how to roll back a kernel ubuntu 16.04

Question

I could not find this easily today so I am putting it here for other people, and myself in 6 months

How do you roll back a kernel in ubuntu LTS 16.04, answered below

ms4720 · Answer 1 · 2018-01-21T09:56:42.060

-1

do the following steps in order

ssh into the box
sudo su -
count the menu and submenu lines to get to the kernel you want to boot, indexed at 0
edit /etc/default/grub
change GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT="M>N" and save
- M is menu count
- N is submenu count, the kernel you want to boot
- ON 16.04 you start counting N when you get here: submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu'
update-grub
systemctl reboot
ssh in
uname -r to see if you booted to the right kernel
sudo su -
apt-get purge linux-headers-version_to_remove and linux-image-version_to_remove
edit /etc/default/grub and change to: GRUB_DEFAULT=0
systemctl reboot
ssh in and uname -r to see if you are good

If you do this wrong you may not be able to boot the box, be warned

edited Jan 21 '18 at 09:56

answered Jan 21 '18 at 09:20

ms4720

you may need to install an older kernel to roll back to the desired state – ms4720 Jan 21 '18 at 09:24
1

Or you can do it in two steps: 1) boot the older kernel. 2) uninstall the unwanted kernel. – Gerald Schneider Jan 21 '18 at 10:19
that is exactly what I am doing, could not find a simpler way to do it on cli, lots of info if you had X running – ms4720 Jan 22 '18 at 01:51
forgot to add this was AWS so no console – ms4720 Jan 22 '18 at 02:06

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