46

I got an error message explaining my /boot is full. trying to clean up old image files always seems to fail because of disk full errors or dependency errors. Could someone explain where I’m going wrong. 

$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run ‘apt-get -f install’ to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 linux-image-extra-3.13.0-44-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-44-generic but it is not installed
 linux-image-extra-3.13.0-45-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not installed
 linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

$ ls /boot
abi-3.13.0-32-generic         initrd.img-3.13.0-43-generic
abi-3.13.0-36-generic         lost+found
abi-3.13.0-37-generic         memtest86+.bin
abi-3.13.0-39-generic         memtest86+.elf
abi-3.13.0-40-generic         memtest86+_multiboot.bin
abi-3.13.0-43-generic         System.map-3.13.0-32-generic
config-3.13.0-32-generic      System.map-3.13.0-36-generic
config-3.13.0-36-generic      System.map-3.13.0-37-generic
config-3.13.0-37-generic      System.map-3.13.0-39-generic
config-3.13.0-39-generic      System.map-3.13.0-40-generic
config-3.13.0-40-generic      System.map-3.13.0-43-generic
config-3.13.0-43-generic      vmlinuz-3.13.0-32-generic
grub                          vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-32-generic  vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-36-generic  vmlinuz-3.13.0-39-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-37-generic  vmlinuz-3.13.0-40-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-39-generic  vmlinuz-3.13.0-43-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-40-generic

I used 

kernelver=$(uname -r | sed -r 's/-[a-z]+//')
dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/ii/{print $2}' | grep -ve $kernelver

to get 

linux-headers-3.13.0-32
linux-headers-3.13.0-32-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-36
linux-headers-3.13.0-36-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-37
linux-headers-3.13.0-37-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-39
linux-headers-3.13.0-39-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-40
linux-headers-3.13.0-40-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-44
linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-45
linux-headers-3.13.0-45-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-36-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-37-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-39-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic

Then picking the first image to remove 

$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
 linux-image-extra-3.13.0-32-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic but it is not going to be installed
 linux-image-extra-3.13.0-44-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-44-generic but it is not going to be installed
 linux-image-extra-3.13.0-45-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not going to be installed
 linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
Zanna
  • 70,465
Philip Howard
  • 463
  • Please edit your question and the output of sudo apt-get autoremove and ls /boot. – muru Feb 15 '15 at 13:10
  • Try Phrog's answer. Use the uname -r command to find out your current kernel version, and try removing a kernel other than that. – muru Feb 15 '15 at 13:20

4 Answers4

67

In such case I would use the dpkg tool to force the removal of some kernel packages. This is not suggested for common use and is a bit dangerous, but in such case with unmet dependencies might help.

First of all locate the kernel in which the system is booted. The one that is currently loaded. Open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and issue the following command 

uname -r

It will show you the loaded kernel, you should NOT try to remove this one.

Then issue the command 

ls /boot

it will return all the installed images. Pick one or two and try to remove them. Try to force remove/purge them. For example 

sudo dpkg --force-all -P linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic

You can do the same for other images, in order to free up some space.

Then you can try to install the missing packages, or 

sudo apt-get install -f

to try resolve the dependencies.

Finally, issue the "cleanup old kernels" command 

 sudo apt-get purge $(dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/ii/{print $2}' | grep -ve "$(uname -r | sed -r 's/-[a-z]+//')")

Above command will remove ALL the kernels except the one that is currently loaded.

Because you have a separate /boot partition, keep in mind you will need to track its space and cleaning up often (the frequency depends on the space of /boot)

NickTux
  • 17,539
  • 1
    Hi when I try to remove them I get an error sudo dpkg --force-all -P abi-3.13.0-32-generic dpkg: warning: ignoring request to remove abi-3.13.0-32-generic which isn't installed – Philip Howard Feb 15 '15 at 13:48
  • I edited the answer, because of a typo. You need to remove the package. The abi-3.13.0-32-generic is not the package name. Instead use linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic . Use the same naming for other images. – NickTux Feb 15 '15 at 13:52
  • 10
    This worked for me, with one modification: after removing kernel images with dpkg, I had to run sudo apt-get -f autoremove to get apt-get to stop complaining about unmet dependencies. Otherwise, sudo apt-get -f install apparently kept trying to re-install all the kernel images I'd removed with dpkg, which obviously just filled up /boot again. – mdunsmuir Jan 16 '17 at 20:15
  • 4
    After force purging and the apt-get -f autoremove in @mdunsmuir comment above, it still wants to install all the old kernels during any of the clean up operations above. Is there a way to just tell it to ignore unrelated dependencies and remove a single, complete old kernel? – NKijak Sep 16 '17 at 15:29
  • 3
    I'd like to add that I also had to uninstall the extras with sudo dpkg --force-all -P linux-image-extra-3.13.0-32-generic. Otherwise these extras still depend on the actual image and the -f flag would cause the image to be reinstalled and then running out of disk space. – Ghostkeeper Mar 21 '18 at 19:40
  • This is stupid. When ubuntu auto-updates these kernels, it should always delete everything except the last two kernels automatically. Otherwise, if you leave a sever alone for too long, it will fill up with this garbage and even after you remove a kernel it reinstalls during autoremove (due to unmet dependencies)! Totally stupid defaults. – Lonnie Best Aug 15 '18 at 18:06
  • 1
    @LonnieBest I agree. In contrast, Arch Linux keeps only one fallback. Neither does Fedora seem to have this issue. – Franklin Yu Oct 01 '18 at 19:27
6

This is what worked for me on Ubuntu 16.04.

sudo apt autoremove --purge
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get upgrade
Melebius
  • 11,431
  • 9
  • 52
  • 78
msa
  • 61
2

List all kernels:

dpkg --list 'linux-image*'

Display current kernel:

uname -r

List all kernels EXCEPT current one:

dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e '[0-9]'

Make sure your current kernel isn't on that list.

Remove all kernels EXCEPT current one:

dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e '[0-9]' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Clear other stuff:

sudo apt-get autoremove

If it stills throws any error then repeat following commands to remove unwanted kernels,

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-X.X.X-XXX-generic linux-image-extra-X.X.X-XXX-generic linux-signed-image-X.X.X-XXX-generic
sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic linux-image-extra-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic linux-signed-image-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic

sudo apt-get -f install

dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e '[0-9]' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge
Hemant Thorat
  • 351
  • If it still gives you boot disk space error for installing/uninstalling files then directly remove one of old image from /boot directory, 
        ls -lh /boot/*-3.13.0-119*;

    rm /boot/*-3.13.0-119*;

    NOTE: Please review current kernel image again before deleting any image.

     – Hemant Thorat Jul 10 '18 at 10:29
  • Still complains that it have unmet dependancies – Matiss Jul 02 '19 at 11:26
0

In case you are working with unattended updates this issue will re-occur and you might want to fix it for good.

As described in the RemoveOldKernels page on the Ubuntu Community wiki, you can configure your unattended upgrades to automatically remove old kernels by adding the following line to your unattended update config file:

Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";

Important: make sure you really want this, because as stated in the wiki:

It also removes other unneeded packages, as well, which is or is not what you want.

nehtor.t
  • 101