14.04 - Installing newer driver to current kernel

I have problems with my notebook's wifi (Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 59) on Ubuntu 14.04 (3.13.0-68-generic). Signal is shown often low (for no reason and same notebooks in Windows have much better performance) even though I am standing next to the router.

A friend of mine installed on his notebook (identical model brand etc...) Debian and it works perfectly. I asked him to send me modinfo iwlwifi output.

It seems to be, he has a newer driver and kernel version.

Then I used diff to compare to mine. Should I try to install the new module (driver) on my current kernel or try to use newer kernel, which is not provided yet by the Ubuntu repositories? I do not want to play around with the kernel without any advice from experienced users and mess up my system.

1c1

< filename:
/lib/modules/3.13.0-68-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko

---

> filename: /lib/modules/3.16.0-4-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko

3c3

< author: Copyright(c) 2003-2013 Intel Corporation

---

> author: Copyright(c) 2003- 2014 Intel Corporation

18,21c18,24

< firmware: iwlwifi-7265-7.ucode

< firmware: iwlwifi-3160-7.ucode

< firmware: iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode

< srcversion: A45BAACCAD263355629DB7A

---

> firmware: iwlwifi-7265-9.ucode

> firmware: iwlwifi-3160-9.ucode

> firmware: iwlwifi-7260-9.ucode

> firmware: iwlwifi-8000-8.ucode

> srcversion: 3E4DCD8265C8E43DCA7B0EA

> alias: pci:v00008086d000024F4svsd00000030bcsci

> alias: pci:v00008086d000024F3svsd00000010bcsci

300,303c303

< vermagic: 3.13.0-68-generic SMP mod_unload modversions

< signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key

< sig_key: xxx

< sig_hashalgo: sha512

---

> vermagic: 3.16.0-4-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions

309c309

< parm: wd_disable:Disable stuck queue watchdog timer
0=system default, 1=disable, 2=enable (default: 0) (int)

---

> parm: wd_disable:Disable stuck queue watchdog timer 0=system default, 1=disable (default: 1) (int)

310a311

> parm: uapsd_disable:disable U-APSD functionality (default: Y) (bool)

314a316

> parm: fw_monitor:firmware monitor - to debug FW (default: false - needs lots of memory) (bool)

It turns out to be it is highly unrecommended to upgrade kernel beyond what is provided by the Ubuntu repositories. And it is fairly simple to upgrade a single module with Backports. Backports are simply kernel modules provided by the Backports team of linux. Here you can find packages from various versions of the kernel and compile. Specifically, for the iwlwifi, here is a solution, which most likely also works for other modules. So far my wifi has been working without drops.