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How can I configure the software updater to use my huge /user partition instead of /boot for downloading software updates?

user831278
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    I don't remember /boot is used while downloading software updates; it should be at /var/cache/apt/archives. What do you mean exactly by filling up boot? – Aryo Adhi May 18 '18 at 02:44
  • My /boot partition keeps getting cluttered with old software every time the updater runs. This blocks subsequent updates from running. There ought to be a way to automatically clean these out at least two versions back. I would prefer that it keep the old versions in my /usr partition. – user831278 May 18 '18 at 03:24
  • Can you show me the output of tree /boot/? I looked on it back then and there was no single caches or anything that fills it up except old kernels. – Aryo Adhi May 18 '18 at 03:29
  • I can't show much right now because I've gone through (again) and manually cleaned out /boot. There's more that is accumulating there than just kernels. There are about half a dozen different update files with version numbers. – user831278 May 18 '18 at 18:21

1 Answers1

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Your system doesn't write to the /boot partition except when it has to. Most notably, this means kernels and similar.

When a Ubuntu system updates, it keeps around a few old versions of the kernel in an attempt to keep your system operable. That is, if you update your kernel and your system fails to boot, you can just boot from the old ones.

After a while, these old redundant kernels become unnecessary. You can generally clear these out with the following command:

sudo apt autoremove

You can also use the excellent Ubuntu Tweak tool, whose Janitor section includes a kernel cleanup utility.

Kaz Wolfe
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