How can I increase the size of /boot?

Question

My OS can't upgrade because there is no space in /boot I have a patch waiting to be installed since 20-June-2017, but it can't since there is no space in boot device.

The default allocation of 500MB to /boot mountpoint during installation is inadequate and creates problems later on for lay-users. This default should be increased to 2GB at least.

# lsb_release -rd
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Release:    16.04

# df
Filesystem                  1K-blocks     Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev                          1930716        0   1930716   0% /dev
tmpfs                          390284     6348    383936   2% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 956819116 31447432 876744996   4% /
tmpfs                         1951408    54920   1896488   3% /dev/shm
tmpfs                            5120        4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs                         1951408        0   1951408   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1                      482922   462967         0 100% /boot
tmpfs                          390284       52    390232   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb1                     7575024   579824   6995200   8% /media/kray42/B292-FCF6


# du -hs /boot 
450M    /boot

# ls -al /boot
total 453680
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root     4096 Jun 23 17:09 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root     4096 Jun 20 12:20 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1245512 Feb 20 19:10 abi-4.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1245512 Mar  3 23:55 abi-4.4.0-66-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1245659 Mar 22 21:41 abi-4.4.0-70-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1245659 Mar 24 20:50 abi-4.4.0-71-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1245659 Mar 31 22:44 abi-4.4.0-72-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1246246 Apr 20 17:32 abi-4.4.0-75-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1246312 Apr 27 23:54 abi-4.4.0-78-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1246311 May 18 03:39 abi-4.4.0-79-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  1246311 Jun 14 17:54 abi-4.4.0-81-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190247 Feb 20 19:10 config-4.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190247 Mar  3 23:55 config-4.4.0-66-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190236 Mar 22 21:41 config-4.4.0-70-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190236 Mar 24 20:50 config-4.4.0-71-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190236 Mar 31 22:44 config-4.4.0-72-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190214 Apr 20 17:32 config-4.4.0-75-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190355 Apr 27 23:54 config-4.4.0-78-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190356 May 18 03:39 config-4.4.0-79-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   190356 Jun 14 17:54 config-4.4.0-81-generic
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root     1024 Jun 20 12:20 grub
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38933720 Feb 22 05:11 initrd.img-4.4.0-64-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38938945 Mar  9 23:48 initrd.img-4.4.0-66-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38937995 Mar 28 13:09 initrd.img-4.4.0-70-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38941116 Mar 31 01:08 initrd.img-4.4.0-71-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38945168 Apr 18 11:16 initrd.img-4.4.0-72-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38938922 Apr 25 17:27 initrd.img-4.4.0-75-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38938108 May 17 08:36 initrd.img-4.4.0-78-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38940314 Jun  7 09:34 initrd.img-4.4.0-79-generic
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 38944655 Jun 20 12:20 initrd.img-4.4.0-81-generic
drwx------  2 root root    12288 Aug 28  2016 lost+found
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   182704 Jan 28  2016 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   184380 Jan 28  2016 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   184840 Jan 28  2016 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-------  1 root root  3883990 Feb 20 19:10 System.map-4.4.0-64-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3883990 Mar  3 23:55 System.map-4.4.0-66-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3882277 Mar 22 21:41 System.map-4.4.0-70-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3882277 Mar 24 20:50 System.map-4.4.0-71-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3882277 Mar 31 22:44 System.map-4.4.0-72-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3883390 Apr 20 17:32 System.map-4.4.0-75-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3882872 Apr 27 23:54 System.map-4.4.0-78-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3883279 May 18 03:39 System.map-4.4.0-79-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  3883391 Jun 14 17:54 System.map-4.4.0-81-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7087152 Feb 20 19:10 vmlinuz-4.4.0-64-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7087024 Mar  3 23:55 vmlinuz-4.4.0-66-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7083344 Mar 22 21:41 vmlinuz-4.4.0-70-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7083344 Mar 24 20:50 vmlinuz-4.4.0-71-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7083248 Mar 31 22:44 vmlinuz-4.4.0-72-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7081872 Apr 20 17:32 vmlinuz-4.4.0-75-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7089552 Apr 27 23:54 vmlinuz-4.4.0-78-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7091696 May 18 03:39 vmlinuz-4.4.0-79-generic
-rw-------  1 root root  7092784 Jun 14 17:54 vmlinuz-4.4.0-81-generic
#

I am not sure which default you mean. My experience is that the installer does not try to create a partition for /boot, only an ESP partition mounted on /boot/efifor a UEFI installation. Anyway, bug reports & other requests to devs should be made on Launchpad, not here. Delete some old kernels to make space: How do I free up more space in /boot? — Zanna, Jun 25 '17 at 12:09
If you edit your question to include ls -al /boot, and a screenshot of gparted I can take a look for you. Ping me at @heynnema when you've got it done. — heynnema, Jun 25 '17 at 13:38
du -hs /boot gives me 85 MiB. I don't see why you'd need more than 500 MiB. Maybe remove some old kernels and/or set up your system to remove them automatically when they're no longer needed. — David Foerster, Jun 25 '17 at 14:10
Hi all, thanks for the pointers. I have included the outputs from du and ls of /boot. I will clear up space as suggested. But still shouldnt that be done by Ubuntu instead of me. regards. — Kaustabh Ray, Jun 25 '17 at 14:31

Kaustabh Ray · Answer 1 · 2017-06-25T15:09:07.890

0

Short answer is: You do not need to increase the size of boot. Delete some old kernels to make space manually. see: How do I free up more space in /boot? as suggested by @Zanna

This will solve the problem of the patch getting installed properly.
Best solution is to setup the system to automatically delete the old kernels.

edited Jun 25 '17 at 15:09

answered Jun 25 '17 at 15:03

Kaustabh Ray

1

How can I increase the size of /boot?

1 Answers1