diff --git a/package/linux-backports/Config.in b/package/linux-backports/Config.in
index 362e6e4bc7..251d202fd2 100644
--- a/package/linux-backports/Config.in
+++ b/package/linux-backports/Config.in
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_LINUX_BACKPORTS
 	  recent kernels, backported to older ones.
 
 	  This version of linux-backports supports kernels starting
-	  from 3.0.
+	  from 3.10.
 
 	  https://backports.wiki.kernel.org
 
diff --git a/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.hash b/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.hash
index f39bc2ed27..3e103424f5 100644
--- a/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.hash
+++ b/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.hash
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# From: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v4.4.2/sha256sums.asc
-sha256  a979e194c2ed9fdfca092a448e626d85c5af0e4de5ad993c0967afd15af01285  backports-4.4.2-1.tar.xz
+# From: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v5.8/sha256sums.asc
+sha256  19b4174d89bf11ee221458e11f1e8dace26558498774b823051156f522d2036b  backports-5.8-1.tar.xz
 # Locally computed
-sha256  af8067302947c01fd9eee72befa54c7e3ef8a48fecde7fd71277f2290b2bf0f7  COPYING
+sha256  fb5a425bd3b3cd6071a3a9aff9909a859e7c1158d54d32e07658398cd67eb6a0  COPYING
+sha256  8e378ab93586eb55135d3bc119cce787f7324f48394777d00c34fa3d0be3303f  LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note
+sha256  f6b78c087c3ebdf0f3c13415070dd480a3f35d8fc76f3d02180a407c1c812f79  LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0
diff --git a/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.mk b/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.mk
index 1827ee18b7..068dcffcc8 100644
--- a/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.mk
+++ b/package/linux-backports/linux-backports.mk
@@ -4,12 +4,15 @@
 #
 ################################################################################
 
-LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION_MAJOR = 4.4.2
+LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION_MAJOR = 5.8
 LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION = $(LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION_MAJOR)-1
 LINUX_BACKPORTS_SOURCE = backports-$(LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION).tar.xz
 LINUX_BACKPORTS_SITE = $(BR2_KERNEL_MIRROR)/linux/kernel/projects/backports/stable/v$(LINUX_BACKPORTS_VERSION_MAJOR)
 LINUX_BACKPORTS_LICENSE = GPL-2.0
-LINUX_BACKPORTS_LICENSE_FILES = COPYING
+LINUX_BACKPORTS_LICENSE_FILES = \
+	COPYING \
+	LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note \
+	LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0
 
 # flex and bison are needed to generate kconfig parser. We use the
 # same logic as the linux kernel (we add host dependencies only if
@@ -91,7 +94,7 @@ $(eval $(kconfig-package))
 # instead.
 #
 # Furthermore, we want to check the kernel version, since linux-backports
-# only supports kernels >= 3.0. To avoid overriding linux-backports'
+# only supports kernels >= 3.10. To avoid overriding linux-backports'
 # KCONFIG_STAMP_DOTCONFIG rule defined in the kconfig-package infra, we
 # use an intermediate stamp-file.
 #
@@ -103,10 +106,12 @@ $(LINUX_BACKPORTS_DIR)/$(LINUX_BACKPORTS_KCONFIG_STAMP_DOTCONFIG): $(LINUX_BACKP
 
 .SECONDEXPANSION:
 $(LINUX_BACKPORTS_DIR)/.stamp_check_kernel_version: $$(LINUX_DIR)/$$(LINUX_KCONFIG_STAMP_DOTCONFIG)
-	$(Q)LINUX_VERSION_PROBED=$(LINUX_VERSION_PROBED); \
-	if [ $${LINUX_VERSION_PROBED%%.*} -lt 3 ]; then \
-		printf "Linux version '%s' is too old for linux-backports (needs 3.0 or later)\n" \
-			"$${LINUX_VERSION_PROBED}"; \
+	$(Q)KVER=$(LINUX_VERSION_PROBED); \
+	KVER_MAJOR=`echo $${KVER} | sed 's/^\([0-9]*\)\..*/\1/'`; \
+	KVER_MINOR=`echo $${KVER} | sed 's/^[0-9]*\.\([0-9]*\).*/\1/'`; \
+	if [ $${KVER_MAJOR} -lt 3 -o \( $${KVER_MAJOR} -eq 3 -a $${KVER_MINOR} -lt 10 \) ]; then \
+		printf "Linux version '%s' is too old for linux-backports (needs 3.10 or later)\n" \
+			"$${KVER}"; \
 		exit 1; \
 	fi
 	$(Q)touch $(@)