Kernel panic/GRUB out of memory when booting 24.20251005.1

[L0wgain]

Describe the bug

When my system attempts to boot to Bluefin 24.20251005.1, the message below appears:

error: ../../grub-core/kern/mm.c:552:out of memory.

Press any key to continue...

When pressing the any key, the kernel panic message appears.

KERNEL PANIC!

Please reboot your computer.

VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

What did you expect to happen?

To boot into Bluefin 24.20251005.1 normally.

Output of bootc status

● Booted image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:stable
        Digest: sha256:02cdd6bf7890c05f08498840e7694b4bf6a0d066c1372a770d4895833e0fae97 (amd64)
       Version: 42.20250928.1 (2025-09-28T06:02:29Z)
        Pinned: yes

  Rollback image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:stable
          Digest: sha256:1fa3bdc7dd11ee242ab5ad8776292c87544b55793fc42f74ebe9f2cfa6fffe07 (amd64)
         Version: 42.20251005.1 (2025-10-05T06:02:51Z)

Output of groups

logan wheel dialout docker incus-admin lxd libvirt

Extra information or context

I've also attempted to rebase to bluefin:stable-daily and bluefin:dx, with the same issue after staging/reboot.

I can boot back into my current image (42.20250928.1) normally.

I've attempted to switch OFF Secure Boot, but the issue persists. Secure Boot has been switched back on.

[L0wgain]

Heya, disabling Intel Platform Trust Technology in UEFI lets me boot into 24.20251005.1.

Unsure if this should stay open, since this is a workaround and not a complete resolution.

[mhetzi]

Hi
I too get this on a ThinkCentre M920q, but did not find any UEFI option to fix this.
The newer initramfs is 62,7MB bigger than the one that works.

[laurikala]

I have troubles too on an Elitesk 800 G1 SFF machine.

After upgrading to the newest image the system hangs on "systemctl reboot" command. There's a black screen and a dinosaur logo at the bottom of the screen. After a hard reset the system starts to boot but there are various error messages. One line is:
Failed to start systemd-remount-fs.service - Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
There are also several lines about udev workers and services. The system eventually boots but the process takes several minutes. I wonder if there's a way I could see the boot log file to provide a more complete error report.

Reverting to Version: 42.20250928.1 (2025-09-28T06:05:48Z) returns operation to a normal state.

[p5]

Do you have many images pinned?
There's sometimes issues with many pinned images not being able to fit inside /boot.

$ rpm-ostree status -v

To unpin ones you don't need:

$ sudo ostree admin pin --unpin <index>

[mhetzi]

So i got it working with
rpm-ostree initramfs --enable --arg="--hostonly"

After creating this dracut config:

-> % cat /etc/dracut.conf.d/hostonly.conf
hostonly=on
hostonly_mode=sloppy
hostonly_cmdline=no

add_dracutmodules+=" crypt dm tpm2-tss ostree hwdb lunmask virtiofs "
force_drivers+=" nvme "

I had to force nvme on my machine else dracut would ignore the SSD.

Now the initramfs is much smaller:

-> % du -h /boot/ostree
178M    /boot/ostree/default-fedd43312e9bae29994f4092addbbf50d086a51511e5e9395c1416489d7bb519
63M     /boot/ostree/default-e0f4d3ba0f09f538c9ef17a4aac2a786dbd68c8140d046c7b05e2971dadc164a
62M     /boot/ostree/default-7ef0781463c5690d77360cc79044849f701d7d8df1ea634a8aa4ace9d12d46e9
303M    /boot/ostree

[L0wgain]

Do you have many images pinned? There's sometimes issues with many pinned images not being able to fit inside /boot.

$ rpm-ostree status -v

To unpin ones you don't need:

$ sudo ostree admin pin --unpin <index>

Hey there, sorry for the delay in replying.

● ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx:stable (index: 0)
                   Digest: sha256:b96ccd8c54aef12df728d74738b143d8c67283c6c3e68fddb2f15de11ff4b532
                  Version: 42.20251012.1 (2025-10-12T06:06:01Z)
                   Commit: 21626392b39ab995dbf4439b4363e834179b3ece287a3e34f38d468721d8e5a9
                   Staged: no
                StateRoot: default

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx:stable (index: 1)
                   Digest: sha256:cd2c2be195d703ec2d450445a2c8fd1d0e3f1f66293023110e2f59bc5102ffea
                  Version: 42.20251005.1 (2025-10-05T06:06:26Z)
                   Commit: 7c8af602cae6c423be3f55ba95d40c143447882993af763498b76e2a23c9c3c0
                StateRoot: default

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:stable (index: 2)
                   Digest: sha256:02cdd6bf7890c05f08498840e7694b4bf6a0d066c1372a770d4895833e0fae97
                  Version: 42.20250928.1 (2025-09-28T06:02:29Z)
                   Commit: e4ae0164783da685cb162097d30dd6d02b61605bf1504314c81c21062bd102b8
                StateRoot: default
                   Pinned: yes

I've rebased to bluefin-dx:stable. No real change in behaviour: All three images boot when Intel Platform Trust Technology is turned off, but only the pinned image boots when PTT is switched on.

[repires]

AI Generated (https://ask.projectbluefin.io/)

I couldn't find any documentation or recent changes in Bluefin directly addressing kernel panic or GRUB out-of-memory errors during boot for version 24.20251005.1. This type of error is often linked to memory management issues in the bootloader or kernel, or possibly corrupted boot files. Since you've already tried different images and disabled Secure Boot without success, the next steps would be to check for hardware compatibility issues, review any custom kernel arguments, and ensure your firmware is up to date. If you haven't already, you might also want to test with upstream Fedora images to see if the issue is specific to Bluefin or more general to your hardware.

[manuq]

Hi, I got the exact same error (error: ../../grub-core/kern/mm.c:552:out of memory.) followed by a kernel panic screen in latest gts-42.20251119 ostree, released 4 days ago.

[manuq]

Thank you @LoganM94, the solution you described (disabling Intel Platform Trust Technology in UEFI of my Gigabyte motherboard) fixed it.

[repires]

Hi @manuq @LoganM94 @mhetzi . Can you confirm if the issue was resolved? Thank you for you feedback!

[L0wgain]

Hi @manuq @LoganM94 @mhetzi . Can you confirm if the issue was resolved? Thank you for you feedback!

Heya, will test this later on today and get back to you.

EDIT:

Issue still occurring - turning on Intel PTT and booting into either current or rollback image:

error: ../../grub-core/kern/mm.c:552:out of memory.

Press any key to continue...

The only difference now is, when pressing any key, it goes back to GRUB, where I can select another image.

Booting into other image (output of bootc status below) while PTT is turned on lets me boot into Bluefin.

Output of bootc status:

● Booted image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx:stable
        Digest: sha256:7527a95591281725651391120e4bc4e9ae082ead931616600beb9bbec5353ece (amd64)
       Version: 43.20260113 (2026-01-13T01:45:41Z)

  Rollback image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-dx:stable
          Digest: sha256:61b76466b145688f7426da1eabe06797fac70989bbc8690f1a8e149430e3e090 (amd64)
         Version: 43.20260106 (2026-01-06T01:46:50Z)

   Other image: ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin:stable
        Digest: sha256:02cdd6bf7890c05f08498840e7694b4bf6a0d066c1372a770d4895833e0fae97 (amd64)
       Version: 42.20250928.1 (2025-09-28T06:02:29Z)
        Pinned: yes

[mhetzi]

Hi @manuq @LoganM94 @mhetzi . Can you confirm if the issue was resolved? Thank you for you feedback!

With stock initramfs it is still not working.

GRUB no longer crashes completely, but booting bluefin only works after
rpm-ostree initramfs --enable --arg="--hostonly"