Which kernel version to delete when low disk space on /boot?

Question

Running on Ubuntu 20.04, low disk space on /boot error message came up while trying to update.

The upgrade needs a total of 228 M free space on disk '/boot'. Please free at least an additional 24,8 M of disk space on '/boot'.

in my /boot folder I have the following files:

/boot
total 460452
drwx------ 3 root root      4096 Jan  1  1970 efi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    184884 Aug 18  2020 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    184380 Aug 18  2020 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    182704 Aug 18  2020 memtest86+.bin
drwx------ 2 root root     16384 Feb  2  2021 lost+found
-rw------- 1 root root   6219821 Jan  6 17:21 System.map-5.15.0-58-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    262181 Jan  6 17:21 config-5.15.0-58-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  11450528 Jan  6 17:21 vmlinuz-5.15.0-58-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217500477 Jan 20 06:33 initrd.img-5.15.0-58-generic
-rw------- 1 root root   6221223 Jan 25 10:27 System.map-5.15.0-60-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    262215 Jan 25 10:27 config-5.15.0-60-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  11458344 Jan 25 10:29 vmlinuz-5.15.0-60-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        25 Feb  9 06:53 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-5.15.0-58-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        25 Feb  9 06:53 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.15.0-60-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        28 Feb  9 06:53 initrd.img.old -> initrd.img-5.15.0-58-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        28 Feb  9 06:53 initrd.img -> initrd.img-5.15.0-60-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 217514515 Feb  9 06:53 initrd.img-5.15.0-60-generic
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root      4096 Feb  9 06:54 grub

the command "uname -a" returns:

uname -a
Linux balazskocsis 5.15.0-60-generic #66~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 25 09:41:30 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

when I list out the dpkg packages I get:

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d'
linux-generic-hwe-20.04
linux-headers-5.15.0-58-generic
linux-headers-5.8.0-63-generic
linux-headers-generic-hwe-20.04
linux-hwe-5.15-headers-5.15.0-58
linux-hwe-5.8-headers-5.8.0-63
linux-image-5.15.0-58-generic
linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04
linux-libc-dev:amd64
linux-modules-5.15.0-58-generic
linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-58-generic

I believe that I need to clean up with the purge command the kernel version 5-15.0-58:

sudo apt-get -y purge linux-modules-5.15.0-58-generic

but I am not really sure.

If I interpret this correctly:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        25 Feb  9 06:53 vmlinuz.old -> vmlinuz-5.15.0-58-generic
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root        25 Feb  9 06:53 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.15.0-60-generic

the current version is the 5.15.0-60 and the ones with 5.15.0-58 can be removed.

Given the output of the /boot folder listing and the uname -a, would it be safe to remove the 5.15.0-58 version?

Artur Meinild · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-14T13:00:49.423

If you're sure that the kernel version 5.15.0-60 is working properly, then yes you can remove kernel version 5-15.0-58.

On my system, the following files are automatically removed for old kernels:

linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-xx-generic
linux-modules-5.15.0-xx-generic
linux-image-5.15.0-xx-generic
linux-headers-5.15.0-xx-generic
linux-headers-5.15.0-xx

So you could run:

sudo apt remove --purge linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-58-generic linux-modules-5.15.0-58-generic linux-image-5.15.0-58-generic linux-headers-5.15.0-58-generic linux-headers-5.15.0-58

However, be advised that by doing this, you're removing the safety net of having a backup kernel installed (the previous one), and will only have one working kernel on the system.

In the long run, it would be much more advisable to expand your /boot partition, so Ubuntu can run normally with 2 working kernels installed.

Which kernel version to delete when low disk space on /boot?

1 Answers1