Problems w/ Kernels on Hardy

[Marius Gedminas]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2008 at 01:58:18PM -0500, chris wrote:
> I'm having a bit of an odd issue. I logged on today and saw that there
> was an updated kernel. 2.6.24-18.
> 
> I went to install it and it error out. After digging turns out my
> /boot was full.
> 
> So I went to Synaptic and told it to purge -16 kernel. After that, -18
> installed fine. After I got -18 running and vmware wkst recompiled. I
> went back to Synaptic and told it to purge -17.
> 
> Now I'm getting this.
> 
> 
> E: linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic: subprocess post-removal
> script returned error exit status 1
> E: linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic: subprocess post-removal
> script returned error exit status 1
> E: linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic: subprocess post-removal
> script returned error exit status 1
> E: linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic: subprocess post-removal
> script returned error exit status 1

At the moment when you're seeing this, do you still have
linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic (and -17-generic) installed?  From the
error messages it would seem that you don't, but apt shouldn't have
allowed that to happen.

> (Reading database ... 113971 files and directories currently installed.)
> Removing linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic ...
> FATAL: Could not open '/boot/System.map-2.6.24-16-generic': No such
> file or directory
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
> Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic
> update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
> dpkg: error processing linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic (--remove):
>  subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Removing linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic ...
> FATAL: Could not open '/boot/System.map-2.6.24-17-generic': No such
> file or directory
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic
> Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic
> update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic
> dpkg: error processing linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic (--remove):
>  subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Removing linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic ...
> FATAL: Could not open '/boot/System.map-2.6.24-16-generic': No such
> file or directory
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
> Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic
> update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
> dpkg: error processing linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic (--remove):
>  subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Removing linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic ...
> FATAL: Could not open '/boot/System.map-2.6.24-17-generic': No such
> file or directory
> update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic
> Cannot find /lib/modules/2.6.24-17-generic
> update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic
> dpkg: error processing linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic (--remove):
>  subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic
>  linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic
>  linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic
>  linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic
> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
> A package failed to install.  Trying to recover:
>
> Apparently this is breaking my laptop on being able to install new
> software.  I just tried to install the google-desktop-linux from
> Google's repo and it downloads the files... and then attempts to
> remove the above stuff and fails and won't install.
> 
> So I'm stuck at this point and not really wanting to reinstall my laptop.
> 
> Can someone please advise/

You can work around this problem by removing the postrm scripts that
fail and prevent apt from removing these packags.  If you're really not
going to use 2.6.24-16 and 2.6.24-17 kernels on this system (without
completely reinstalling them), that should be safe to do:

  sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic.postrm
  sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic.postrm
  sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic.postrm
  sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic.postrm
  sudo apt-get remove linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-16-generic \
                      linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-17-generic \
                      linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-16-generic \
                      linux-backports-modules-2.6.24-17-generic

It would be good if you could file a bug report on http://launchpad.net
describing how you got into this situation, so that Ubuntu could be made
more robust when /boot fills up during a kernel upgrade.

Regards,
Marius Gedminas
-- 
"In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children and their children"
POSIX Prg Gt, by Donald Lewine, O'Reilly & Associates, 1991, p.110 (On process
termination)
        -- http://lambda.weblogs.com/discuss/msgReader$7635?mode=day
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20080605/f7e88c62/attachment.sig>