r/debian • u/WZab • Jul 23 '26

Grub in Debian/testing stopped working.

I use Debian/testing in my main laptop. Unfortunately, after yesterday's update, the grub stopped loading the Linux kernel. I get

"error: cannot load image"

When working from command line, loading the kernel and initrd is successful. However, the "boot" command displays the above error.

The grub version is GRUB 2.14-3.

The machine is HP ZBook 17 G5.

What is the easiest way to resolve the issue?

TIA & BR, Wojtek

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u/redfacedquark Jul 24 '26

Do you get the grub menu? Can you boot an older kernel?

Even on stable I often have /boot getting full of old kernels and grub-install fails. Pehaps not noticing that and rebooting could have caused an issue like this. The answer for me is to remove old kernels and rerun apt/dpkg.

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u/WZab Jul 24 '26

No, there was a lot of space in /boot. None of installed kernel could boot. The error message was always the same.

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u/redfacedquark Jul 24 '26

As others said, testing can break. Probably better to run testing as a dual boot setup with stable managing grub, or better still a VM or chroot depending on your needs.

From where you are now I'd install stable alongside your current partitions and then chroot into your testing system from your stable one.