how to get rid of unused kernels?

[felsenstern]

Hiya,

I have 3 kernels installed on my system (5.4.0, 5.13.0 and 5.14.0) 5.4 was the kernel originally installed with Mint Cinnamon. 5.13 was installed later to make my Ethernet hardware work and since the last systemd update caused some bugs, I installed the new 5.14 kernel to make the systemd update bugs go away.

Now I have all three kernels installed on my system and the only one I really use is the 5.14.0 but I still receive updates all three and I wondered what I would have to do to de-install 2 of these kernels.

[HAWR]

Hello felsenstern,

you can easily do this in the update manager > view > linux kernels with removing the not needed kernels. I would suggest to have two kernels on the system. One good working kernel and one for emergency.

[spamegg]

Update Manager/Edit/Preferences/Automation, see bottom

[ralplpcr]

If you don't think you'll need your older kernel, another way to do it is via the terminal. As a bonus, this method will also clean up the junk remaining from other packages that is no longer being used:

Code: Select all

sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt autoremove --purge

i generally do this after each kernel update. Typically, it can free up between 300MB-800MB.... YMMV, of course.

**Always have a backup, and pay attention with the autoremove function. If it prompts you that it's removing something you want to keep, you have 1 chance to tell it "No". It generally works well for me, but it can be dangerous if you're not paying attention!

[Hoser Rob]

I just do sudo apt autoremove in the terminal, it always keeps the 2nd newest kernel intact. That's a very good idea because you should always keep the last kernel that worked. I'm not trying to show off my CLI-fu (I got tied of CLI in the 80s) but once you get a bit used to it doing it like this is easier and quicker.