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The latest version of the kernel is hopelessly broken for me so I want to pin back to an earlier version. The best way to do that seems to be to pin the linux-generic package to an earlier version.

But how do I determine the correct earlier version?

ETA: maybe I wasn't clear.

My machine is currently running linux-image-3.13.0-133-generic. linux-image-3.13.0-133-generic is broken. It hangs on uninterruble interrupts when accessing ext4 file systems. That's not acceptable. The latest kernel that I know worked was linux-image-3.13.0-125-generic. I'd like to pin it, but pinning linux-image-3.13.0-133-generic is pointless since it will never be upgraded anyway. What I really need to pin is linux-image-generic. I just don't know what version of linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-3.13.0-133-generic.

Rich Pixley
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1 Answers1

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Uninstall all kernel versions > 3.13.0-125-generic.

Then you put the kernel on hold. Speaking in broad strokes, pinning has to do with repository preferences not package preferences, or at least in this case it is far easier to put the kernel on hold.

See : How can I avoid kernel updates?

And https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PinningHowto

Pinning is a process that allows you to remain on a stable release of Ubuntu (or any other debian system) while grabbing packages from a more recent version.

Note however that the processes described below will only work if things like libc6 versions match, so you should probably not do this on an Ubuntu system. I strongly recommend you look at UbuntuBackports before doing this.

Pinning is used as a last resort and in some ways does the opposite of putting a package on hold. It marks the stable repositories as preferred and allows you to pull in a few packages . This can cause significant breakage however and should be done only as a last resort. backports, ppa, and compiling from source are all preferred to pinning.

If you do not understand the term "things like libc6 versions match" you should not be pinning . Note also the warning "you should probably not do this on an Ubuntu system."

Panther
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