If you want to upgrade but skip upgrading the kernel packages so you can still (re)boot, make sure to execute this prior to running sudo apt upgrade and you should be good: sudo apt-mark hold linux-dtb-next-sunxi linux-headers-next-sunxi linux-image-next-sunxi linux-firmware-image-next-sunxi This will mark those packages as held back and they won’t be upgraded until you sudo apt-mark unhold them.