Can't clean a full /boot because of unmet dependencies

Question

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).

Solution 1

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)

Solution 2

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

Solution 3

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

Comments

[muru]

Please edit your question and the output of sudo apt-get autoremove and ls /boot.

[muru]

Try Phrog's answer. Use the uname -r command to find out your current kernel version, and try removing a kernel other than that.

[Philip Howard]

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

[NickTux]

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.

[mdunsmuir]

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.

[NKijak]

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?

[Ghostkeeper]

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.

[Hemant Thorat]

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.

[Lonnie Best]

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.

[Franklin Yu]

@LonnieBest I agree. In contrast, Arch Linux keeps only one fallback. Neither does Fedora seem to have this issue.

[Bok]

This method worked for me.

[Matiss]

Still complains that it have unmet dependancies