Logging in by ssh - last line - is anything wrong?

[Bo Berglund]

On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 09:46:56 +0100, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:

>On Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 10:35:05AM +0200, Bo Berglund wrote:
>> On Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:53:43 +0100, David Fletcher <dave at thefletchers.net>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> >> So I did a full upgrade and it listed new kernel being received.
>> >> Rebooted and and logged in again but the message is still there... :-
>> >> (
>> >> 
>> >> It says:
>> >> 
>> >> Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-89-generic x86_64)
>> 
>> >Mine says
>> >Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-155-generic x86_64)
>> >
>> 
>> Seems like we are on the same LTS version and yet you have a later kernel...
>> 
>> I have now checked the kernel in use:
>> $ uname -r5.4.0-89-generic
>> 
>> And these are all that exist on my system:
>> 
>> $ dpkg --list 'linux-image*' | grep ^ii
>> linux-image-5.4.0-155-generic  5.4.0-155.172  amd64  Signed kernel image generic
>> linux-image-5.4.0-89-generic   5.4.0-89.100   amd64  Signed kernel image generic
>> linux-image-generic            5.4.0.155.151  amd64  Generic Linux kernel image
>> 
>> So your kernel does exist on my system but is not used!!!
>> 
>> How can I *force* it to use the *newest* kernel when booting?
>> 
>> The server is headless and I always use SSH to interact with it.
>> 
>> I am in fact now 100 km away from it but it has an OpenVPN server service which
>> is used to connect the two sites together so I can work on it notwithstanding.
>> 
>> And if there are several kernels available, which will be used when there is no
>> access to the boot menu (I think that a selection of kernels is available
>> there)?
>> 
>> Possibly the oldest available? Looks like that above...
>> 
>On my (xubuntu) systems it's always the newest kernel that gets used
>on reboot unless you specifically ask for an older one.  The standard
>apt upgrade process just keeps 'latest' plus the previous one.

Thanks, but I forgot to mention that this system is a multi-boot system where it
is possble from the boot menu to boot to a GUI version of Ubuntu 20.04.3 as well
as Windows (I could not get away from this on the Lenovo mini-tower since
hardware firmware updates must be done from Windows...).
And I believe there is also an entry to boot a standalone GParted in order to
back up the drive...

It was a long time now since I booted with a monitor attached so I had all but
forgotten it until I now looked at the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file (which is NOT
something I would like to edit due to its complexity)

Can I uninstall the 5.4.0-89-generic kernel while it is running thus forcing use
of the only remaining kernel on next reboot?

Or will it then swich to something totally different given the number of boot
options I found and which then forces me to be physically present to repair?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden