How to switch between low latency and generic kernels?

I have installed a low latency kernel to help Ardour's performance while recording audio. On boot-up, it appears I can select which 'version' of Ubuntu I want; the two choices are 'Ubuntu' and 'Ubuntu low-latency'. However, when I run uname -r with either one, I get 3.14.0-031400-lowlatency.

Why the separate boot up options if 'Ubuntu' is the same as 'Ubuntu low-latency'? Is there a way to actually boot-up with the generic kernel? Is there a reason to, or are there drawbacks from using the low latency kernel while doing my day-to-day tasks?


Here is a nice fix with dual listing:

  • Low-latency

    1. Download ubuntustudio-default-settings package from http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/ubuntustudio-default-settings (choose your release through links in the top right corner)
    2. Extract it.
    3. Copy 09_lowlatency file to /etc/grub.d/

      If you don't want low-latency entry to be the top one, rename it to 11_lowlatency so it will be processed after 10_linux.

  • Generic and other kernel types

    Edit /etc/grub.d/10_linux as explained in this answer to exclude low-latency kernel from its listing.


The answer by Sneetsher is valid, but, just as an alternative, I used a different solution. If you want to have separate entries in GRUB in /etc/grub.d/ for generic and lowlatency kernels, you can just make a copy of the file 09_lowlatency. If you want the new entry to be the first one, name it something like 08_generic, but you can choose the ordering as you prefer (e.g. you can have 08_lowlatency and 09_generic). Then, edit the copied file and replace all the occurrences of lowlatency with generic, and update GRUB. That should give you the two options on boot.