[Solved] Boot partition is full

[gld59]

The kernel is such a basic and important piece of software, that it affects everything else. When you update the kernel, the old one is left there in case the new one doesn't work properly (with your hardware or with your programs). If the old one was removed immediately, a problem with the new kernel might mean you couldn't use the computer at all.

[daxb]

I ran into the same problem with /boot full (472MB of size and 20MB free) while updating the system. I used the mentioned script and hope everything is ok now.

I think Mint should play safe: if there's not enough room in `/boot`, refuse to install new kernels.
Offer a safe way to purge old kernels, that's discoverable and usable by "Mint-level" end-users (not Arch users).

Indeed. I wondered that there is not such a function already in use. At least a warning before install/update starts would be nice and a safe solution to make space free on /boot.

[Nona]

The kernel is such a basic and important piece of software, that it affects everything else. When you update the kernel, the old one is left there in case the new one doesn't work properly (with your hardware or with your programs). If the old one was removed immediately, a problem with the new kernel might mean you couldn't use the computer at all.

I understand that. There should be maximum three last kernels in /boot, but Mint keeping ALL of them until there is no space left. Where is the logic ?

[DAMIEN1307]

the "logic" is that LM is not your baby sitter or nanny like other well known OS...you need to manually remove these kernels once you are sure they are no longer needed by you...no one at LM knows which ones your particular computer needs,YOU do...so just remove whats not necessary keep of course the active kernel that works, hopefully it is the most up to date...and keep one kernel as installed that was most likely the previous operating kernel that ran well...dont expect LM or any linux distro to hold your hand for you and make your decisions for you...thats not going to happen, but if that is what you want, i know an operating system that will do that for you while it is recording your voice, keystrokes everywhere you go on the internet, what you use your system for and then reports all of it back to Big Momma...DAMIEN

[gld59]

There should be maximum three last kernels in /boot, but Mint keeping ALL of them until there is no space left. Where is the logic ?

If there was only one kernel series in use, that might be easy to implement. With Mint 18 offering kernels from 4.4, 4.8, 4.10, 4.11, 4.13, and in a few months 4.15, it's not so simple. I have the newest 4.13 and the one before that, and the newest 4.4 "just in case". Keeping the three most recently installed would usually stay pretty close to that pattern, but sometimes one kernel series might need a few bug-fixes and all the kernels from the more stable series would get flushed out.

I think the suggestion above, that there should be a low space warning, is probably the best way of dealing with it.

[Nona]

For example, yum package manager has option "installonly_limit=n"
Is there anything similar in Ubuntu-based distros ?

[robertmf]

linux mint 17.3 MATE
I got the same [boot partition is full] upgrading the kernal to 4.4. After a few days it cleared up *go figure* and now I only show 4.4.0.111 in /boot partition

[Flemur]

After a few days it cleared up

I don't think that's supposed to happen.

and now I only show 4.4.0.111 in /boot partition

You also have parts of 3.19.0-32 and 4.4.0-109, which also isn't supposed to happen.

[Nona]

So, this post should not be "Solved".
Can Admin go please and rename it as "Unsolved" ?

[Moem]

Can Admin go please and rename it as "Unsolved" ?

No, that is not how we use [SOLVED] here. It was marked as such by the original poster, because they considered their problem solved; they can't help it if other people decide to tack their own problems onto an existing thread.

If people want to have control over the title of a thread, the obvious solution is to start one.

[BG405]

There should be maximum three last kernels in /boot, but Mint keeping ALL of them until there is no space left. Where is the logic ?

If there was only one kernel series in use, that might be easy to implement. With Mint 18 offering kernels from 4.4, 4.8, 4.10, 4.11, 4.13, and in a few months 4.15, it's not so simple. I have the newest 4.13 and the one before that, and the newest 4.4 "just in case". Keeping the three most recently installed would usually stay pretty close to that pattern, but sometimes one kernel series might need a few bug-fixes and all the kernels from the more stable series would get flushed out.

You'd need a way of flagging kernels you wish to keep (and keep updating, maybe a separate flag). Otherwise you'd end up with the last 3 installed kernels from each series, which could get messy.

I think the suggestion above, that there should be a low space warning, is probably the best way of dealing with it.

I agree with that.

[sg1efc]

The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the following in the terminal (you can do it in one fell swoop)

Code: Select all

OLDCONF=$(dpkg -l|grep "^rc"|awk '{print $2}')
CURKERNEL=$(uname -r|sed 's/-*[a-z]//g'|sed 's/-386//g')
LINUXPKG="linux-(image|headers|ubuntu-modules|restricted-modules)"
METALINUXPKG="linux-(image|headers|restricted-modules)-(generic|i386|server|common|rt|xen)"
OLDKERNELS=$(dpkg -l|awk '{print $2}'|grep -E $LINUXPKG |grep -vE $METALINUXPKG|grep -v $CURKERNEL)
YELLOW="\033[1;33m"
RED="\033[0;31m"
ENDCOLOR="\033[0m"
sudo apt-get purge $OLDKERNELS

It was submitted by another user in a script and works well.

Thank you very much everyone, I think this worked for me.

[DaniD]

So... the boot partition fills up and the only way to fix this is to google what's going on and run some commands on the command line with sudo.

Do we think that this is sane?

-d

[daveinuk]

Many thanks to wharfrat and the scripts writer for this, had the same 10mb left warning and this cleared me up a treat ! it's a +1 from me