How to uninstall broken kernel update

[poppadum]

I stupidly updated PVE when a container had locked up. Now it won't boot to the latest kernel 6.8.8.3: I get a kernel panic complaining that the initrd is corrupt or missing.

I booted into the previous kernel 6.8.8.2 and Proxmox came back up fine. I ran
apt install --reinstall proxmox-kernel-6.8.8-3-pve-signed
which seemed to work and reported no errors but I still get a kernel panic when booting kernel 6.8.8.3.

What is the correct way to uninstall then reinstall a Proxmox kernel version (PVE 8.2.4)?

 

[leesteken]

This has been discussed many times on this forum: you pin the kernel version you want to use. It's also in the manual: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#sysboot_kernel_pin

EDIT: Sorry for misunderstanding the question.

 

[poppadum]

Unless I'm misunderstanding it that's not what I'm trying to achieve. I do want to update to the latest kernel, but the installation got corrupted so I want to remove AND THEN REINSTALL the latest kernel.

 

[leesteken]

Unless I'm misunderstanding it that's not what I'm trying to achieve. I do want to update to the latest kernel, but the installation got corrupted so I want to remove AND THEN REINSTALL the latest kernel.

You cannot uninstall the latest kernel unless to also reinstall older version of other packages. The work-around is to boot an older working kernel (see my previous answer for this).
It's unclear to me what caused your previous initrd error but maybe a update-initramfs -u -k 6.8.8-3-pve could have fixed that.
Maybe you run into a bug in kernel 6.8.8-3? Maybe share a photo of the kernel panic? I would not know how to investigate this without any more information.

 

[poppadum]

Thanks, I will give update-initramfs a try.

I thought there would be a way of uninstalling/reinstalling a kernel and initrd with apt but if not I could just remove it with
proxmox-boot-tool kernel remove 6.8.8-3-pve
and wait for the next kernel update.