pop

https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues/3961 """last week: Pop!_OS 22.04: kernel 6.17.9-76061709 — module BTF validation cascade boots system to emergency mode #3961 Thanks for taking a look, Quick update — I'd already recovered before seeing this comment. The path that worked: boot Pop_OS-oldkern, run sudo apt install --reinstall linux-image-6.17.9-76061709-generic linux-modules-6.17.9-76061709-generic && sudo kernelstub, reboot. 6.17.9 came up clean. The reinstall's postinst hooks ran update-initramfs automatically; /boot/initrd.img-6.17.{4,9}-* are both freshly dated 2026-05-06 (~11:44 / 11:46), and kernelstub copied them to the EFI partition. Verified: journalctl -k -b 0 | grep -iE 'btf|failed to validate' | wc -l → 0. """

I am actually participating in a thread right now where contributors are happily trying to solve this issue. Their devs are very helpful if you reach out. https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues/1708

What versions did you use out of curiosity? Maybe my experience has been partially luck due to compatible hardware. I had some pretty bad experiences 10 years ago (install the OS, and the wifi driver doesn't work/wasn't installed, now can't get online to download it LMAO). In the past 3 years I've had 2 issues: 1. I bought a laptop that had an NVIDIA RTX 2060 when they had only been out for a while. The LTS version of Ubuntu + Pop_OS didn't have the kernel updates with compatibility, so I had to upgrade kernel from the boot menu. 2. I connected two external monitors, one through HDMI and one through DisplayPort <-> USB <-> HDMI. I wanted to have one monitor vertical and one horizontal, I could not get it to work with a mix of vertical and horizontal layouts with 3 screens -- only with 2 screens. This would have been Pop_OS! 20.04 an