kernel-packages team mailing list archive

[C Filorux <breakfast@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Public bug reported:

During installation with full system encryption, the Ubuntu installer
creates an adequate /boot partition of around 100Mb.

However, after 10 updates to linux-image over the next few months, along
with the running of update-initramfs the /boot partition becomes full.
This causes further linux-image kernel updates to fail.  Additionally,
there are (undiagnosed) edge cases where improper handling of out-of-
disk-space conditions in update-initramfs and/or update-grub this leads
to additional failures.  (I fixed a computer yesterday where /boot ran
out of space, which caused grub to fail, which ended with "No Operating
System" being displayed by the EFI BIOS.  I previously fixed a system
where a trivial upgrade failed on account of historical kernels in /boot
- not a system failure, but a user interface disaster for Aunt Tilly.)

To prevent /boot from filling up, it would help if there was a limit to
the number of historic kernel versions maintained.  Older kernel
versions are of interest to many developers, but having multiple
revisions of kernels that are not used is not helpful for regular users.

A possible solution would be to "expire" automatically installed /boot
updates which are not in active use.  A wilder approach would be to move
the large kernel files from /boot to some garbage collection point in
/var ... or maybe not.  Allocating more space to be wasted in /boot
doesn't seem like a good idea.

The following workaround is published to remove all kernel versions
except the current one:

dpkg --get-selections | \
  grep 'linux-image*' | \
  awk '{print $1}' | \
  egrep -v "linux-image-$(uname -r)|linux-image-generic" | \
  while read n
  do
    apt-get -y remove $n
  done

** Affects: linux (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: boot cryptsetup encryption full system update-grub update-initramfs

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1222690

Title:
  small /boot partition for full system encryption becomes full after 7
  updates and leads to failures

Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  During installation with full system encryption, the Ubuntu installer
  creates an adequate /boot partition of around 100Mb.

  However, after 10 updates to linux-image over the next few months,
  along with the running of update-initramfs the /boot partition becomes
  full.  This causes further linux-image kernel updates to fail.
  Additionally, there are (undiagnosed) edge cases where improper
  handling of out-of-disk-space conditions in update-initramfs and/or
  update-grub this leads to additional failures.  (I fixed a computer
  yesterday where /boot ran out of space, which caused grub to fail,
  which ended with "No Operating System" being displayed by the EFI
  BIOS.  I previously fixed a system where a trivial upgrade failed on
  account of historical kernels in /boot - not a system failure, but a
  user interface disaster for Aunt Tilly.)

  To prevent /boot from filling up, it would help if there was a limit
  to the number of historic kernel versions maintained.  Older kernel
  versions are of interest to many developers, but having multiple
  revisions of kernels that are not used is not helpful for regular
  users.

  A possible solution would be to "expire" automatically installed /boot
  updates which are not in active use.  A wilder approach would be to
  move the large kernel files from /boot to some garbage collection
  point in /var ... or maybe not.  Allocating more space to be wasted in
  /boot doesn't seem like a good idea.

  The following workaround is published to remove all kernel versions
  except the current one:

  dpkg --get-selections | \
    grep 'linux-image*' | \
    awk '{print $1}' | \
    egrep -v "linux-image-$(uname -r)|linux-image-generic" | \
    while read n
    do
      apt-get -y remove $n
    done

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