I had been running Mint MATE 18.3 on this laptop successfully since late 2016.
I do not dual-boot with Windows nor any other OS.
MY QUESTION IS:
Why do kernels 5.4.0 AND 4.15.0 boot OK when I INSTALL them from the "Kernels" section of the Update Manager but NEITHER kernel will boot if I UPDATE from the Update Manager?
I installed 19.3 from a Live USB doing the following:
Selected "something else" from the Mint menu
This is my configuration where I did not format my "/home" directory and I did format "/" and installed the new system.
/dev/sda
- free space 1MB
/dev/sda1 = efi -- 536 MB 33 MB
/dev/sda2 = ext4 / -- 31457 MB 674 MB
free space -- 0 MB
/dev/sda4 = ext4 /home -- 959725 MB 288810 MB
/dev/sda3 = swap -- 8482 MB unknown
free space -- 0 MB
Did the following:
CHANGE /dev/sda2 and FORMAT for new system install
Selected ext 4 and " / " as mount point
CHANGE /dev/sda4 as /home DID NOT FORMAT
Selected ext 4 and " /home " as mount point
CHANGE /dev/sda3 SWAP INSTALLER DID NOT ALLOW FORMAT
Rebooted upon installation completion.
My kernel was then:
Kernel Linux 5.0.0-32-generic x86_64
Current: linux (5.0.0-32.34) disco
Using kernel linux-image-5.0.0-32.34-generic the laptop consistently boots with no problem
THIS IS WHERE MY PROBLEM STARTED:
I updated the Mint Update Manager
I then updated all software INCLUDING the following:
- linux-4.15.0-141.145
Linux Kernel Headers for development
linux (4.15.0-141.145) bionic
Linux kernel 5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64
The Linux Kernel
linux-meta-hwe-5.4 (5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64) bionic
linux-base
Linux image base package
linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.2) bionic FROM linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.1) bionic
It hangs at a blank screen with the top most kernel 5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64
If I attempt to boot with any of the other kernels the machine hangs at "Loading initial ramdisk"
The system will not reboot with ctrl-alt-delete and I had to press the power off switch.
After each power off/on I selected Recovery mode and was able to reboot to desktop with each kernel.
I then installed kernels 4.15.0-140 and 5.4.0.70 using the Kernels under the Update Manager as a test
Upon reboot I was again unsuccessful with both of these kernels.
It makes no sense to me that kernels 5.4.0 AND 4.15.0 boot OK when I INSTALL them from the "Kernels" section of the Update Manager but NEITHER kernel will boot if I UPDATE from the Update Manager
NEXT I started forum searching and found plenty of "black/blank screen" questions and solutions.
MY ORIGINAL GRUB:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
I tried replacing "quiet splash" with "noacpi nomodeset"
This only booted in recovery mode so I removed nomodeset
With "noacpi" it still would not boot.
MY CURRENT GRUB:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="noacpi"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
Without success at this point I reinstalled 19.3 as before.
linux (5.0.0-32.34) disco booted successfully
I updated the Mint Update Manager
I then updated all software BUT NOT the following:
- linux-4.15.0-141.145
linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.2) bionic FROM linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.1) bionic
linux-meta-hwe-5.4 (5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64) bionic
I then installed 4.15.0-141 from the Update Manager-Kernels menu using "noacpi" in GRUB
Reboot was SUCCESSFUL
I then installed 5.4.0.71 from the Update Manager-Kernels menu using "noacpi" in GRUB
Reboot was SUCCESSFUL
Reboots were continuously SUCCESSFUL with all three kernels.
I then installed the UPDATES to the following three:
- linux-4.15.0-141.145
linux-meta-hwe-5.4 (5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64) bionic
linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.2) bionic FROM linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.1) bionic
I reinstalled from USB once again and did all the above EXCEPT installing the three UPDATES.
I then installed 4.15.0-141 and 5.4.0.71 from the Kernel Manager and they boot with no obvious problems. For now I have set my Update Manger to ignore all FUTURE updates for these three packages.
- linux-4.15.0-141.145
linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.2) bionic FROM linux-base (4.5ubuntu1.1) bionic
linux-meta-hwe-5.4 (5.4.0.71.79~18.04.64) bionic
I installed 19.3 because 18.3 was end-of-life. I want to keep my system updated but not sure what I should do now.
MY QUESTION IS: Why do either of the above kernels work when I simply install them but the system will not boot if I UPDATE them from the Update Manager?
Your advice and comments will be greatly appreciated.
Code: Select all
inxi -Fxz
System: Host: asus Kernel: 5.4.0-71-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: MATE 1.22.2
Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Machine: Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X555UB v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X555UB v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: X555UB.300 date: 07/06/2016
Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 29.3 Wh condition: 30.7/37.3 Wh (82%) model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery status: Not charging
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M570 charge: 15% status: Discharging
CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 19200
Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/2800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 501 3: 500 4: 500
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
Device-2: NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 940M] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.0.8 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-71-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000
bus ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave driver: ath9k v: kernel
port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0
IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives: Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 262.23 GiB (28.2%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS541010A9E680 size: 931.51 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 28.71 GiB used: 7.39 GiB (25.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /home size: 879.66 GiB used: 254.83 GiB (29.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-3: swap-1 size: 7.90 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 33.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2300
Info: Processes: 173 Uptime: 10m Memory: 7.68 GiB used: 570.5 MiB (7.3%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0
Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 inxi: 3.0.32