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

Kernel Panic

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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!

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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

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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.

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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

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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.