[Bug 1791959] Re: remove /boot/initrd.img-*.old-dkms files left behind
Tiago Stürmer Daitx
1791959 at bugs.launchpad.net
Tue Sep 11 14:55:07 UTC 2018
** Changed in: dkms (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided => Medium
** Changed in: dkms (Ubuntu)
Status: New => Confirmed
** Also affects: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
Status: New => Confirmed
** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided => Medium
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1791959
Title:
remove /boot/initrd.img-*.old-dkms files left behind
Status in dkms package in Ubuntu:
Invalid
Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
Confirmed
Bug description:
[Impact]
If a dkms package is installed which has REMAKE_INITRD or the same setting has been manually configured by a user then when a kernel is removed its possible for an ".old-dkms" file to be left in /boot with no associated kernel.
bug 1515513 dealt with removing initrd.img-<version>.old-dkms files
using the kernel's prerm hook, but that is only executed for the
kernel version being removed: any other old-dkms file generated prior
to that would not be removed by the hook, taking space in the /boot
directory.
Note: Filling up the /boot partition causes updates to fail.
[Test Case]
As the fix for bug 1515513 is available on Xenial it is no longer possible to reproduce this by simply installing and updating kernels (dkms 2.2.0.3-2ubuntu11.3 would be required for that). In order to replicate it an old dkms file will be created by hand.
This assumes a new Xenial schroot.
1) create a file to work as a placeholder for the initrd.img old dkms file
sudo touch /boot/initrd.img-4.0.0-0-generic.old-dkms
2) install 3 old kernels, r8168-dkms, and the current initramfs-tools
sudo apt-get install -y linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic linux-image-4.4.0-24-generic r8168-dkms initramfs-tools=0.122ubuntu8.12
3) install the headers for the old kernels (forces dkms to run)
sudo apt-get install -y linux-headers-4.4.0-21-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-22-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-24-generic
4) verify that there are 4 old-dkms, the manually created and one for each installed kernel
ls /boot/*.old-dkms
5) install the initramfs-tools that contains this fix
sudo apt-get install -y initramfs-tools
6) verify that the manually created old-dkms file was removed and that there are only 3 files now, one for each installed kernel
ls /boot/*.old-dkms
7) autoremove the older kernel
sudo apt-get autoremove -y
8) verify that there are now only 2 old-dkms, one for each installed kernel
ls /boot/*.old-dkms
[Regression Potential]
Somebody out there might expect the .old-dkms file to be kept, but that seems like an odd expectation.
One notices *.old-dkms files being left behind still sitting on the
disk after purging the related kernel. This can cause /boot to become
full, and when it gets really bad, even sudo apt-get autoremove won't
fix the problem - only deleting the old-dkms files manually solves the
problem.
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