Eliminating newer Kernel images

Question

A few weeks ago, i had my Ubuntu 17.10 with kernel version 4.13.0-37. I accidentally deleted a few important packages like network-manager, and i could not connect to internet at all when i booted. So i decided to install Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel version 4.4.0-21-generic from DVD keeping my $HOME intact. It worked. I can boot when i select the 4.4.0-21-generic option from my GRUB2 menu.

When i try to boot from the kernel 4.13.0-37, it goes into emergency mode, and i tried this solution here. I still booted in emergency mode, e2fsck said that root filesystem is clean.

My question is how can i eliminate the newer versions of the kernel, will i ever be able to upgrade from 4.4.0-21-generic.

Edit 1: I did an update&&upgrade today, and the kernel updated to 4.4.0-116, and i could boot from this kernel image, what i do not understand is, this image was already existing on my filesystem, but it booted only after it upgraded from 4.4.0-21-generic.

Answer 1

I too have some strange issue with Kernel version 4.13.0-37 which came as update for Ubuntu 16.04. But removing kernel is not prescribed option.Because it also removes other important linux header packages when you run sudo apt autoremove. This results in removing network-manager and many more.

I found possible solution is to edit Grub2 boot order.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Setup#Configuring_GRUB_2

To change boot order of kernel edit (GRUB_DEFAULT=0)

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

the first index starts from 0. So set the value as

GRUB_DEFAULT="1>9"

for second menu (Advanced) and 10th kernel option

I hope this will fix the problem till you received new kernel update.