How can I remove new kernel versions after downgrading?

Question

I upgraded Ubuntu to 12.04, all packages. But after that I encountered a lot of problems so I decided to downgrade to 11.10.

After I did that I found I now have two kernels: 3.2.x and 3.0.x. I found many explanations of how to remove older kernels, but i have no idea how to remove the newer kernel.

I dont see a 3.2 kernel running when im using the 3.0 kernel. But I see it in Grub.

When I type uname -r in terminal I see the 3.0.x kernel which im using at present.

How do I proceed to remove the 3.2 kernel?

Solution 1

There are 3 files you will need to remove, more if you are using a virtual machine too. But these are the main ones.

Open synaptic, use the search to find the installed kernels

• linux-headers-3.2.x.x
• linux-headers-3.2.x.x-generic (possibly generic-pae or i686)
• linux-image-3.2.x.x

Should be easy enough to remove. Afterward run

sudo update-grub

Solution 2

This should remove your 3.2 kernel:

sudo apt-get remove --purge 3.2.x-xx-*

Obviously, replace the x's with the actual version numbers from your 3.2 kernel version. If you don't remember what those numbers are, you should be able to see them by looking in the /boot directory.

The last time I did this, I recall it triggering a grub-update to remove it from the GRUB menu as well.

-This works best for removing newer kernels that you want remove like 3.3.0 +, which would not be found in synaptic, this is a life saver! -Rabbit2190

Comments

[Pawel]

I dont see any version of kernel in synaptic, other than 3.0.0.x

[Pawel]

Afther this command: E: Couldn't find any package by regex '3.2.0-17-generic'

[Ringtail]

Strange, are you sure that you still have the package installed or is it a ghost contained in GRUB? I would run "sudo update-grub" and see if it goes away. If not look into your /boot folder and see if there are any remains of the kernel in question.

[Pawel]

After update grub i have in console: Generating grub.cfg ... Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-17-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-17-generic Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-16-generic Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-16-generic Also i /boot directory i have entries with 3.2.x version.

[Ringtail]

OK if you open synaptic and search 3.2.0-17 what are the results?

[Pawel]

Empty list. No results.

[Aaron]

Do you see any files with that version in your /boot dir? Based-on the comments on BlueXrider's answer it almost sounds like it's already been removed.

[Ringtail]

Apparently there is no such package on your system otherwise synaptic would pick up on it.

[Pawel]

Hm. weird, beacuse i can run linux on this 3.2.x kernel ...

[Ringtail]

Right now I am running Natty on 3.2.4-030204-generic-pae and had a rough time removing the 2.6.38 one I had.