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I have a somewhat serious problem. (I am in Ubuntu 12.10) Yesterday, I clicked on the update manager to see if there were any updates. There were about 26, and when I investigated, I saw that they were for a kernel update. The new kernel was 3.5.0-40. (My old working kernel is 3.5.0-39) So I said, sure, I'll update my kernel. After I rebooted, I was stuck on a purple screen, so I pushed the power button and turned off my computer. After a bit of research, I realized the old kernel might work still. So I booted into it, and it worked like a charm. Then, I downloaded a program called Grub Customizer, (you can probably google it), and then changed my default boot entry to the old kernel. Now I don't have to go to the grub2 boot menu whenever I boot up, which is nice. However, I don't like it saying "Mounting ramdisk" whenever I boot up because I use the old kernel, but I can stay on that if there's no fix. So here are my questions:

1.) Is the new kernel not working because of a graphics driver problem? I have a Intel Sandy Bridge Mobile graphics card, which works like a charm. (With the old kernel)

2.) IS IT SAFE TO DELETE THE NEW KERNEL? I CAN NOT AFFORD TO SCREW UP MY COMPUTER! I have found lots of information about deleting old kernels, but not new ones.

3.) If I do delete my new kernel, do I need to change the settings in Grub Customizer again? If so, to what?

Thanks for your help, and if there is no way to fix this, I am O.K. to stay on the old kernel. Thanks for your help/time.

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Yes you are absolutely right. I had installed Ubuntu 12.04.2 from live CD, which had actually the same version that Ubuntu 12.10 use. You can check it here Ubuntu LTS and Kernel Enablement Stack. I always faced lagging and sluggishness problem, although my Graphics driver was latest. Then installing a new Kernel 3.8.0 with latest graphics driver fixed my issue. I have also Intel inbuilt graphics card.

Actually You can install/remove any kernel you want. There is no problem on using one or multiple Kernels at a time. But sometime you should consider the Kernel Mapping to your Ubuntu Version. For example following link lists out the mapping of different kernel to different version of OS:

Ubuntu to Mainline kernel version mapping

So I suggest you to go through each post before taking such an action. You can get a complete information of Kernel installing/removing from following link:

Kernel Mainline Builds

Hope these links will help you to find out your solution.

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  • Ok thanks for the answer, so deleting my new Kernel will not damage my system?
    – Raleigh
    Sep 7, 2013 at 14:37
  • Oh, and also, if it doesn't, do I need to change grub customizer?
    – Raleigh
    Sep 7, 2013 at 14:40
  • You need to change grub customizer only when you want your system to boot automatically from specific grub.. But it is good that you get a list of the grub to which you want to boot, it will help on that case if the newest grub causes some problem and you are not able to boot then, at least you will have a option to boot from previous grub. In my Grub Menu I left enabled Grub 3.5 and Grub 3.8. I can use any grub I want. And also, if you face any problem sudo update-grub command could fix your problem.. Sep 7, 2013 at 14:48
  • OK thanks for the help, I think I'll just leave my system the way I have it because it automatically boots to the working kernel. I have synaptic package manager, so could I possibly delet the linux-image-3.5.0-40 with that. I saw on some post somewhere I could do that... Thanks again!!!
    – Raleigh
    Sep 7, 2013 at 14:50
  • Yes you can remove your grub from Synaptic Package Manager. Be sure that you are not using the same grub that you are removing. and also don't forget to run these commands when removal completed: sudo apt-get autoremove sudo apt-get autoclean sudo apt-get -f install and sudo update-grub Hope you got it.. Sep 7, 2013 at 14:54
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I had the same issue yesterday. I am now booting into the old kernel 3.5.0-39 which works like charm as you have already mentioned.

It is not so funny when your whole system breaks after you have updated it.

I was quite angry but fortunately managed to fix the problem by myself.

So next time an update is proposed I will exactly look at what will be updated. If it is a kernel update I will refuse to perform it.

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