diff --git a/base_images/debian_base-setup.sh b/base_images/debian_base-setup.sh
index 4d2b8a27..f2165aa2 100644
--- a/base_images/debian_base-setup.sh
+++ b/base_images/debian_base-setup.sh
@@ -43,104 +43,10 @@ install_automation_tooling
 # Ensure automation library is loaded
 source "$REPO_DIRPATH/lib.sh"
 
-# TODO: Workaround forward-incompatible change in grub scripts.
-# Without this, updating to the SID kernel will fail with
-# "version_find_latest" in error logs. Something to do with
-# gcloud assuming a wrong version of grub.
-#
-# 2023-11-16 before today, solution was to upgrade grub-common; as of
-# today this is failing with a dependency error. Current solution today
-# is now to create a version_find_latest script; grub will find and use this.
-#
-# This will probably be necessary until debian 13 becomes stable.
-# At which time some new kludge will be necessary.
-#
-# FIXME: 2024-01-02: Bumped the timebomb expiration date because it's
-#        too hard to find out if it's fixed or not
-#        2024-01-25: again, and 02-26 again and 03-20 again and 04-30
-timebomb 20240430 "workaround for updating debian 12 to 13"
-$SUDO tee /usr/bin/version_find_latest <<"EOF"
-#!/bin/bash
-#
-# Grabbed from /usr/share/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib on f38
-#
-version_sort ()
-{
-  case $version_sort_sort_has_v in
-    yes)
-      LC_ALL=C sort -V;;
-    no)
-      LC_ALL=C sort -n;;
-    *)
-      if sort -V </dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-        version_sort_sort_has_v=yes
-    LC_ALL=C sort -V
-      else
-        version_sort_sort_has_v=no
-        LC_ALL=C sort -n
-      fi;;
-   esac
-}
-
-version_test_numeric ()
-{
-  version_test_numeric_a="$1"
-  version_test_numeric_cmp="$2"
-  version_test_numeric_b="$3"
-  if [ "$version_test_numeric_a" = "$version_test_numeric_b" ] ; then
-    case "$version_test_numeric_cmp" in
-      ge|eq|le) return 0 ;;
-      gt|lt) return 1 ;;
-    esac
-  fi
-  if [ "$version_test_numeric_cmp" = "lt" ] ; then
-    version_test_numeric_c="$version_test_numeric_a"
-    version_test_numeric_a="$version_test_numeric_b"
-    version_test_numeric_b="$version_test_numeric_c"
-  fi
-  if (echo "$version_test_numeric_a" ; echo "$version_test_numeric_b") | version_sort | head -n 1 | grep -qx "$version_test_numeric_b" ; then
-    return 0
-  else
-    return 1
-  fi
-}
-
-version_test_gt ()
-{
-  version_test_gt_a="`echo "$1" | sed -e "s/[^-]*-//"`"
-  version_test_gt_b="`echo "$2" | sed -e "s/[^-]*-//"`"
-  version_test_gt_cmp=gt
-  if [ "x$version_test_gt_b" = "x" ] ; then
-    return 0
-  fi
-  case "$version_test_gt_a:$version_test_gt_b" in
-    *.old:*.old) ;;
-    *.old:*) version_test_gt_a="`echo "$version_test_gt_a" | sed -e 's/\.old$//'`" ; version_test_gt_cmp=gt ;;
-    *:*.old) version_test_gt_b="`echo "$version_test_gt_b" | sed -e 's/\.old$//'`" ; version_test_gt_cmp=ge ;;
-    *-rescue*:*-rescue*) ;;
-    *?debug:*?debug) ;;
-    *-rescue*:*?debug) return 1 ;;
-    *?debug:*-rescue*) return 0 ;;
-    *-rescue*:*) return 1 ;;
-    *:*-rescue*) return 0 ;;
-    *?debug:*) return 1 ;;
-    *:*?debug) return 0 ;;
-  esac
-  version_test_numeric "$version_test_gt_a" "$version_test_gt_cmp" "$version_test_gt_b"
-  return "$?"
-}
-
-
-version_find_latest_a=""
-for i in "$@" ; do
-  if version_test_gt "$i" "$version_find_latest_a" ; then
-    version_find_latest_a="$i"
-  fi
-done
-
-echo "$version_find_latest_a"
-EOF
-$SUDO chmod 755 /usr/bin/version_find_latest
+# Workaround 12->13 forward-incompatible change in grub scripts.
+# Without this, updating to the SID kernel may fail.
+echo "Upgrading grub-common"
+( set -x; $SUDO apt-get -q -y upgrade grub-common; )
 
 # 2024-01-02 found debian 13 tar 1.35+dfsg-2
 # which has the horrible duplicate-path bug: