Removing Old Kernels

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- On Thu, 12/10/09, Jatin Davey <daveyjatin at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Jatin Davey <daveyjatin at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Removing Old Kernels
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 1:18 AM
> Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
> > --- On Wed, 12/9/09, Jatin Davey <daveyjatin at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >   
> >> From: Jatin Davey <daveyjatin at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: Removing Old Kernels
> >> To: "User Mail List-Ubuntu" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> >> Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 9:57 PM
> >> Hi all
> >>
> >> I installed ubuntu 4 weeks ago. When i had
> installed i was
> >> having kernel 
> >> 2.6.31-14 , then after receiving updates currently
> i am
> >> having 
> >> 2.6.31-16. Still i have the old kernels available
> in my
> >> system. I want 
> >> to remove the old kernels and run only the latest
> one. If
> >> ubuntu has 2-3 
> >> kernels just in case any of them fails then i am
> fine.
> >> Please also let 
> >> me know if i am missing something. I just dont
> want the
> >> kernels to pile 
> >> up after every update and increase my disk usage.
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >> Jatin
> >>
> >>
> >>     
> > It's a good idea to keep one or two kernels besides
> the one you normally use just in case it becomes unbootable
> then you can fall back to the extra ones in the grub boot
> list.  It does no harm to keep all the kernel installed
> since you installed the OS.  In my karmic case, I have
> all still installed since the original beta installation.
> > If you must rm some of them then first do:
> > aptitude search linux-image  then highlight the
> one(s) you want to remove so you can paste it in the
> following command:
> >
> > sudo aptitude purge <paste the name(s) you want to
> remove>
> > Do purge instead of remove so the modules/headers will
> be removed for that kernel image also.
> >
> > Or you can use synaptic package manager, search for
> the linux-images, then select all the ones you want to
> remove, click on that image(s) and select completely remove
> and then click on apply in the top panel.  I believe
> that's correct but didn't look and it should be apparent.
> >
> > Leonard Chatagnier
> > lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
> >  
> >
> >   
> Leonard and all,
> 
> As mentioned i used the aptitude command to list the
> kernels. I have 
> three of them. As suggessted i will keep the three kernels.
> In case if 
> there are further updates then i will delete the first
> installed kernel 
> based on the steps mentioned above.
> 
> Have one question though. Does the update manager clean up
> old kernels 
> by itself ? Or do we need to clean the old ones by
> ourselves ?
> What is the default behaviour ? I manually update my Ubuntu
> system once 
> in a week.
> 
I'm not an fan of UM so don't know about it but I think it's safe to say that all package managers will leave what is installed until you remove/purge the package including linux-images.  Someone will correct me if I'm wrong to be sure.
Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net