Premature end of file error

I started my laptop today and was able to enter my encryption password without any issues. However, I then encountered an error message that says:

“Premature end of file /boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64. You need to load the kernel first.”

After pressing a key to continue, I was taken to a list of Linux kernels, but none of them work, including the fallback options.

I tried live booting from a USB, but the USB doesn’t appear in my boot menu. I have tried multiple USBs.

Any suggestions? Ideally, I would like to get Timeshift running to restore a backup.

This suggests filesystem damage. But barring a sudden hardware failure, that sort of thing does not happen all by itself, and you’ve been around here long enough by now to know that we do not own a crystal ball. In other words, we do not know what you’ve done to trigger this situation.

Even though I acknowledge that it is impossible for you to provide us with inxi output at this stage, you could at least tell us what filesystem(s) you are using.

This points at the hardware, or to be precise, the UEFI firmware. In order for my UEFI to recognize my bootable USB stick, I had to have it scan the stick for bootability first from within the UEFI settings.