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

[Thomas A. F. Thorne]

According to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Documentation/RemoveOldKernels the purge-old-kernels is part of the bikeshed package.  To install it you will need to do:
  sudo apt-get install bikeshed 
To run it you will need to do
  sudo purge-old-kernels
You can confirm if it (and any other tidying up actions) have helped by comparing the output of 
  df -h
before and after you run the command.  I usually see my /boot Mounted on point go from ~100% Use to ~50% Use.  If you have prombles with disk space on other file-systems then 
  sudo apt-get autoremove 
may help you.  After that I would recommend that you try running the Disk Usage Analyser program.  It provides a relatively intuitive GUI that helps locate where most of your disk space is being used.  It will then be up to the operator to work out what files can and cannot be removed in an attempt to free space.  I would advise that you do not remove anything you do not know the source or use of.  Hopefully some searching can aid in identifying where most files come from though.

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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:
  Confirmed
Status in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

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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