Cfrgtkky

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).

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)

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

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