[kwlug-disc] Removing old Linux images on upgrade

[Peter Melse]

Sudo apt-get autoremove

Clears /boot well enough for me 99% of the time.

On Dec 3, 2015 10:48 AM, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:
>
> I mentioned this in passing during a previous discussion, but it warrants its own discussion.
>
> On Ubuntu, when a new Linux image (and headers) are installed, it automatically removes some of the old ones. This is helpful in keeping the /boot partition size down.
>
> Now, I am not a fan of making /boot be its own partition. I prefer to make it a directory under the root partition. However, there are cases where this is necessary, like when having some RAID configurations with drivers needed at a later stage. 
>
> The side effect is when many hosting companies set the /boot to its own partition and to something small, e.g. 250MB or even 200MB. 
>
> The behaviour I am looking for is exactly this:
>
> # aptitude full-upgrade
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   linux-headers-3.13.0-71{a} linux-headers-3.13.0-71-generic{a} linux-image-3.13.0-71-generic 
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
>   linux-headers-3.2.0-94{u} linux-headers-3.2.0-94-generic{u} 
> The following packages will be upgraded:
>   linux-generic-lts-trusty linux-headers-generic-lts-trusty linux-image-generic-lts-trusty 
> 3 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 0 B/66.5 MB of archives. After unpacking 207 MB will be used.
> Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] 
>
> As you can see, old images and headers are automatically removed, and if this worked reliably on all servers, this would take care of unwanted space depletion in the /boot partition.
>
> But often not, this does not work, and a full-upgrade fails because of lack of space, and I have to clean the partition manually.
>
> Any one knows why this sometimes works, but not others?
> -- 
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
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