Kernel 4.15.0-24 won't boot passed grub - Mint 19 Mate

[ChiliN]

I've found a few other posts that seem to include this problem but not one directly highlighting it.

My Mint Mate 19 install upgraded to 4.15.0-24 in the latest updates and after selecting the OS in grub briefly displays the Mint boot up animation then goes to a backlit black screen. I've left it for 45 minutes this morning and it never completes a full boot, unlike others that have reported it's just taking a long time. This is on a Lenovo X240 laptop.

I've made a second install on the same laptop and on a HP Elitedesk and same thing again immediately after the updates. There are a number of reports on the German Mint forums too so looks like there could be a problem with this kernel.

I've not had a broken kernel in 15 years on any distro, how do I get rid of this kernel option in Grub (as it is now automatically booting in to it) and if another kernel update is provided whilst I'm booting to 4.15.0-23 (which works perfectly) will Mint updates let it install or expect the upgrade to 4.15.0-24 in between first?

Just to note that my hardware is Intel throughout, no NVidia/AMD, proprietary drivers etc.

Quick update: Ubuntu 18.04 upgrade to 4.15.0-24 just left me with the same problem there too. dpkg reported a problem with ubuntu-system-adjustments when I first booted back to the older kernel but is reporting the last upgrade for that from the beginning of June. journalctl is not reporting any kind of problems at all but also won't let me access the system.journal (wrong protocol?) from a live usb.

[karlchen]

Hi, ChiliN.

You can use the Grub boot menu to boot to the previous kernel 4.15.0-23. In case doing so makes your system come up properly again, you can use synaptic package manager in order to remove all K4.15.0-24 related software packages. Uninstalling the kernel will remove it from the Grub menu und re-instate 4.15.0-23 as the default kernel to boot without intervention.

Once a newer kernel, e.g. K4.15.0-25, will be released, the Update Manager will suggest to install it. It will not be bothered to install 4.15.0-24 any longer, once a higher 4.15 kernel version can be spotted.

Best regards,
Karl
--
P.S.:
I have upgraded to K4.15.0-24(26) on Ubuntu 18.04 Mate yesterday and rebooted. No problem noted. - Will see whether next startup will work smoothly as well.

[gm10]

Yeah, my Mint 19 MATE is running smoothly on -24 as well, but it does of course very much depend on your hardware and potentially software environment. -24 sure seems to be a fun kernel in that respect. ouch.

You could troubleshoot the boot by hiding the splash screen to see what it's failing on, but I'm with karlchen, just go back to the previous version, not worth the effort. With so many people having issues with this one the Ubuntu team will have to look into it, anyway.

[all41]

When you get to grub screen use the down arrow to select Advanced options and then press Enter to display
the list of bootable kernels. Select the previous one that was working.

[ChiliN]

Thank you for the responses guys, and I've now deleted everything -24 related so back to booting straight into -23 after running boot-repair.

I did try troubleshooting by removing the 'quiet splash' from the -24 grub line but no dmesg, no nothing, just straight to blank screen. I've gotta say I've put up with systemd for the last two years whilst also running 14.04 and Devuan on the stuff I didn't have time to start shifting over but it really does suck, especially at providing any kind of useful error messages.

I'll be keeping Mint Mate for stuff that needs doing straight off but if I can get a decent looking desktop configured on Devuan or LMDE becomes Devuan based it'll be there for backup only. It's a shame because systemd (in my opinion) is the only 'error' in probably the best OS I've used since Atari TOS 4.0x on the Falcon

[movisman]

Hi there,

Just came across this thread, as I just installed LM19 Cinnamon on a DELL E7240 machine, and had the same issue as the OP once I had updated the kernel to 4.15.0-24.

I would get a black screen after the Linux Mint 'loading image'. I am still a bit of a novice with Linux as just testing distros atm, but sometimes pressing buttons like esc, ctrl, F1 etc would get it past this and to the desktop (eventually), but I was then unable to shut it down gracefully because 'at-ati-bus-launcher' was not responding. I could force it of course.

Booting into the -23 kernel resolved the problem, boot and shutdown all good, so I removed -24 for now. I did initially try to reinstall the kernel after removal but the problem came straight back.

This appears to be a known issue, apparently -24 was pulled and a fix committed by the looks of it?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/bioni ... ug/1779827

Initially my search found this which led me to the launchpad bug report:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1052159 ... -the-repos

Is this something the Linux Mint team can look into? Maybe a patched kernel needs publishing or this one removed?

Thanks!

[gm10]

Is this something the Linux Mint team can look into? Maybe a patched kernel needs publishing or this one removed?

The Mint team isn't working on kernels, that's purely the Ubuntu team. That said, this kernel was removed by the Ubuntu team 2 or 3 days ago. If you still got that today then you're on a super slowly updating mirror.

A patched kernel is available in Ubuntu's testing repository (bionic-proposed), if you feel adventurous you can add install it now, otherwise wait for it to show up in the regular update channel once it passes verification.

[movisman]

The Mint team isn't working on kernels, that's purely the Ubuntu team. That said, this kernel was removed by the Ubuntu team 2 or 3 days ago. If you still got that today then you're on a super slowly updating mirror.

A patched kernel is available in Ubuntu's testing repository (bionic-proposed), if you feel adventurous you can add install it now, otherwise wait for it to show up in the regular update channel once it passes verification.

Hi there,

Thanks for the swift reply. Ah yes I am aware that the Mint team doesn't work on the kernels - but I didn't word my sentence particularly well! I did think however that you guys were able to remove the kernels from appearing in the updater, but I guess these come from Ubuntu directly with no control from the Mint team?

As for the patched kernel - nah, no worries for now, i'm just having a play around with mind to installing from afresh on another machine later, so -23 is all good until it appears in the regular update channel. I will just be sure not to install -24 again.

Thanks for the assistance.

[movisman]

PS. I did have the fastest mirrors selected from my side, and the kernel still appears now whether I have the default main/base selected or the ones marked as fastest.

It sounds like the kernel will eventually go though, but the mirrors must simply be out of date if it's already been removed by the Ubuntu team.

Thanks!

[gm10]

Thanks for the swift reply. Ah yes I am aware that the Mint team doesn't work on the kernels - but I didn't word my sentence particularly well! I did think however that you guys were able to remove the kernels from appearing in the updater, but I guess these come from Ubuntu directly with no control from the Mint team?

Regarding "you guys" - just to be sure there's no confusion: I'm not a Mint dev, just a user. Devs have bright green user names.

Regarding the Mint team removing kernels: They have no control over Ubuntu's repositories, but what they can do is override an Ubuntu package by means of their own linuxmint repository, which is configured to have a higher priority than Ubuntu's. However, there is no need for that, because, as I said, the bad kernel was already removed from the Ubuntu repository itself. The only reason you're still seeing is because the local mirror you chose for the bionic repository is apparently slow in doing the "mirroring", i.e. it takes a long time copying the files from Ubuntu's server (see your choice in the Software Sources tool).

[movisman]

No confusion, i'm just typing without thinking

[centaurusa]

A patched kernel is available in Ubuntu's testing repository (bionic-proposed), if you feel adventurous you can add install it now, otherwise wait for it to show up in the regular update channel once it passes verification.

The possible bad news is that, after installing Mint 19 and letting Update Manager install Kernel Version 4.15.0-24.26, I too experienced the fail-to-boot scenario. I tried to update the Linux kernel to the latest stable version (4.17.5) using the instructions provided at https://www.wikihow.com/Install-and-Upg ... Linux-Mint but the computer (Inspiron 15 7547) failed to boot with this kernel also. I restored a disk image with Kernel Version 4.15.0-23 which boots correctly and placed the 4.15.0-24.26 on Update Manager's blacklist. So, my question - is there any way to determine if any given kernel update is going to be successful on Mint 19 other than simple trial and error (and restoring a working disk image if necessary)?

[gm10]

A patched kernel is available in Ubuntu's testing repository (bionic-proposed), if you feel adventurous you can add install it now, otherwise wait for it to show up in the regular update channel once it passes verification.

The possible bad news is that, after installing Mint 19 and letting Update Manager install Kernel Version 4.15.0-24.26, I too experienced the fail-to-boot scenario. I tried to update the Linux kernel to the latest stable version (4.17.5) using the instructions provided at https://www.wikihow.com/Install-and-Upg ... Linux-Mint but the computer (Inspiron 15 7547) failed to boot with this kernel also. I restored a disk image with Kernel Version 4.15.0-23 which boots correctly and placed the 4.15.0-24.26 on Update Manager's blacklist. So, my question - is there any way to determine if any given kernel update is going to be successful on Mint 19 other than simple trial and error (and restoring a working disk image if necessary)?

Since you quoted me (not sure why) - you don't need to restore disk images, you can select the kernel to boot with at the GRUB boot menu. And nowhere does it say that you should install kernels from kernel.org, if you want to play around with those it's indeed trial and error for you.

The official kernels that you get via the Update Manager are generally safe, this -24 situation is an exception, made worse by the fact that many mirrors are apparently super slow to update their repositories - that kernel was removed by Ubuntu nearly a week ago now.

[Taildragger]

Similar problem. Forgive me if this isn't the right place to enter this, and feel free to shift it to a new thread.
I have the problem of blinking screen, black to backlit, on booting to Mint 19. Asus machine, dual booted with Win 10, Intel i7, Nvidia Geforse 930M (says the label on the laptop). I think the problem is the boot, because it has happened twice, (I have re-installed 19 2-3 times trying to solve the problem). Will post the gparted picture from when it was working properly, and another that I took with the live cd when it wasn't working. Thanks in advance.

https://imgur.com/a/caOgzrl

Hope this imgur works, the top picture that has /boot/efi is the one that works, the bottom one doesn't. If this is the problem, please let me know how to fix it (I would imagine from the live CD. (And what makes it keep changing? seemingly automatically upon re-boot.

Mint user since Mint 7

[midrange]

I'm fairly new to Linux Mint.

I did a clean install of v19/Mate onto my laptop (ThinkPad T400), and it worked quite well.

Then I saw a kernel update to 4.15.0-24, upgraded, and after the upgrade I saw the symptoms described in the initial message of this thread. Essentially a hang at a blank backlit screen, waiting for the login screen to appear.

Subsequently, after some quality time in google, I learned more about grub, grub.conf and grub.d then I had planned to, but i was able to boot to the login screen.

I configured grub to save the last kernel I selected from the grub menu. I selected the -20 kernel.

grub has been using the -20 kernel ever since, and the boot up to the login screen has progressed without issues.

I'll be checking newer kernels as they are released. I just wanted to post my experience here.

[Taildragger]

Midrange, could you show me how to do what you did? I can boot to the recovery mode, which gives options for previous kernels, but none of them will boot. Thanks.

[all41]

@Taildragger,
At grub choose Advanced options (second line from top) then select the next lower kernel that was previously
working (not the recovery mode option). Then when you get booted up use Update Manager to remove the offending kernel.
Grub will by default choose the highest kernel revision installed.
Then reboot and all should be peachy

[aes2011]

The official kernels that you get via the Update Manager are generally safe, this -24 situation is an exception, made worse by the fact that many mirrors are apparently super slow to update their repositories - that kernel was removed by Ubuntu nearly a week ago now.

While I haven't yet had problems, here's something: https://askubuntu.com/questions/897456/ ... ly-poor-qa

[JoeBingo]

Running an Intense PC MintBox 2 I've had for about a year and bought by following a link from "linuxmint dot com" ... A computer promoted by Linux Mint and shipped with Linux Mint installed. When I purchased the MintBox 2, I did upgrade it with a Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB drive and all the RAM it will hold (16 GiB).

I have (essentially) the same problem with the 4.15.0-24 kernel as the OP. After trying and then uninstalling 24, I went to preferences and unchecked "Always show kernel update" AND unchecked "Always select kernel updates". Now I'm back to the kernel that LM-19 Mate shipped with, 4.15.0-20 and have no issues whatsoever. Guess I'll just leave it right there unless and until Linux Mint formally announces a dire compelling need to upgrade the kernel.

EDIT: I tried 4.15.0-24 several times since it was first available. The latest try was earlier today, Sunday Jul 8th. It does not play nice.

[gm10]

EDIT: I tried 4.15.0-24 several times since it was first available. The latest try was earlier today, Sunday Jul 8th. It does not play nice.

The -24 version won't ever change, so there's no need to try it again (it's not even available on Ubuntu's servers anymore). A fix will carry a new version number. If you want to, you can install -23 from Update Manager > View > Linux kernels. There were no problems reported with that one.