How to Downgrade the Kernel on Ubuntu 22.04

VirtualBox on Ubuntu can sometimes become incompatible with the latest kernel after an update. When this happens, you can either upgrade Ubuntu, VirtualBox, and Vagrant, or simply downgrade the kernel.

Symptoms

Vagrant

Vagrant operations on VirtualBox VMs fail with the following message:

:ansible-gis]└2 development(+200/-13) ± vagrant up $BOX
Bringing machine 'gsd-agserver1' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> gsd-agserver1: Checking if box 'c2platform/win2022' version '0.1.0' is up to date...
==> gsd-agserver1: Clearing any previously set forwarded ports...
==> gsd-agserver1: Clearing any previously set network interfaces...
==> gsd-agserver1: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...
    gsd-agserver1: Adapter 2: hostonly
    gsd-agserver1: Adapter 1: nat
==> gsd-agserver1: Forwarding ports...
    gsd-agserver1: 5985 (guest) => 55985 (host) (adapter 1)
    gsd-agserver1: 5986 (guest) => 55986 (host) (adapter 1)
    gsd-agserver1: 22 (guest) => 2222 (host) (adapter 1)
==> gsd-agserver1: Running 'pre-boot' VM customizations...
==> gsd-agserver1: Booting VM...
==> gsd-agserver1: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...
The guest machine entered an invalid state while waiting for it
to boot. Valid states are 'starting, running'. The machine is in the
'gurumeditation' state. Please verify everything is configured
properly and try again.

If the provider you're using has a GUI that comes with it,
it is often helpful to open that and watch the machine, since the
GUI often has more helpful error messages than Vagrant can retrieve.
For example, if you're using VirtualBox, run `vagrant up` while the
VirtualBox GUI is open.

The primary issue for this error is that the provider you're using
is not properly configured. This is very rarely a Vagrant issue.

VirtualBox

In the VirtualBox Manager, VMs won’t start, and the logs provide little information other than showing that the VM suddenly stopped working.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu will start generating crash reports containing lines similar to:

Rollback Kernel

If the problem arises after an automatic kernel upgrade, the old kernel is still available. You can configure it as the default kernel using the GRUB_DEFAULT option in /etc/default/grub with the following steps:

1. Run update Grub to list all available kernels:

   sudo update-grub
   

   Show me

   [@mpc2:ansible-gis]└2 development(+200/-13) 1 ± sudo update-grub
   Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
   Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
   Generating grub configuration file ...
   Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-40-generic
   Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-40-generic
   Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-41-generic
   Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-41-generic
   Memtest86+ needs a 16-bit boot, that is not available on EFI, exiting
   Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
   Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.
   Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry.
   Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
   done
   

2. Run the following command to get the exact line to use in /etc/default/grub:

   grep 'menuentry \|submenu ' /boot/grub/grub.cfg | cut -f2 -d "'"
   

   For example, it might output:

   Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-41-generic
   

   Show me

   [@mpc2:ansible-gis]└2 development(+200/-13) ± grep 'menuentry \|submenu ' /boot/grub/grub.cfg | cut -f2 -d "'"
   Ubuntu
   Advanced options for Ubuntu
   Ubuntu, with Linux 6.8.0-40-generic
   Ubuntu, with Linux 6.8.0-40-generic (recovery mode)
   Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-41-generic
   Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-41-generic (recovery mode)
   UEFI Firmware Settings
   

3. Change the GRUB_DEFAULT option in /etc/default/grub from:

   GRUB_DEFAULT=0
   

   to:

   GRUB_DEFAULT="Advanced options for Ubuntu>Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-41-generic"
   

4. Update Grub again:

   sudo update-grub
   

5. Reboot the machine to start using the new kernel:

   reboot now
   

6. Verify the current kernel:

   uname -r
   

Install Older Kernel

If the problem arises on a new Ubuntu installation and it has never worked correctly, you can install an older kernel. For example, for Ubuntu 22.04, the kernel “Ubuntu, with Linux 6.5.0-41-generic” works.

For instructions on how to download and install the kernel, refer to: Downgrade kernel for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS - Ask Ubuntu  .