Updating Ubuntu

[Patrick Asselman]

On 2014-11-06 09:58, Peter Goggin wrote:
> I have ubuntu installed on an X61s laptop. The update manager has
> identified a number of updates but when I try to install the updates 
> I
> get the following message:
>
> The upgrade needs a total of 77.6 M free space on disk '/boot'.
> Please free at least an additional 4,664 k of disk space on '/boot'.
> Empty your trash and remove temporary packages of former 
> installations
> using 'sudo apt-get clean'.
>
> I have run 'sudo apt-get clean ' and emptied the rubbish bin but this
> has made no difference. i still get the same message.
>
> The bin folder contains 155 items occupying 9.5 Mb Total free space 
> is 74 Gb.
>
> What do I need to do to get the updates to work?
>
>
> Regards
>
> Peter Goggin

The tip to run apt-get clean is a bit peculiar, because it looks like 
your /boot partition is filled with previous kernels (due to updates or 
upgrades), and i don't think that command cleans out old kernels.

Old kernels are not automatically removed after an upgrade, because 
something might go wrong and you may want to revert to an older kernel.
You can safely remove all older kernels if the one you are using now is 
in good working condition.

See for example
http://askubuntu.com/questions/2793/how-do-i-remove-or-hide-old-kernel-versions-to-clean-up-the-boot-menu

That scary " sudo apt-get remove --purge ..." command basically just 
checks which kernel you are using now, and then removes all other 
versions. You can also do that manually if you feel more confident that 
way:

dpkg -l 'linux-*'       shows all the installed kernels
uname -r                shows the kernel you are currently using
sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-....            will remove a certain 
kernel. Repeat this for all old kernels that you do not want to keep.

The removal of old kernels can also be automated, if you search the 
mailing list archives you will find some talk about that.

Best regards,
Patrick Asselman