Ubuntu

Today's updated Kernel broke my system. How do I uninstall it?

Asked by Gary Morton

The update today for 3.5.0-26-generic broke my display. I was able to make a screenshot. I use 64bit 12.04.2 and use 1920x1080. The new kernel says no "Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors. There is on 1920 listed. If I go to previous kernels and choose to boot with 3.5.0-25-generic, then everything works fine again and my display is normal.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Gary Morton
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#1

Hi Gary Morton ,

this is easy.

Boot from an older (working) kernel and after you login to Desktop Environment open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and issue the following commands to remove the problematic kernel

   sudo apt-get purge linux-headers-3.5.0-26-generic
   sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.5.0-26-generic
   sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
   sudo update-grub

Regards
 NikTh

Revision history for this message
Gary Morton (ad5fo1) said : 		#2

Thanks. The header said it was not installed, so nothing to remove. Is this a problem that will be fixed soon. Or do I just wait for the next one? I have never had any issues when upating before.

Revision history for this message
N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#3

Hi ,
probably you should wait for the next kernel release (almost 2 months). It is OK , no big deal (at my opinion). I mean if you have 3.5.0-25 and not 3.5.0-26 . It doesn't matter.

Regards
 NikTh

Revision history for this message
Gary Morton (ad5fo1) said : 		#4

Even though I could manually choose my previous version of kernel 3.5.0-25-generic and boot properly, after the purge of 3.5.0-26-generic, I still have no proper display. When I go to "System Settings>Additional Drivers", it used to show my ATI drivers. Now the window is completely blank and does not show any available. I am completely lost on how to fix my system now without clean install, which I really do not want to do. Any suggestions?

Revision history for this message
Gary Morton (ad5fo1) said : 		#5

I found info on how to re-install the drivers, now I cannot even get my system to boot! I managed to run sudo apt-get install fglrx-update and booted up, then went back to restricted drivers screen and clicked "activate". Now I cannot boot to anything, even in recovery mode.

Revision history for this message
Gary Morton (ad5fo1) said : 		#6

I believe I have found my resolution to this issue. It seems I was using ATI proprietary fglrx drivers. After booting to an old 3.0 kernel still in my grub menu, I found the ATI page. I guess I had just been lucky for a very long time never really learning about it and it just working. I found the page at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI, and it was a big help. Through many uninstall and reinstalls of different kernels and fglxr drivers, I found that i can only make it work when using the 3.2.0-39-generic kernel with the latest ATI 13.1 drivers. Aslo, it would only install correctly when I used the second option on the aformentioned page for 3.2. Manually installing Catalyst 12.6, special case for Intel/AMD hybrid graphics(however, i was using 13.1). ATI's website says that the latest linux driver does not support beyond 3.4 kernel. For Precise at least, i only see that it goes from 3.2.0-39-generic to 3.5.-xxx. I will now stay at this kernel until ATI has a newer version. This was the only configuration that I could run "sudo fglrx" and get a proper output that was not full of errors. Thanks for the help. I hope this can help somebody else.