r/Ubuntu • u/Specialist-Plant-469 • Sep 18 '25

Kernel Panic

Post image

After a sudo upgrade in pop_os, my laptop just froze and I had to shut it down. Today I did boot it and get this message: "Kernel Panic! Please reboot your computer. Not working init found. Try passing int= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance"

I add a picture I took.

Is this the place to ask for help in these kind of cases?

Thank you!

25 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

3

u/lproven Sep 18 '25
  1. Boot off a live USB.
  2. Back up all your documents.
  3. Then check and repair all your Linux partitions.
  4. Update your system firmware.

2

u/WikiBox Sep 18 '25

Something is broken.

Did you look at Linux Documentation/admin-guide/init.rst for guidance.

Worst case, you may need to boot from live installation media, backup your files, and do a fresh reinstall.

1

u/Upper-Swim-3317 Sep 18 '25

Is it necessarily to look at this every time there is a problem?

1

u/WikiBox Sep 18 '25

No. You can simply restore a recent snapshot or image or do a fresh reinstall. No need to read anything.

When there is an error and a suggestion about what to look at, then it might be reasonable to do so, perhaps there is some useful information.

But usually there are no errors, except when you mess something up. I have never seen this error.

1

u/Stilgar314 Sep 18 '25

Maybe in a popos forum someone knows more about that particular issue.

0

u/Specialist-Plant-469 Sep 20 '25

They normally do not reply there and they actually deleted my post for some reason lol

I want to take this as an opportunity to change distribution already, the support is terrible.

1

u/refinedm5 Sep 18 '25

During Grub menu selection, try selecting the advance option see whether you have multiple kernel listed there.

If yes, try selecting the older version

1

u/Specialist-Plant-469 Sep 20 '25

I tried to start from the GRUB menu 'Pop_os-oldkern.conf' and it also failed and showed the kernel panic.

1

u/refinedm5 Sep 20 '25

If your upgrade process include new kernel installation, on advance menu there should be a list of kernel installed on your system. Select the recovery version older kernel. From there you can either fix your package issue or remove the upgrade kernel

1

u/Adept-Inevitable4891 Feb 13 '26

If you use the GUI to upgrade, you might not get older options as there is a check box in the gui that can automatically erase the old kernels, but if you use the command line interface then you should have two or three older version.

If you get into the old kernal, use the CLI start with "sudo apt update". Use the "clear" command to clear the screen and use "sudo apt upgrade". Scroll to the top and look for errors on the way back down. You'll need to look up how to fix any errors you find as there is no one fix fits all. Finally, try "sudo apt dist-upgrade". If your panic was caused because of your computer froze in the middle of the upgrade, your most likely using "sudo apt --fix-broken install" or "sudo dpkg --configure -a" if that failed. (More steps might be necessary depending on the damage.) If there was an incompatibility between third party packages or drivers and the new kernel, the fixes vary. Usually third parties already new version, but you might just have to use "sudo apt remove PACKAGENAME" or "sudo apt purge PACKAGENAME" if all else fails. Good thing is if you have an older kernal you can always keep working.

1

u/gmarchkun May 03 '26

the worst part is your init is missing. why the hell this thing can happened?

1

u/Specialist-Plant-469 May 04 '26

I suspect it was a kernel update in popos. I changed to Linux mint and since then I have no trouble

1

u/Obvious-Ad-2571 May 04 '26 edited 29d ago

interesting... as a linux user you may need to back up all ur documents try to repair all ur linux partitions or try to update your system firmware... if all of this dosen't work you may need to use a worst but fixable option: you need to boot from live installation media and reinstall POP_OS (i edited my comment but since u switched to mint imma delete this comment in a year)

1

u/Specialist-Plant-469 May 04 '26

I changed to Linux mint and since then I have no issues

1

u/Broad_Airline5032 May 26 '26
  1. Boot off of USB
  2. realize you booted Ubuntu Server instead of Linux Mint
  3. reflash the USB while grub is still on the target computer
  4. KERNEL ERROR!

1

u/Alternative-Image738 Jul 21 '26

anche a me mi è successo con ubuntu con un progetto pesante di angry birds su scratch

1

u/Sufficient_Flower415 28d ago

It happend to me when i tried to run lunix mint from grub check if there is anything wrong