Reboot after update starts latest kernel by default. I'd rather it didn't

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1

I am running Mabox Linux at the moment, and I will ask about this in those forums as well, but since it is 99% Manjaro and I cannot find any Mabox-specific packages that would be updating grub to boot into the latest kernel after a system update:

Anyone have any idea why, after a system upgrade (and reboot, because-- I mean, doesn’t everyone reboot after system upgrades? :upside_down_face: ), grub will boot the latest kernel version I have installed, whether or not I was using it before the update.

Right now I have 5.4 and 5.10 installed, and I have been running 5.4. After an update/reboot, if I don’t hit the grub menu before it disappears, it will boot into 5.10. I don’t know grub well enough to figure out if GRUB_DEFAULT is reset somehow in the update-grub that is run with kernel installs, but my /etc/defaults/grub config looks the same as I have left it.

So… anyone know why this happens? Or where I might look for a clue?

2

Manjaro is not Mabox. Mabox is not Manjaro. Arch is not Manjaro. Manjaro is not Arch.

Now that we have that out of the way, check /etc/default/grub and make sure this line is not commented:

# If you want to enable the save default function, uncomment the following
# line, and set GRUB_DEFAULT to saved.
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
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3

True, although Mabox is a whole lot more Manjaro than Manjaro is Arch. Which is why I am asking everywhere.

Except Arch. Because over there they’d just L33T me to death.

GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

is uncommented in /etc/defaults/grub.

Which is at least one reason why this puzzles me.

4

Did you run?
sudo update-grub
Then at boot time press Esc or Shift to get into the Grub menu and select the desired kernel too boot from? Then next time will boot from it.

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5

see this

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6

I run that whenever I change /etc/default/grub.

Would running it after a system update (when kernels and/or grub are updated) keep it from “forgetting” the last kernel I booted into–since I have grub configured to recall that?

This is not exactly a major problem, of course. I have more than one kernel installed precisely because sometimes one is better with some audio or graphics tool, and so I do switch them at the grub menu from time to time.

It’s just one of those things that will keep me scrolling through grub/UEFI docs until I figure it out.

7

Thanks, @stephane. I have no problem getting the grub menu to show. Perhaps setting the timeout value for longer than it takes to get a cup of coffee during a reboot might not be a bad idea in my case though.
:slight_smile: