Can you provide a few more details about the hardware you're on, the version of Ubuntu, the type of update performed, and anything else you think could be relevant?
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
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You won't like this, but there's a reason people don't recommend Ubuntu anymore.
I've never had a successful release upgrade with it. Linux Mint is basically Ubuntu, but fixed and improved.
If you can still access your data, make a backup of your home folder on an external drive and install Mint.
I've upgraded from 18.04 to 20.04 to 22.04 to 24.04 all without issue
Wellllllll,
I've upgraded the same installation from ubuntu 16.04-24.04 but there was a problem with DNS at one point that I had to fix somewhere between the upgrades, but now I can't remember if the problem was with LTS version or not. I jumped off at one point and upgraded to one of the non-LTS versions, then went back to LTS after having some problems with package versions, installing some software.
Is that all you have to do to fix mint? I fucked up my Mint but can still boot into my drive with a USB. Back up home, reinstall and deposit home on to new install?
Agreed. Even Mint is better, though I'm messing more with Fedora through Nobabra presently. However, if I needed stability, I'd be using MX Linux, based on Debian Stable and updates vetted.
There's also mint Debian edition, which is pretty great.
As a counterpoint, I've used it for the best part of a decade, every single day, without a single issue.
My experience is anecdata. So is yours and OP's.
When I hold shift during startup and then go to advanced options and select the previous version it all goes back to normal but I need to do this manually every single time.
If you want to make GRUB remember the last boot entry you picked, you can edit /etc/default/grub and set the following
(make note of the original values or comment out the existing entry by adding # to the start of the line first)
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
then run sudo update-grub to apply the changes. When you next boot and select a kernel, GRUB will remember that choice and just use it.
Maybe you could try reinstalling the newest kernel? sudo tac /var/log/apt/history.log | less should give you a list of the last updates that were installed. Idk what Ubuntu calls their kernels, but they'd be packages named like "linux-image-generic" or something like that. If that doesn't work, then maybe they messed something up on that kernel update and you've gotta wait for a fix.
Whenever it does get fixed, you may want to undo the changes to /etc/default/grub
I did GRUB_DEFAULT="1>2" instead so it now loads the previous version instead - I think. I did what ChatGPT told me to, lol
Just uninstall theatesy kernel packages and it will be gone from the Grub boot menu, or you can also manually set the default Grub version to boot very easily (guides and docs everywhere online).
Good time to change to a better distro imho. You could make a live USB, recover your files to another USB, then proceed to install the new distro.
I cannot express how not interested I'm in doing that. I'm not a power user - I only need the web browser to run so I can watch YouTube videos.
It's probably less boring/time-consuming then fix ubuntu update issues, but you can try searching for ubuntu users' reddit or forum for your specific problem.
That's why he's suggesting it. You'll likely spend anywhere from several hours to several days trying to track down the cause of the issue by sticking with Ubuntu, versus ~20 minutes plus however long it takes to back up and restore your data on a distribution that doesn't have these issues. Ubuntu is famous for having really dumb problems like this, so even if you do successfully fix the issue, another one will pop up later on thanks to the developers' insistence on doing weird shit that nobody asked for. Of course, the fanboys will likely come out of the woodwork to tell me how this is a skill issue or whatever, but I'm speaking as someone who used Ubuntu almost exclusively from 2006-2020. After switching to Fedora, I've been much happier. Debian is also a good low-friction option if you don't have brand-new hardware.
I'm far from a power user as well. I was on Ubuntu for about 5 years. Also installed it on my dads laptop a few years ago. Last week I installed Debian for myself and dad. It was easy. Its also very nice to use, I have a ancient shit laptop and it runs with absolutely no problems at all. My dad's been happy with it as well.
I wont tell you to do what you don't want to, I just want to let you know that installing and setting up, for example, Debian is not difficult at all. If a moron like me can do it, so can you :)