Error after fresh install: "You need to load the kernel first"
I installed the latest Ubuntu "20.04 LTS" on my machine, the installation was successfully and without any error.
The problem is that after the installation when the system starts, during the boot I get this error message "You need to load the kernel first" after the grub.
This error message seems to appear randomically, more often when I do a reboot using sudo reboot now or halt --reboot or rebooting via GUI and when the system is shutted down and I start it normally pressing the power button. Other times the system boots normally and the OS is ok, I can use it and there are no issue.
- Tried different times reinstalling the OS re-downloading the ubuntu image and using different tools in order to create the botable key (rufus, dd, balena etcher, ubuntu disk creator).
- Tried to reinstall the system using no network and disabling thirdy part additional components.
I'm on a Dell Inspiron and secure boot is disabled and the system is not a dual boot, there's only one ssd with a single instance of Ubuntu installed on it.
uname -a
Linux machine 5.4.0-52-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Thu Oct 15 10:57:00 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
lshw
============================================================
system Inspiron 5593 (097C)
/0 bus 09PY2G
/0/1 memory 1MiB BIOS
/0/400 processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz
/0/400/701 memory 128KiB L1 cache
/0/400/702 memory 2MiB L2 cache
/0/400/703 memory 8MiB L3 cache
/0/700 memory 192KiB L1 cache
/0/1000 memory 16GiB System Memory
/0/1000/0 memory 8GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2667 MHz (0,4 ns)
/0/1000/1 memory 8GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2400 MHz (0,4 ns)
/0/100 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/2 display Iris Plus Graphics G7
/0/100/4 generic Intel Corporation
/0/100/14 bus Ice Lake-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14/0 usb1 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14/0/1 bus SMC9514 Hub
/0/100/14/0/1/1 generic LAN9514
/0/100/14/0/1/4 input Trust Keyboard
/0/100/14/0/1/5 input USB Optical Mouse
/0/100/14/0/5 generic FingerPrint
/0/100/14/0/6 multimedia Integrated_Webcam_HD
/0/100/14/0/a communication Bluetooth wireless interface
/0/100/14/1 usb2 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14.2 memory RAM memory
/0/100/15 bus Ice Lake-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0
/0/100/15.1 bus Ice Lake-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1
/0/100/16 communication Management Engine Interface
/0/100/17 storage Ice Lake-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
/0/100/19 bus Ice Lake-LP Serial IO I2c Controller #4
/0/100/1c bridge Ice Lake-LP PCI Express Root Port #5
/0/100/1c/0 display GP108M [GeForce MX230]
/0/100/1d bridge Ice Lake-LP PCI Express Root Port #9
/0/100/1d/0 enp2s0 network RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
/0/100/1d.1 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1d.1/0 wlp3s0 network QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
/0/100/1d.4 bridge Intel Corporation
/0/100/1d.4/0 storage SK hynix
/0/100/1f bridge Ice Lake-LP LPC Controller
/0/100/1f.3 multimedia Smart Sound Technology Audio Controller
/0/100/1f.4 bus Ice Lake-LP SMBus Controller
/0/100/1f.5 bus Ice Lake-LP SPI Controller
/0/0 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/2 system PnP device PNP0b00
/0/3 generic PnP device INT3f0d
/0/4 input PnP device PNP0303
/0/5 generic PnP device DLL097c
/0/6 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/7 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/8 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/9 system PnP device PNP0c02
/1 power DELL 1VX1H99
/2 power To Be Filled by O.E.M.
/3 enx00800fb03770 network Ethernet interface
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1 259:0 0 477G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 476,4G 0 part /
Tell me if you need other infos about the OS or the HW.
EDIT
If someone is still interested I still want to share info about this.
I didn't found a way to fix the error so I tried to reinstall the OS being sure of using UEFI mode, I followed the official guide by dell, but after the installation process the error was still present. The only way I found to fix the error is entering the BIOS and selecting my nvme as first boot option, disabling the entry relative to ubuntu. Don't ask ehy, I don't know, but now I'm using the system without troubles for months.
I have seen some problems on my secure enabled dual-boot, often the kernel used to go in emergency/panic mode.
If I relate my problem to yours, either it is due to some updates in Ubuntu 20.04 because until I update my laptop, everything runs fine after the first installation, or it is that you are using suspend utility while the laptop hardware doesn't support suspend operation.
I'd recommend not using hibernate and halt, and also prefer not to use sudo while rebooting. Just reboot and shutdown work fine with me.
Live USB error “you need to load the kernel first” Perhaps this article will be useful
This solution worked only for me!!!
Loading Linux linux
Error: premature end of file /vmlinuz-linux.
Loading initial ramdisk
Error: you need to load the kernel first
Press a key to continue
Fixed it, finally
booted into LiveCD
mounted the root and boot partitions, properly.
reinstalled mkinitcpio, linux and systemd
rebooted
Now the system is running fine again.
Cannot boot after updating kernel to version 5.4.0-45
Ubuntu 20.04.01 not booting after kernel update
Ubuntu boot failure after upgrade to kernel 5.4.0-52