Arch Linux

Firestar

Member

From: Beijing, China

Registered: 2021-07-19

Posts: 116

Website

How to switch different kernels?

I want to switch from linux to linux-mainline

Which should I install and uninstall?

Is linux-mainline-headers necessary?

Should I re-config grub?

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This can be added to Archwiki

Last edited by Firestar (2023-03-01 08:13:48)

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,199

Re: How to switch different kernels?

You can have multiple kernels installed side by side, you do not need to uninstall anything.

linux-mainline-headers is only necessary if you have to compile your own kernel modules, a common candidate is the nvidia module via nvidia-dkms or virtualbox guest modules and so forth.

You will want to reconfigure GRUB after installing the kernel package, note the recent warnings regarding GRUB versions as well and as a safety measure you probably want to reinstall the latest GRUB payload with the corresponding grub-install command

Firestar

Member

From: Beijing, China

Registered: 2021-07-19

Posts: 116

Website

Re: How to switch different kernels?

Thanks! So I only need to install packages like:

linux linux-hardened linux-lts linux-mainline

I found that if I do not update grub, it will not find the kernel when booting, and I can only re-install Archlinux

like this

Loading Linux linux …
error: file /vmlinuz-linux not found.
Loading initial ramdisk …
error: you need to load the kernel first.

Last edited by Firestar (2023-03-03 02:13:59)

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Write programs that do one thing and do it well.
Write programs to work together.
Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 959

Re: How to switch different kernels?

I found that if I do not update grub, it will not find the kernel when booting

That's right. You'll have to make the BootLoader be aware of changes you're making!

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Adriik

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From: Argentina

Registered: 2022-03-10

Posts: 134

Website

Re: How to switch different kernels?

and I can only re-install Archlinux

Relax, there's no need to nuke your system if you don't regenerate the grub config.
In the worst case, grub doesn't have a entry for an existing kernel, and you need to chroot in your system to update grub.

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xerxes_

Member

Registered: 2018-04-29

Posts: 1,061

Re: How to switch different kernels?

and I can only re-install Archlinux

If something goes wrong and grub won't boot system, you can also use "grub rescue":
https://phoenixnap.com/kb/grub-rescue - Fixing Boot Failure: Via Grub Terminal part, but see also from beginning for main concept,
and this is how in Archlinux it is done:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#U … ue_console
to boot system and reinstall grub, so you don't need to boot from live system.

Last edited by xerxes_ (2023-03-01 17:42:03)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,885

Re: How to switch different kernels?

You are aware linux-mainline is currently slightly behind linux 6.2 vs 6.2.1 until 6.3-rc1 is released.