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There's a problem I've found with xorg/x11... I'm getting a frozen screen: the mouse still moves, the cpu is clearly working hard, but no response on the screen.

I think this happened after upgrading my linux kernel to 5.4.0-65-generic.

Accoring to here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze

One of the bits of advice is to go back to an earlier kernel. But I don't have any older kernels installed.

I'd like to install an earlier kernel alongside this one, and I've been doing a lot of googling, but there's not a lot of consistency in the answers and most of them are from many years ago...

My question is: What is the best current method to try to go back a few kernels?

(Alternatively, I'm thinking of trying 20.10 to see if that solves the problem.)

Edit: as requested, I'm adding the output of ls -l /boot to the queston:

total 236572
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1501359 Feb 16  2018 abi-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1501359 Mar  7  2018 abi-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   213212 Feb 16  2018 config-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   213212 Mar  7  2018 config-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   237764 Jan 15 02:50 config-5.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   237764 Jan 18 09:31 config-5.4.0-65-generic
drwx------ 4 root root     4096 Dec 31  1969 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root     4096 Jan 29 10:22 grub
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       27 Jan 28 06:55 initrd.img -> initrd.img-5.4.0-65-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 42967898 Jan 31 12:27 initrd.img-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22544867 Jan 31 12:27 initrd.img-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50035195 Jan 31 12:27 initrd.img-5.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50042544 Jan 31 12:27 initrd.img-5.4.0-65-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       27 Jan 28 06:55 initrd.img.old -> initrd.img-5.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   182704 Aug 18 04:46 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184380 Aug 18 04:46 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184884 Aug 18 04:46 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     2860 Feb 16  2018 retpoline-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     2860 Mar  7  2018 retpoline-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  3880918 Feb 16  2018 System.map-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  3880918 Mar  7  2018 System.map-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4746296 Jan 15 02:50 System.map-5.4.0-64-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  4746296 Jan 18 09:31 System.map-5.4.0-65-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       24 Jan 28 06:55 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.4.0-65-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  7870224 Feb 16  2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  7872152 Feb 22  2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic.efi.signed
-rw------- 1 root root  7870224 Mar  7  2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-37-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  7872152 Mar 18  2018 vmlinuz-4.13.0-37-generic.efi.signed
-rw------- 1 root root 11686656 Jan 15 02:56 vmlinuz-5.4.0-64-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 11686656 Jan 18 09:45 vmlinuz-5.4.0-65-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       24 Jan 28 06:55 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-5.4.0-64-generic
Jason Mehmel
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  • There's usually at least one earlier kernel, sometimes two. Show us the complete output of ls -l /boot – user535733 Feb 01 '21 at 19:54
  • @user535733 Done! I've added it to the main question. Would it have been right for me to jump from 4.13 to 5.4.0? – Jason Mehmel Feb 01 '21 at 20:21
  • No currently-supported release of Ubuntu uses (or used) the 4.13 kernel...but Ubuntu 17.10 did. This suggests that you upgraded some unsupported or unusual way to migrate from Ubuntu 17.10 to 20.04. This, in turn, suggests that your X problems might not be related specifically to the kernel, but perhaps due to the unusual release-upgrade method. Test: Does the problem occur when using a 20.04 LiveUSB? – user535733 Feb 01 '21 at 20:31
  • @user535733 I don't think I've still got a 20.04 LiveUSB! I could try downloading one and seeing if the problem exists in that 'clean' version. – Jason Mehmel Feb 03 '21 at 03:43

1 Answers1

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I also had similar freezing issues after upgrading to 5.4.0-65 from 5.4.0-64, and had to revert back to the earlier kernel.

In many cases, simply pressing Esc and/or Shift after the BIOS/UEFI splash logo would get you access to the grub menu, where you can then choose to boot into an older version of kernel. Judging by the output of ls -l /boot, you seem to have 5.4.0-64 still available on your machine.

If that doesn't get you the grub menu, then you might need to edit the grub timeout style and duration. See the answers in this post for more details.

Assuming you tried 5.4.0-64 and it works, then if you want grub to use the last choice by default, so that you don't have to press Esc and/or Shift to get the grub menu every time, you can use the following grub options (e.g. modify /etc/default/grub and then sudo update-grub):

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

It is also possible to specify the actual default kernel entry that grub should use, albeit it's slightly more sophisticated. See the answers of this post for details.

In case you want to increase the number of old kernels that the system keeps in the future, it's also possible. See this post for details.

1one.w01f
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