How do I make space on /boot?

Question

How do I free up space on /boot?

ls /boot/

    abi-4.2.0-16-generic         memtest86+.bin
    abi-4.2.0-19-generic         memtest86+.elf
    abi-4.2.0-22-generic         memtest86+_multiboot.bin
    config-4.2.0-16-generic      System.map-4.2.0-16-generic
    config-4.2.0-19-generic      System.map-4.2.0-19-generic
    config-4.2.0-22-generic      System.map-4.2.0-22-generic
    efi                          vmlinuz-4.2.0-16-generic
    grub                         vmlinuz-4.2.0-19-generic
    initrd.img-4.2.0-16-generic  vmlinuz-4.2.0-19-generic.efi.signed
    initrd.img-4.2.0-19-generic  vmlinuz-4.2.0-22-generic
    initrd.img-4.2.0-22-generic  vmlinuz-4.2.0-22-generic.efi.signed
    lost+found

I am very novice user. I took a look at: How do I free up more space in /boot?, but the information seemed too complicated for me. I was hoping a simple answer to my specific problem.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 08 '16 at 16:46

4

sudo apt-get autoremove

Might help, it will remove old unused kernel images, but if the /boot partition is that small, you may consider resizing it.

edited Jan 08 '16 at 16:46

Tshilidzi Mudau

4,171

answered Jan 08 '16 at 15:25

Andrei Dobrea

56

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

While autoremove will possible clear some space it will not remove older kernels which can still be selected by grub. I check in these cases which kernel I am running with cat /proc/version.
Since the version you are running at that moment is boot-able I remove all older kernels using: sudo apt-get remove linux-image-4.2.0.*version*
You can use regular expressions in this, so you are probably running 4.2.0-22 and can remove all older. That can be done by:
sudo apt-get remove linux-image-4.2.0-1.* (Check for more detail here)

Do not just trow away the files which are not in use, though it will work it will keep on generating grub errors on updates. Not really harmful but it is annoying.

How do I make space on /boot?

2 Answers2