Troubleshooting issues with faulty kernel installations

Reviewed on July 15, 2025

Rescue mode allows you to boot your Instance into a temporary operating system, running from the Instance's RAM. Rescue mode is often used to diagnose and resolve issues such as faulty kernel configurations, networking issues, firewall configurations, and more.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• A Scaleway account logged into the console
• An Instance
• Installed and configured the Scaleway CLI on your local computer

1. Switch the Instance's boot-type to rescue and reboot your Instance into rescue mode using the CLI-Tools:
   scw instance server update {Instance_ID} boot-type=rescue
   scw instance server reboot {Instance_ID}

   Note

   Replace {Instance_ID} with the unique ID of your Instance, e.g. 0500ebd2-d70d-49af-a969-3ac09b6f7fff.

2. Once the Instance is rebooted, log into your Instance using SSH and set up the environment to be able to chroot into it:
   cat /proc/partitions
   major minor #blocks name
   
   8 0 9765625 sda
   8 1 9634536 sda1
   8 14 3072 sda14
   8 15 126976 sda15

   Then mount the partitions:
   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
   mount /dev/sda15 /mnt/boot/efi
   mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
   mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
   mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev

3. Once mounted, use the chroot command to get into your Instances' root file system. You can then change the GRUB_DEFAULT value to boot using the previous kernel:
   chroot /mnt
   nano /etc/default/grub

   Tip

   In the example above, we use nano as text editor. Feel free to use your favorite text editor to edit the file.

   Change the value of GRUB_DEFAULT to `"1 > 2":
   # head /etc/default/grub
   # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterward to update
   # /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
   # For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
   #   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'
   
   GRUB_DEFAULT="1>2"
   GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
   GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200 earlyprintk=ttyS0,115200 consoleblank=0"

   Save the file and exit the text editor.
4. Update the grub boatloader` to apply the kernel's update:
   # update-grub
   Generating grub configuration file ...
   Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-0.deb11.2-cloud-amd64
   Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-0.deb11.2-cloud-amd64
   Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.19.0-0.deb11.2-cloud-amd64
   Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.19.0-0.deb11.2-cloud-amd64
   Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-19-cloud-amd64
   Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-19-cloud-amd64
   done

5. Switch back the Instance's boot_type to local and reboot the Instance:
   scw instance server update {Instance_ID} boot-type=local
   scw instance server reboot {Instance_ID}

   Your Instance reboots on the previously installed kernel.

Examples of failed boots

• In the following example, the Instance may only boot with the root file system in read-only mode:
  [  OK  ] Finished Remove Stale Onli…ext4 Metadata Check Snapshots.
  [    4.219158] cloud-init[542]: Traceback (most recent call last):
  [    4.220328] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/bin/cloud-init", line 33, in <module>
  [    4.221518] cloud-init[542]:     sys.exit(load_entry_point('cloud-init==20.4.1', 'console_scripts', 'cloud-init')())
  [    4.223064] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/cmd/main.py", line 891, in main
  [    4.224435] cloud-init[542]:     retval = util.log_time(
  [    4.225251] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/util.py", line 2348, in log_time
  [    4.226838] cloud-init[542]:     ret = func(*args, **kwargs)
  [    4.227743] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/cmd/main.py", line 600, in status_wrapper
  [    4.229478] cloud-init[542]:     util.ensure_dirs((data_d, link_d,))
  [    4.230501] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/util.py", line 1534, in ensure_dirs
  [    4.232014] cloud-init[542]:     ensure_dir(d, mode)
  [    4.232540] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/util.py", line 1591, in ensure_dir
  [    4.233980] cloud-init[542]:     chmod(path, mode)
  [    4.234756] cloud-init[542]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/cloudinit/util.py", line 1830, in chmod
  [    4.235672] cloud-init[542]:     os.chmod(path, real_mode)
  [    4.236227] cloud-init[542]: OSError: [Errno 30] Read-only file system: '/var/lib/cloud/data'
  [FAILED] Failed to start Apply the …ngs specified in cloud-config.