To keep apt upgrade from undoing your downgrade next time you run it, set up a blocklist that tells apt to ignore the two kernel versions 6.6.66 and 6.6.74 from now on:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/preferences.d
sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/50_no_known_bad_kernel.pref << 'EOF'
Package: linux-image-librem5 linux-image-*-librem5
Pin: version 6.6.66pureos*
Pin-Priority: -1
Package: linux-image-librem5 linux-image-*-librem5
Pin: version 6.6.74pureos*
Pin-Priority: -1
EOF
Confirm that the blocklist is configured correctly:
$ sudo apt update && apt list --upgradable
[…]
All packages are up to date.
Listing... Done
That’s a package compiled for another distribution version (dawn). I don’t think using it will cause troubles in this particular case, but I won’t guarantee it either and in general you really shouldn’t mix packages from various suites this way.
The link I posted has a version compiled for byzantium.
Thanks for the pointer. I wasn’t even aware that the version I used was not packaged from Byzantium. It’s not obvious to me when looking at the list.
Can you help me understand how you determined that the URL I used not for Byzantium, and where I could have found the correct image starting from the link you posted? So I can get it right the next time.
The PureOS archive does not retain old versions of packages that aren’t referenced by any suite anymore, so the whole idea of downloading it from there smelled bad from the beginning
That’s unfortunate. Good to know.
I was expecting PureOS maintainers to retain old versions like other distros do.
Fair enough. I was just trying to be helpful, and tested and found it working before I posted it.
Thanks anyway for making me aware of the mixup.
With that being said, I’m horrified of the thought that there’s no archive whatsoever except for the GitLab instance, which may purge build artifacts anytime. I’m slowly losing the little trust there’s left in PureOS. The only thing that keeps me from switching to Mobian is the fact that my phone is way too degraded to make the switch.
Edit: Fixed the instructions so they now use the version from the GitLab CI artifact store.
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2025 08:30:15 +0100
From: Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de>
To: Purism Support <support@puri.sm>
Subject: frequent locks after update to 6.6.66pureos1~byz1, 6.6.74pureos1~byz1
Hello Purism Support,
With the apt-upgrade on March, 13 came among other packages:
Start-Date: 2025-03-13 06:58:41
Commandline: apt full-upgrade
Requested-By: purism (1000)
Upgrade:
...
linux-image-6.6.0-1-librem5:arm64 (6.6.66pureos1~byz1, 6.6.74pureos1~byz1)
linux-image-librem5:arm64 (6.6.66pureos1~byz1, 6.6.74pureos1~byz1)
End-Date: 2025-03-13 07:01:35
Since then I face frequent locks of my L5. See also the forum at
https://forums.puri.sm/t/new-kernel-system-lock/27998
Such locks are fully reproducible with the following procedure:
- USB tethering a laptop
- run a SSH session from the laptop into the L5
- exit from SSH
- pull out the USB cable --> lock
What is the official advice of Purism's Support for this, either as a
fix or providing a way back to a stable version?
Thanks and Kind Regards
and got an automatic reply with a ticket number #7942.
I have been coming across the same issue. I think PureOS also keeps one older version of the kernel in /boot as well for occasions such as this. I always forget what the command is to downgrade to that kernel, though.
Though that’s only kept with major release granularity, so you’ll only be able to go back to 6.5.x this way if you have it still installed, which is very old at this point and may cause other problems when used with recent userspace.
