commands.

The application is a single Python 3 script. It uses the python-apt bindings to read the local package cache directly (no subprocess for reads), and pkexec to run privileged write operations like installs and removals.

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Dependencies

XKM requires a small set of system packages, all available in the standard Ubuntu repositories.
On a typical Ubuntu desktop most of these are already installed, but on minimal/server installs you may need to install some manually.

Required packages

• python3 — the runtime (Python 3.10 or newer)
• python3-apt — Python bindings for the apt package library (used to read the package cache)
• python3-gi — GObject introspection bindings (required for GTK and libadwaita)
• gir1.2-gtk-4.0 — GTK4 introspection data
• gir1.2-adw-1 — libadwaita introspection data
• libadwaita-1-0 — the libadwaita runtime library
• policykit-1 — provides pkexec for privilege escalation
  (installed by default on all desktop Ubuntu flavors)

Install all dependencies in one command

sudo apt update && sudo apt install \
    python3 \
    python3-apt \
    python3-gi \
    gir1.2-gtk-4.0 \
    gir1.2-adw-1 \
    libadwaita-1-0 \
    policykit-1

Distro / Base	Version	Status	Notes
Ubuntu	22.04 LTS (Jammy)	✓ Supported	All packages available
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS (Noble)	✓ Supported	All packages available
Ubuntu	24.10 / 25.04	✓ Supported	—
Linux Mint	21.x	✓ Supported	Based on Ubuntu 22.04
Linux Mint	22.x	✓ Supported	Based on Ubuntu 24.04
Pop!_OS	22.04 / 24.04	✓ Supported	—
Kubuntu / Xubuntu / Lubuntu	22.04 or newer	✓ Supported	—
elementary OS	7.x	✓ Should work	Based on Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu	20.04 LTS (Focal)	✗ Not supported	libadwaita not available