touch-packages team mailing list archive

[Doug McNutt <dmcnutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have found a problem several times running updates which are coming
more and more often. That's probably good for security but the automated
attempt to update adds a bunch of files to a root level directory, like
this:

lenovo[~]> cd /boot
lenovo[/boot]> ls -l
total 92010
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1312266 Dec  2 15:52 abi-4.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1312266 Dec 17 20:23 abi-4.2.0-22-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184850 Dec  2 15:52 config-4.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184850 Dec 17 20:23 config-4.2.0-22-generic
drw-rw-rw- 5 root root     1024 Dec 20 10:25 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34594062 Dec 18 10:36 initrd.img-4.2.0-21-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 34597280 Dec 20 10:25 initrd.img-4.2.0-22-generic
drw-rw-rw- 2 root root    12288 May 26  2015 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   182704 Aug 27 09:04 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184380 Aug 27 09:04 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   184840 Aug 27 09:04 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root  3740849 Dec  2 15:52 System.map-4.2.0-21-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  3740849 Dec 17 20:23 System.map-4.2.0-22-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  6799408 Dec  2 15:52 vmlinuz-4.2.0-21-generic
-rw------- 1 root root  6799856 Dec 17 20:23 vmlinuz-4.2.0-22-generic

To fix I have to login as root and delete older files that, hopefully,
will never be needed for a backup.

There is plenty of extra room on the disk and it's hard to understand
why the files can't just continue to waste space but I can't find
evidence of some limit other than the disk itself. Is it possible that
root has some limit to its own use?

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to initramfs-tools in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/798414

Title:
  update-initramfs should produce a more helpful error when there isn't
  enough  free space

Status in initramfs-tools:
  Confirmed
Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: initramfs-tools

  When generating a new initramfs there is no check for available free
  space, subsequently its possible for update-initramfs to fail due to a
  lack of free space.  This is resulting in package installation
  failures for initramfs-tools.  For example:

  Setting up initramfs-tools (0.98.8ubuntu3) ...
  update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
  Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic

  gzip: stdout: No space left on device
  E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
  update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
  dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

  WORKAROUND:

  Remove unused kernels using computer janitor (not in repositories for
  14.04 or later) or manually free space on your partition containing
  the /boot file system.

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