[Bug 1460396] Re: Software Updater does not guide user to remove excessive kernels when there is too little space on /boot to install a kernel update.

[Jarno Suni]

As for #12, the auto removing does not remove kernels marked as being
manually installed. That is not an issue usually, but there may be cases
that the command can not free enough space to fit yet another kernel.

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Title:
  Software Updater does not guide user to remove excessive kernels when
  there is too little space on /boot to install a kernel update.

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>

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