[Bug 798414] Re: update-initramfs should produce a more helpful error when there isn't enough free space

[KevinMorse]

This bug is the single most frustrating aspect of managing or helping
others manage Ubuntu Server installations.

I've come across probably 20 or 30 default installations of Ubuntu
Server that have this problem because the new packages seem to get
automatically downloaded but the old ones don't get automatically
cleaned out.

Can one setup a cron job to do apt-get autoremove every day or is this
bad practice?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/798414

Title:
  update-initramfs should produce a more helpful error when there isn't
  enough  free space

Status in “initramfs-tools” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: initramfs-tools

  When generating a new initramfs there is no check for available free
  space, subsequently its possible for update-initramfs to fail due to a
  lack of free space.  This is resulting in package installation
  failures for initramfs-tools.  For example:

  Setting up initramfs-tools (0.98.8ubuntu3) ...
  update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
  Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic

  gzip: stdout: No space left on device
  E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
  update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
  dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

  WORKAROUND:

  Remove unused kernels using computer janitor or manually free space on
  your partition containing the /boot file system.

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