Installing VPN created a new boot option in GRUB

I used to have only Fedora 6.2.10 and after installing ProtonVPN at this guide and typing in sudo dnf install protonvpn it gave me a huge log in which I found it was also looking for boots. Unfortuntely I don’t have the logs saved, but as you can see GRUB does find another Fedora installation:

Is it safe to just outright eliminate this new one?

Thanks in advance

Fedora keeps up to 3 kernels installed by default. In case a kernel upgrade doesn’t work, you can boot with a previous one. I would recommend leaving it.

Normally this menu should not appear unless your previous boot failed, or you hold a key during boot.

It’s unlikely this is related to installing protonvpn, but you can check the dnf transaction history.

  1. List transactions involving protonvpn package:

    $ dnf history list protonvpn
    
  2. Check the transaction details:

    $ dnf history info <transaction-id>
    

You can similarly check the transaction history for kernel package to see when 6.0.7 was installed.

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I wasn’t able to retrieve any output with the list for protonvpn. However, the list for kernel caught exactly the output I saw yesterday which (I believe) caused the new install. There is a problem, however. That the output is so long, I can’t even see what the prompt was. Is there a way to check all of the output without space constraints?

If a command’s output is too long, you can pipe it to a pager like
less:


$ dnf history info 123 | less

Use arrow keys or PageUp/PageDown to scroll the output. You may have to
scroll left/right for long lines. Press q to quit.

Alternatively you can upload it to the Fedora pastebin so we can look at
it too:


$ dnf history info 123 | fpaste

It will give you a URL to share.

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Thanks a lot for the support. I will paste the link, as well as the pager:

Here is link obtained with |fpaste :

https://paste.centos.org/view/9084afb6

And then the pager:

Posting also the history list for kernel, from which I prompted the pager (it’s the id 13):

It shows because of dual boot

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Transaction 12 was where you installed protonvpn-stable-release downloaded from the ProtonVPN website. This package isn’t the ProtonVPN client software. It only contains the ProtonVPN repo information, meaning that after you install it, then you can install protonvpn from their repo.

Transaction 13 was where you typed dnf update. You had almost 1000 package updates, including kernel 6.2.10. You only had kernel 6.0.7 before that, which I think is the F37 release kernel (well it has to be since it’s from transaction 1 in November 2022).

I missed this point earlier, but it seems like you haven’t actually installed protonvpn package (the client software). I believe it’s a meta-package (empty package) that pulls in protonvpn-cli and protonvpn-gui.

You can check with:

$ dnf list --installed 'protonvpn*'

If you don’t see protonvpn, protonvpn-cli or protonvpn-gui, I’m guessing what happened is you followed the ProtonVPN install guide up to step 3 Update the dnf package list, and then rebooted and saw this GRUB menu.

If you still want to install ProtonVPN then continue with step 4.

So, ProtonVPN didn’t cause any issues to GRUB or your kernel(s), although it did get you to update your system after 5 months :grimacing:

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If you don’t see protonvpn, protonvpn-cli or protonvpn-gui, I’m guessing what happened is you followed the ProtonVPN install guide up to step 3 Update the dnf package list, and then rebooted and saw this GRUB menu.

Okay, as you mentioned I did follow the guide thoroughly this time, and Proton VPN seems to be working just as fine. It just creates an annoying connection right when I start the PC - but I am not logged in yet - that I have to remove every time. Thanks a lot!

So, ProtonVPN didn’t cause any issues to GRUB or your kernel(s), although it did get you to update your system after 5 months :grimacing:

Also this is kind of funny since this is my first ever Linux install and I did it 2 days ago :slight_smile: So now that we solved (I think?) the mystery, do you think I should delete that 6.0.7 version?

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Oh, I see. I thought transaction 1 would have your install date, but maybe that’s because I use Fedora Everything (custom install) and not Workstation. Your transaction 1 is from just before F37 release which makes sense. My mistake :slight_smile:

No, as I mentioned, Fedora keeps up to 3 kernels for good reason. After 2 more kernel updates, the 6.0.7 one will be removed anyway.

Note however that old kernels should only be used temporarily in case of problems, not long term, since they won’t get security updates. Fedora only officially supports the latest kernel.

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Thanks for all the information!

Kernel 6.0.7 is the initial kernel installed from the F37 ISO.
The fact that grub only shows the 6.0.7 kernel and the 6.2.10 kernel shows only one kernel update since the initial install.

As already suggested to the OP, I would not suggest manually removing any kernels. The system keeps 3 by default (plus the rescue kernel) and that is designed for user protection should something go wrong with an update.

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