[Bug 1460396] Re: Old kernels filling up /boot, causing failed updates

[Tyler Dinsmoor]

The reasons to why old kernels are not intentionally being marked for
autoremoval (as of 2008-11-04) is because it was considered too
dangerous and apt has an exception to not tag linux-image-* packages for
autoremoval because we had no idea which kernels actually worked for a
system.

However, I had thought that this problem had been addressed using last-
good-boot for grub after runlevel 2 was reached, here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/removing-old-kernels

But since the wiki hasn't been updated since '08, maybe that is not true
anymore.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to update-manager in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1460396

Title:
  Old kernels filling up /boot, causing failed updates

Status in update-manager package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Description:	Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
  Release:	14.04

  update-manager:
    Installed: 1:0.196.13
    Candidate: 1:0.196.13
    Version table:
   *** 1:0.196.13 0
          500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
       1:0.196.11 0
          500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

  After running Trusty for about a year, I had easily 3GB worth of old
  kernels sitting in my /boot folder.

  For users that don't know about pruning old kernel versions, much less
  what kernels are, this is a problem since update-manager refuses to
  continue the update process when /boot doesn't have enough space.

  My friend who I had installed Ubuntu for was complaining about updates
  not working, so I took a look and this is what was happening.  His
  /boot partition is too small to have so many ~200mb kernel images.

  We need a user-friendly way to inform the user that this is happening,
  and then suggest an automated course of action (apt-get remove oldest
  kernel + ensure at least one previous verified working kernel (such as
  purge_old_kernels in https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bikeshed)),
  and if it fails, a link to detailed instructions on how to remove old
  kernels manually.

  Attachment is updated ~/update-manager-0.196.13/UpdateManager/Core/utils.py that includes function ensure_enough_room_for_kernel() that only informs the user if there isn't enough space for a kernel upgrade.
  It has not been implemented in _main_, I figure the main package devs would want to do that themselves, be it to use for removing the oldest kernel version, or having the user pick from a list of installed kernels which to remove.

  Thanks.
      -Tyler Dinsmoor <pappad at airmail.cc>

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/1460396/+subscriptions