Debian installed kernel not shown in GRUB

Question

On Debian (Jessie) 8 I added the backports source and installed a newer kernel via:

apt-get update
apt-get install -t jessie-backports linux-image-amd64

I then ran

update-grub

However on reboot I do not see an option in GRUB to select the new kernel and the usual option loads the existing kernel:

uname -r
3.16.0-4-amd64

Firstly can I just update the kernel like this without recompiling all the software? (I want a new kernel in the hope it supports my hardware)

Second, if so, how do I make it appear in GRUB?

Rui F Ribeiro · Answer

Alas, expecting update-grub to work and create the grub boot-time tidbits is a common mistake I also made as a rookie.

update-grub only updates the grub files that are used to boot the grub configuration.

You have to do grub-install ; the most common of reinstalling/fixing grub is:

From Grub2/Installing - Post-Restoration Commands

To refresh the available devices and settings in /boot/grub/grub.cfg:

sudo update-grub

To look for the bootloader location.

grub-probe -t device /boot/grub

To install GRUB 2 to the sdX drive's MBR or boot sector (sda, sdb,
  etc.)

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

Since you are installing from the Debian backports, make sure you are using the latest kernel, which should be at the time of this post kernel 4.7.

One Answer