How to change kernel version in bootup to Linux Mint

[Kate Addo]

EFI System
HP Laptop
Windows 10
Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon

GRUB2WIN is the only way I can get my system to boot into my Linux, but I need to change the kernel version that loads. Right now it is loading the 5.4 kernel, perfectly, but I need it to load the 5.14 kernel to fix my video card lack of support in the old, active kernel it's loading.

In a normal system running only Linux, it would be easy to pick and choose which kernel to load, within the GRUB menu, but with this, I don't know the code, or anything to be able to get it to load the 5.14 kernel.

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-107-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 
           Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una 
           base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Laptop 17z-cp000 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: HP model: 88C6 v: 74.20 serial: <filter> UEFI: AMI v: F.11 date: 08/20/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 42.0 Wh condition: 42.0/42.0 Wh (100%) volts: 12.9/11.3 
           model: Hewlett-Packard Primary serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 5300U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
           arch: Zen rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 41521 
           Speed: 3864 MHz min/max: 1400/2600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3701 2: 3712 3: 3009 
           4: 3059 5: 3843 6: 3839 7: 3840 8: 3844 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 1002:164c 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: ati,fbdev unloaded: modesetting,radeon,vesa 
           resolution: 1600x900~77Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.1 
           chip ID: 1002:1637 
           Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
           driver: snd_rn_pci_acp3x v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.5 chip ID: 1022:15e2 
           Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 03:00.6 chip ID: 1022:15e3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-107-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter 
           vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtl8821ce v: v5.5.2.1_35598.20191029 port: f000 
           bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:c821 
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek type: USB driver: rtl88x2bu bus ID: 3-2.4:5 chip ID: 0bda:b812 
           IF: wlx1cbfce508a11 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 255.52 GiB (9.1%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0C-00PXH0 size: 931.51 GiB 
           speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000LM007-1R8174 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 182.34 GiB used: 42.55 GiB (23.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
           ID-2: /home size: 272.86 GiB used: 212.93 GiB (78.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 977.0 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 67.9 C mobo: 0.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
           1: deb [arch=i386,amd64] https: //deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https: //brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           1: deb https: //deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list 
Info:      Processes: 322 Uptime: 1h 12m Memory: 30.77 GiB used: 3.62 GiB (11.8%) Init: systemd 
           v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38

Can someone help me with this?

[Drummer]

Hi Kate,

Please run the Grub2Win diagnostics and send them to me.
That way I can see the Grub2Win generated boot menu entry code.

Is this a kernel that you compiled yourself, or the standard kernel included in Mint?

I need the exact name of the kernel file you want to load, usually found in the Linux /boot directory.

If this is a kernel you customized yourself, we will probably need to set up a custom code boot entry in Grub2Win.

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Dave

[Kate Addo]

It's the standard oem kernel included in Mint

The one I need to load is: Kernel: 5.14.0-1029-oem generic
The NAME of the file in the Linux/boot directory is: config-5.14.0-1029-oem

I will have to boot back into windows to do the diagnostics... then boot back into linux to copy and paste the diagnostics from my email into here?

I will have to boot back and forth to do all this, because I use linux for everything, and only go to the windows when I have to use my windows friendly video rendering program.

Back in a bit....

Oh, and thanks so much for this help

[Kate Addo]

Okay, done, and it appears the diagnostics were sent to your email....

[Kate Addo]

While waiting I did more digging and found a way to install the 5.14 kernel from my Update Manager; I rebooted, GRUB2WIN handled it smoothly, and my machine is now running nicely, using the correct kernel that has the drivers I needed within.

Thank you for your help. :-)

[Ed P]

Are you going to share how you fixed your problem so others can learn how to do it?

[mmortal03]

They probably just installed the newer firmware in Update Manager -> View -> Linux Kernels, and, because it was newer, it became the active firmware that booted by default. They never needed to select the other firmware in grub in the first place. If they hadn't been able to boot into Linux, then they would've needed to configure grub2win to point to the BOOT_IMAGE of the other firmware on their system. (For instance, BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-39-generic)
Edit: You may have to do this in grub2win with a custom code entry.