Can these kernels be removed?

[Avi Greenbury]

John Law wrote:

> Being a purist, I would like to keep my system size small. I noticed I
> have these packages installed. While I know an OS must have a kernel,
> I am guessing some of these packages might not be needed. Anyone can
> share?
> 
> linux-firmware
This isn't a kernel; it's a bunch of hardware support for the kernel
which you probably want to keep. Whether you do or not depends on
whether you have any hardware that relies on this package for support.

> linux-gerneric-pae
This is a metapackage pointing at the linux-image-generic-pae
package.

> linux-headers-3.2.0-20
> linux-headers-3.2.0-20-generic-pae
> linux-headers-generic-pae

These are kernel headers, which are only really needed if you intend to
build software against your kernel.

> linux-image-3.2.0-20-generic-pae
This is probably your current kernel. Is that the same verson as the
kernel you're running (it's unclear how you got this list; is it just a
`dpkg -l | grep linux` or is it a list of packages you're already a bit
sure you don't want)?

> linux-image-generic-pae
This is a metapackage pointing at the latest generic PAE kernel package
(which is likely to be linux-image-3.2.0-20-generic-pae).

Sorry, I can't be too specific on versions since I don't have that
recent a Ubuntu machine handy right now. Basically, if you're not
running the 3.2.0-20-generic-pae kernel, you can remove that package,
and if it's not a PAE kernel you're running you can also remove those
linux-image-generic-pae and linux-generic-pae metapackages.

--
Avi