Linux image update (linux-headers-4.15.0-106) made Ubuntu 18.04 LTS unbootable

Recently there was an update on the Linux image update from Livepatch, and requires restart. But after restart, I cannot boot my Ubuntu at all. I do have 3 other images able to be used, but it somehow is a one-time use - I am stuck at the same loop

I inspected the /boot, and saw that the 3 images (initrd.img-4.15.0-101-generic, 106, 99) are somehow altered that it is unbootable. Here is the log on /boot. Has anyone encountered this problem? And is there any fixes to this problem?

samuraiwarm@samuraiwarm-ThinkPad-13:/boot$ ls -la
total 303380
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 10 18:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 29 root root 4096 Jun 10 17:02 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217449 May 11 16:08 config-4.15.0-101-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217473 Jun 4 17:16 config-4.15.0-106-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217362 Sep 17 2019 config-4.15.0-65-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217458 Apr 23 01:31 config-4.15.0-99-generic
drwx------ 5 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Jun 10 18:37 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64862602 Jun 10 17:03 initrd.img-4.15.0-101-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64877796 Jun 10 17:03 initrd.img-4.15.0-106-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64780759 May 7 16:38 initrd.img-4.15.0-65-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 64853590 Jun 10 18:23 initrd.img-4.15.0-99-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 182704 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184380 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184840 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 4072495 May 11 16:08 System.map-4.15.0-101-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4073353 Jun 4 17:16 System.map-4.15.0-106-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4064177 Sep 17 2019 System.map-4.15.0-65-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 4071696 Apr 23 01:31 System.map-4.15.0-99-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 8380064 May 11 16:14 vmlinuz-4.15.0-101-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 8380064 Jun 4 17:29 vmlinuz-4.15.0-106-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 8359576 Sep 17 2019 vmlinuz-4.15.0-65-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 8380056 Apr 23 01:32 vmlinuz-4.15.0-99-generic

Edit: here I submitted question in launchpad

Update 11/7: It seems that version 65 can be bootable multiple times, but my Livepatch says error occurred when applying updates. I tried installing 3 more versions (96, 91, 64) just in case. Version 96 and 91 cannot be booted at all, but version 64 can.

1 Answer

I have fixed the problem by just remove and reinstall the headers. If you can still access Ubuntu with different Linux header, install other versions (like version 64) first, and back up all your documents first, just in case. My guess is that intel-microcode is updated a while after the unbootable problem. I was lucky that the version 65 can be booted multiple times.

sudo apt remove linux-headers-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-modules-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-image-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-headers-4.15.0-106:amd64

sudo apt install linux-headers-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-modules-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-image-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-106-generic:amd64 linux-headers-4.15.0-106:amd64