Kernel 6.17.0-14 Kernel Panic

Support and Help
42

and please do not purge/delete kernels at random, see this post : SOLVED Kernel 6.17.0-14 Kernel Panic - #11 by ian-weisser

1 Like
43

@j-w-heinen Solved, thank you so much! I will never purge again! :wink:

Is it correct that I only kernel 6.14 see in GRUB? I cannot see kernel 6.17

44

@davigona you should see 6.17 also in grub, please check the solutions from @gpmitch in this thread. You can check if you have 6.17 still installed with :

sudo apt list ~i~nheaders |cut -d/ -f1

and with :

apt list ~i~nhwe

if 6.17 is not there you can install it with :

sudo apt install linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04
1 Like
45

@j-w-heinen That is strange:

linux-hwe-6.17-headers-6.17.0-14/noble-updates,noble-security,now 6.17.0-14.14~24.04.1 all [geĆÆnstalleerd,automatisch]

linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 is reeds de nieuwste versie (6.17.0-14.14~24.04.1).
0 opgewaardeerd, 0 nieuw geĆÆnstalleerd, 0 te verwijderen en 0 niet opgewaardeerd.

uname -r
6.14.0-37-generic

It is installed but I am still on the 6.14 kernel.

46

Well we have a disaster situation here

A lot of clients are calling because they cannot use their Ubuntu based computer ( kernel panic ) after 6.17-HWE update because of a DKMS driver ( brodcom-sta is the most common )

Isnā€™t this scenario part of the QA for a new HWE ?

a failing DKMS build should not result in a broken new kernel boot

We need to pause the 6.17 deployment and fix this ASAP

1 Like
47

strange indeed, I donā€™t know further, maybe itā€™s time to call the real ubuntu doctors

50

This topic is in the technical support category.
Help and technical support are appropriate in this category. Not developer discussion. Not hyperbolic opinions.

Please stay on topic.

Folks who truly believe that there is a bug should be reviewing the bug tracker and subscribing to the bug report. Thatā€™s the fastest and most effective way to provide feedback to the Ubuntu developers about problems you discover.

Folks who wish to have a non-bug technical discussion about Kernel Q&A practices: There is an existing open topic here on Ubuntu Discourse for that. Chat with the kernel developers there.

  • Ubuntu Discourse is not the bug tracker. Do not report bugs here.
  • The Kernel Teamā€™s open chat topic is not the bug tracker. Do not report bugs there.
  • Launchpad.net is the bug tracker. Search, subscribe, and report bugs there.
2 Likes
52

For those interrested in understanding and working on a design solution that would avoid such disaster for next HWE kernel , @gpmitch has well explain the problem :

The issue in 24.04.3ā€™s broadcom-sta-dkms package is that the source code fails to compile the kernel module for 6.17.0-14 and that, in turn, causes the kernel package installation to fail, but not completely. It apparently leaves the package in an unpacked, but unconfigured state. Unfortunately, an init image was generated and grub was updated with an entry pointing to the half-installed kernel which caused problems when trying to boot it.

So we need indeed to make sure that DKMS failing to compile ( ubuntu repo versions of broadcom-sta and virtualbox-dkms are good examples right now ) would not interrupt the kernel deployment which leads to unbootable state

2 Likes
53

Thank you all. I have reported my issue at Launchpad, as requested. I am a newbie at the Ubuntu-family and I did not know where to report a bug.

2 Likes
54

The problem is an incompatability between the 6.17.0-14 kernel and virtualbox. I tested on a Lenovo Thinkpad 14s Gen 3:

Install Ubuntu 24.04.2, then virtualbox, restart: OK. Run sudo apt upgrade -y, restart: kernel panic. Boot into old kernel, sudo apt purge virtualbox virtualbox-dkms, reboot: OK. Kernel now 6.17.0-14-generic.

Thereā€™s nothing wrong with the 6.17.0-14 kernel as such.

55

Hi all,

actually I just ran in that problem when rebooting my server. I used advanced options to boot kernel 6.14 instead of 6.17. Did one round of apt update; apt dist-upgrade. I regenerated the initrd without any errors and then I was able to boot again. I actually donā€™t run any virtualbox and no vb packages installed either. No clue what was broken.

Cheers, Alex

56

I have got 6.17 back by using following set of commands under root user:

```

apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-24.04
update-grub
reboot

So far so good no issues no virtualbox, kvm is also good option :slight_smile:

57

@OneOctet thank you so much: for me it works al well!

1 Like
58

Thank you, itā€™s work for me!

59

I was having this issue with Ubuntu MATE 24.04.4 on my Macbook Air 6,2 as it relates to the broadcom-sta-dkms issue.

This is what solved the issue for me:

cd /tmp
wget https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/restricted/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb
sudo apt install ./broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb
1 Like
61

Cheers. That sorted it for me as well.

1 Like
62

Glad to hear that it worked.

63

Try pressing -once- the Esc button after the UeFI window has just close, and if the GRUB appears, choose Advanced Option for Ubuntu.

1 Like
64

Just signed in to say thanks. Canā€™t install virtualbox now, but no kernel panic

1 Like
65

The broadcom-sta compilation issue causing ā€œKernel Panicā€œ on Kernel v6.17 seems to have a solution in latest broadcom-sta package release as noted in Launchpad Bug 2120508.
Iā€™m not sure whatā€™s going on with Virtualbox package though.

Please check table on top of the page if fix is supposed to be auto-delievered to your Ubuntu version during packages upgrade, or it would require to be manually installed until it also falls into auto-delievery.
As of today Questing seem to have it auto-delievered.
The Launchpad page shows ā€˜Invalidā€™ for Plucky - I didnā€™t dig into why; if youā€™re on that release, treat the status as uncertain and verify via the package page
Noble is not there yet, but fix can be installed manually and I verified it fixes the ā€œKernel Panicā€œ issue, lets system perform upgrade to Kernel v6.17 and WiFi works if it makes any sense (for valid verification details check out the already mentioned bug comments).

Down below Iā€™m going to share steps on how I manually installed newest broadcom-sta for Noble and upgraded Kernel to v6.17.
Iā€™m not an expert ā€” hereā€™s what I did and verified.
AFAIK itā€™s best to just pause upgrading to Kernel v6.17 and wait for the culprit to become ā€œreleaseā€œ for your Ubuntu version on same broadcom-sta package page and then regular package update will do the job on itā€™s own. But this is just my assumption.

If youā€™re like me, youā€™re on Noble, and donā€™t want to wait for miracle to happen, use commands below at your own risk. Re-configuring broadcom-sta being an ā€œinternet thingā€œ also proved to be a shoot in the foot type thing when configuring without direct access to machine.

# Newest version for Noble is 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2
# I previously had broadcom-sta v 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 installed
# New version is ...ubuntu1.2
# to check what you have installed
dpkg -l | egrep 'broadcom|bcmwl|wl|broadcom-sta'

# download & install newest broadcom-sta from Launchpad
cd /tmp
wget https://launchpadlibrarian.net/823522885/broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb
sudo apt install ./broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt --fix-broken install
sudo dkms autoinstall

# following should output 2 versions of broadcom-sta - one built against your 
# current Kernel version and other one for v6.17.0-14.
dkms status

# Additional checks
# 1) Check DKMS status (should show both kernels)
dkms status

# 2) Check the module file(s) exist for the new kernel
ls -l /lib/modules/6.17.0-14-generic/updates/dkms/wl.ko* || ls -l /lib/modules/6.17.0-14-generic/updates/dkms/

# 3) Ensure module dependencies are up to date
sudo depmod -a

# 4) Force-update the initramfs for the 6.17 kernel (ensures wl gets included)
sudo update-initramfs -u -k 6.17.0-14-generic

# 5) (Optional but harmless) update initramfs for all kernels if you prefer
# sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

# 6) Rebuild grub config (you already saw this run, but run again to be safe)
sudo update-grub

# 7) Reboot and **manually select** the 6.17 kernel from the GRUB "Advanced options for Ubuntu" menu. For me it actually auto-selected 6.17 even without showing GRUB.
sudo reboot

# Verify you're on Kernel v6.17
uname -r
# Now what I did I just ran basic functionality tests, confirmed WiFi works. 
# Again, for more advanced verification instruction check out the comments in
# Launchpad bug at the very beginning of this message.

# Do NOT perform "apt autoremove", in my case it wiped out the broadcom-sta
# package I just installed and broke WiFi.
# Instead what I THINK is the right way to do at this point is to mark
# the package as manually installed so that "apt autoremove" does not touch it.
sudo apt-mark manual dkms broadcom-sta-dkms