Arch Linux How to Downgrade Kernel - Easy

If you are having trouble with a new kernel you may need to downgrade to a working version. In this example we are going to cover what you would do if your system also isn’t bootable. If your system is bootable, you can skip the steps where you boot from USB disk, mount partitions, and chroot.

Boot from a USB boot disk
Mount your installed root filesystem to /mnt. For example:
```
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
```
You may also need to mount /var and /boot if they are on their own partitions. For example:
```
mount /dev/sda1 /boot
mount /dev/sda3 /var
```
Chroot into your system like this:
```
arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash
```
Go to the directory:
```
cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg
```

Downgrade the following:

linux
linux-headers
any kernel modules

For example:

pacman -U linux-4.15.8-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-headers-4.15.8-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.8-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Another Example:

sudo pacman -U linux-5.4.15.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst linux-headers-5.4.15.arch1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst nvidia-dkms-440.44-15-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst nvidia-utils-440.44-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Exit the chroot environment
Reboot

Arch Linux How to Downgrade Kernel - Easy

References