How to remove extra GRUB entries? (I'm a NOOB)

Small disclaimer, as said above, I am a complete NOOB at all things technical and don’t AT ALL know how any of this works and all.

I have several old Fedora entries in grub which I just really want to remove. I tried several different tutorials, tried following them but didn’t exactly understand what to do or it just didn’t work.


This is a photo that I took, all I need is pretty much the selected Fedora entry, Windows and the UEFI settings.

ANY help and/or explanations will be HEAVILY appreciated.

(Also idk if this will have any relevance to the topic, but I am on Fedora 42, GNOME 48.)

Sorry to be “that person” but - are you sure that one Fedora entry (newest kernel and no rescue) is all you need?

By having older kernels in the GRUB menu, you ensure that you still have a usable system if a kernel upgrade has bugs.

By having the rescue system, you have the ability to fix a broken install without using a live USB.

For example, in my few months of using Fedora, those extra kernels have enabled me to:

  • Roll back to an older kernel when kernel 6.13.4 caused regular freezes
  • Use the rescue mode to fix my system when I replaced a SATA SSD with an NVMe SSD (the rescue mode had NVMe drivers that my normal install’s initramfs didn’t)

Are you sure that losing these recovery abilities is a price worth paying for a cleaner GRUB menu?

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Leave them there.

I’m also a noob, being a noob I tell you this.
You see the numbers in brackets?
The first one - 6.15.5 → Latest Kernel, if it boots, all is OK
Second one - 6.15.3 → The previous kernel, if the first one doesn’t boot you can boot into this
Third one - 6.14.9 → The oldest available kernel, if for some reason the second one also doesn’t boot use this

It is not hard to remove them ig, but DON’T.

2 Likes

OH alright lol

It’s just before that someone else told me that they’re practically useless and so they’ve been bothering me ever since so yeah, thanks

They’re practically useless until your system is unusable without them :wink:

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That’s a fair point

Again, as I said I am a complete NOOB with all of this and before that someone else has told me that they’re useless, so it’s been bothering me ever since then

But thank you for the explanation! I’ll keep them then

Also, ngl THANK YOU for being ‘that person’ cause noobs like me need explanations like these, so yeah, again I’m genuinely thankful

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No, that is not all that is needed.
It is mandatory to have at least 2 fedora kernels since during a kernel update the running kernel is NEVER replaced. If you had only one kernel allowed on the system then kernel updates could not be performed.

Fedora has made the choice to keep 3 kernels by default, of which one is the running kernel, and the latest installed is the default kernel for booting.
As explained above, the others are for recovery if a new kernel fails to perform properly, as well as allowing space for updates.

A kernel update automatically removes the oldest kernel that is not currently booted, as well as installing the newer kernel which will be used the next time the machine is booted.

1 Like