How can I remove old kernels/install new ones when /boot is full?

Posted by Marcel on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Marcel
Published on 2013-03-03T07:56:52Z Indexed on 2013/10/22 10:15 UTC
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I know this question is asked many times before, however with me it is just a bit different I guess.

# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3       224G  5.2G  208G   3% /
udev            1.9G  4.0K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs           777M  260K  777M   1% /run
none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none            1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /run/shm
/dev/sda2        90M   88M     0 100% /boot
/dev/sda6       1.9G  514M  1.3G  29% /tmp

My boot partition is full.

Current Kernel:

# uname -r
3.2.0-35-generic

All Kernels:

# dpkg --list | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic    3.2.0-32.51                         Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-34-generic    3.2.0-34.53                         Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-35-generic    3.2.0-35.55                         Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
iF  linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic    3.2.0-37.58                         Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
iF  linux-image-3.2.0-38-generic    3.2.0-38.60                         Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
iU  linux-image-generic             3.2.0.37.45                         Generic Linux kernel image

So I thought of removing the 3.2.0.32-generic kernel with:

# sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 linux-generic : Depends: linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.37.45) but 3.2.0.38.46 is to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

No success.

When I try apt-get -f install it also fails:

# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-3.2.0-34 linux-headers-3.2.0-35 linux-headers-3.2.0-34-generic linux-headers-3.2.0-35-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  linux-generic linux-image-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-generic linux-image-generic
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
5 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/4,334 B of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.99ubuntu13.1) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Setting up linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic (3.2.0-37.58) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
The link /initrd.img is a dangling linkto /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-38-generic
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.2.0-37-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-37-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-37-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-37-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic.postinst line 1010.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up linux-image-3.2.0-38-generic (3.2.0-38.60) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
The link /initrd.img is a dangling linkto /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-37-generic
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.2.0-38-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-38-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-38-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-38-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.2.0-38-generic.postinst line 1010.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-3.2.0-38-generic (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.2.0.37.45); however:
  Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.
 linux-generic depends on linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.37.45); however:
  Version of linux-headers-generic on system is 3.2.0.38.46.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-35-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-35-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-3.2.0-37-generic
 linux-image-3.2.0-38-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-generic
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Any help would really be appreciated.

Update: I did:

sudo rm /boot/*-3.2.0-32-generic /boot/*-3.2.0-34-generic

After that the following problem with apt-get -f install:

root@localhost:/# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  linux-generic
The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-generic
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/1,722 B of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.2.0.37.45); however:
  Version of linux-image-generic on system is 3.2.0.38.46.
 linux-generic depends on linux-headers-generic (= 3.2.0.37.45); however:
  Version of linux-headers-generic on system is 3.2.0.38.46.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error     from a previous failure.
                      Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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