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[Glendon Gross <gross@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I stumbled across this bug after purchasing a used Dell PowerEdge 2850
and installing Ubuntu 14.04 server.  I've been building kernels for
years and so I downloaded kernel 3.13.11 from ftp.kernel.org and built a
new kernel and a new set of modules.   But update-initramfs failed do to
lack of space in /boot.  I did install with lvm enabled, and the size of
/boot that was created is 240 megs (240972 1K blocks.)  This was fine
until I built and installed new modules.  So the way I fixed it was by
moving the old initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic to the / directory, and then
creating a symlink.  (I doubt that kernel will now boot, but it will
depend how lvm handles the boot process, and I'm not very familiar with
lvm yet.) Anyway, after moving the old initrd there was enough space in
/boot for update-initramfs to finish successfully.   Regrettably, it
left me with only 198 blocks available in /boot.   I am now
investigating whether it is feasible to resize /boot or not.   But
suffice it to say that if the installation created a larger default
/boot partition, many of these problems would not be reported.  The new
kernel is running fine, so at least I was able to recover the system.

-- 
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 tools for generating an initramfs:
  Fix Released
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 or manually free space on
  your partition containing the /boot file system.

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