Kernel Version 4.14.117 Android -
The specific point release, .117 , tells us this isn't the raw, vanilla Linux kernel. It is a snapshot in time: a patched, hardened, and customized version of the 4.14 branch. For an Android device running this kernel, 4.14.117 represents a "sweet spot" in the history of mobile computing. It likely powered flagship devices launched around 2018–2019—think the Google Pixel 3 series, the OnePlus 6T, or the Samsung Galaxy S9. This was an era when 4K recording became standard, when bezels began their final retreat, and when AI processing started moving to the edge.
and then further modified by vendors (like Qualcomm) to support specific hardware. Technical Significance How do I know form which kernel this android kernel forked?
Native support for the zstd compression algorithm in Btrfs and Squashfs file systems.
To help me tailor any further technical information, could you share a bit more context?
Second, . The greatest curse of Android fragmentation is not the version of the OS (Android 10, 11, 12) but the kernel version and its accompanying board support package (BSP) from silicon vendors like Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung. A kernel like 4.14.117 is tied to a specific generation of chipsets (e.g., Snapdragon 845 or 855). Once a vendor stops updating its BSP for that chipset, it becomes prohibitively expensive for phone manufacturers to continue kernel updates. This is why many "perfectly good" phones stop receiving security updates after two or three years—not because the hardware is dead, but because the kernel and its proprietary drivers have reached end-of-life. The jump from 4.14 to 4.19 or 5.4 is not just a number change; it often requires rewriting hardware abstraction layers (HALs) and retesting every driver. kernel version 4.14.117 android
If you want to verify if your smartphone or tablet operates on this specific kernel version, follow these steps: Open the application on your Android device. Scroll to the bottom and tap About Phone or About Device .
: It is heavily optimized for older but still powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (like the SM8150/Snapdragon 855) 0.5.16 .
Before looking at the specific .117 minor revision, it is vital to understand why the 4.14 branch was chosen by chip manufacturers like Qualcomm and MediaTek:
You will see a string similar to 4.14.117-perf-g32a... . The "perf" indicates a performance build, while the trailing characters identify the specific commit by the manufacturer. Why It Matters Today The specific point release,
When we speak of , we are referring to the 117th patched iteration of the Linux 4.14 kernel, customized and optimized by Google and SoC vendors (like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung Exynos) for use within the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
The ".117" patch level indicates that specific security vulnerabilities were patched. Two critical classes of bugs were addressed in this specific incremental update:
Third, . Google has been working to decouple the kernel from the rest of the OS via Project Treble and Generic Kernel Images (GKI). Kernel 4.14 was a transitional workhorse. It was the first version where Treble became truly widespread, allowing the kernel to be updated more independently of the vendor implementation. Yet, 4.14.117 sits in a grey zone: it is old enough to lack the full GKI benefits of kernel 5.10+, but young enough that many devices still running it today (as of 2024-2025) are dangerously outdated.
Android devices rely heavily on Energy-Aware Scheduling to balance battery life and performance across ARM big.LITTLE or DynamIQ CPU architectures. Kernel 4.14.117 features mature EAS code, allowing the task scheduler to predict the energy cost of running a task on a specific CPU core accurately. This results in fewer micro-stutters during UI rendering and optimized power consumption during idle states. 3. File System Performance (F2FS and ext4) Technical Significance How do I know form which
This iteration provided mature support for and ext4 . F2FS is explicitly designed for NAND flash memory used in smartphones. The 4.14.117 update included fixes preventing file system corruption during sudden power losses or device reboots. 3. Security Hardening
4.14.117-g12345678-abcd #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon May 13 12:34:56 CST 2019
: New "thread mode" for control groups (cgroups), allowing more granular resource distribution across process threads. Android Open Source Project Security & Maintenance