I get this error after upgrade

Question

I got this error message after the most recent upgrade:

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of initramfs-tools:
 initramfs-tools depends on initramfs-tools-bin (<< 0.99ubuntu13.2.1~); however:
  Version of initramfs-tools-bin on system is 0.103ubuntu0.2.
 klibc-utils (2.0.1-1ubuntu2) breaks initramfs-tools (<< 0.103) and is installed.
  Version of initramfs-tools to be configured is 0.99ubuntu13.2.
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of plymouth:
 plymouth depends on initramfs-tools; however:
  Package initramfs-tools is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing plymouth (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mountall:
 mountall depends on plymouth; however:
  Package plymouth is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing mountall (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
      No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of initscripts:
 initscripts depends on mountall (>= 2.28); however:
  Package mountall is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing initscripts (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of upstart:
 upstart depends on initscripts; however:
  Package initscripts is not configured yet.
 upstart depends on mountall; however:
  Package mountall is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing upstart (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of passwd:
 passwd depends on upstart-job; however:
  Package upstart-job is not installed.
  Package upstart which provides upstart-job is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing passwd (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
      No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                                    Errors were encountered while processing:
 initramfs-tools
 plymouth
 mountall
 initscripts
 upstart
 passwd
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

Open terminal and execute these commands:

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get --purge remove && sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a

_{Last command would take some time depends upon packages installed in your system. So please be patient. If you don't have any broken/residual packages it would execute silently without any message.}

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -a
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo update-initramfs -u

Then restart your system.

Answer 2

My one-liner to remove old kernels (this also frees up disk space):

dpkg --list | grep linux-image | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort -V | sed -n '/'`uname -r`'/q;p' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Explanation (remember, | uses the output of the previous command as the input to the next)

• dpkg --list lists all installed packages
• grep linux-image looks for the installed linux images
• awk '{ print $2 }' just outputs the 2nd column (which is the package name)
• sort -V puts the items in order by version number
• sed -n '/'`uname -r`'/q;p' prints the lines before the current kernel
• xargs sudo apt-get -y purge purges the found kernels

Unwinding the sed invocation:

• -n tells sed to be quiet
• `uname -r` outputs the current installed kernel release - we include it in backticks so that the output is includes as part of the command (you might also see this as $(uname -r)
• /something/q says stop when you match 'something' (in this case, something is output of uname -r) - the / surround a regular expression
• p is print
• the ; is the command separtor, so /something/q;p says quit when you match something, else print

altogether, sed -n '/'`uname -r`'/q;p' is print the lines until it matches with the current kernel name.

If you're paranoid (like me), you can make the last part xargs echo sudo apt-get -y purge so that the command to purge the old kernels is printed, then you can check that nothing unexpected is included before you run it.

---

Modified version to remove headers:

dpkg --list | grep 'linux-image' | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort -V | sed -n '/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\([0-9.-]*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/q;p' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge
dpkg --list | grep 'linux-headers' | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort -V | sed -n '/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\([0-9.-]*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/q;p' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Note: the sed invocation is modified. "$(uname -r | sed "s/\([0-9.-]*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")" extracts only the version (e.g. "3.2.0-44") , without "-generic" or similar from uname -r

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All-in-one version to remove images and headers (combines the two versions above):

echo $(dpkg --list | grep linux-image | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort -V | sed -n '/'`uname -r`'/q;p') $(dpkg --list | grep linux-headers | awk '{ print $2 }' | sort -V | sed -n '/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\([0-9.-]*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/q;p') | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge