I recently ran into an issue on a test server with a particularly small /boot partition. I attempted to run the typical sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
and it failed. This was part of the error:
Preparing to unpack .../linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic_4.4.0-112.135_amd64.deb ... Done. Unpacking linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic (4.4.0-112.135) ... dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic_4.4.0-112.135_amd64.deb (--unp ack): cannot copy extracted data for './boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic' to '/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic.dpkg-new': failed to write (No space left on device) No apport report written because the error message indicates a disk full error
I tried running sudo apt autoremove
as suggested to clear out the old Linux files. This ran into an error which looked like so:
cole@ubuntu-docker:~$ sudo apt 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: libstdc++-5-dev : Depends: libstdc++6 (>= 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6) but 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.5 is installed libstdc++6 : Depends: gcc-5-base (= 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.5) but 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6 is installed linux-image-extra-4.4.0-112-generic : Depends: linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic but it is not installed linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic but it is not installed Recommends: thermald but it is not installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
Running sudo apt -f install
as suggested left me with:
cole@ubuntu-docker:~$ sudo apt -f install Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Correcting dependencies... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libzip4 linux-headers-4.4.0-101 linux-headers-4.4.0-101-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-87 linux-headers-4.4.0-87-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-91 linux-headers-4.4.0-91-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-92 linux-headers-4.4.0-92-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-93 linux-headers-4.4.0-93-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-96 linux-headers-4.4.0-96-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-97 linux-headers-4.4.0-97-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-98 linux-headers-4.4.0-98-generic linux-image-4.4.0-101-generic linux-image-4.4.0-87-generic linux-image-4.4.0-91-generic linux-image-4.4.0-92-generic linux-image-4.4.0-93-generic linux-image-4.4.0-96-generic linux-image-4.4.0-97-generic linux-image-4.4.0-98-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-101-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-87-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-91-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-92-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-93-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-96-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-97-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-98-generic Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following additional packages will be installed: libstdc++6 linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic Suggested packages: fdutils linux-doc-4.4.0 | linux-source-4.4.0 linux-tools The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic The following packages will be upgraded: libstdc++6 1 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 61 not upgraded. 33 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0 B/22.3 MB of archives. After this operation, 66.9 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Setting up gcc-5-base:amd64 (5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6) ... (Reading database ... 444689 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../libstdc++6_5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libstdc++6:amd64 (5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6) over (5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.5) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ... Setting up libstdc++6:amd64 (5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ... (Reading database ... 444689 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic_4.4.0-112.135_amd64.deb ... Done. Unpacking linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic (4.4.0-112.135) ... dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic_4.4.0-112.135_amd64.deb (--unp ack): cannot copy extracted data for './boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic' to '/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic.dpkg-new': f ailed to write (No space left on device) No apport report written because the error message indicates a disk full error dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe) Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d . run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 4.4.0-112-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 4.4.0-112-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic_4.4.0-112.135_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
I’ve clearly run into a loop that I’ll not be able to solve without removing some files from the /boot
partition. I ran a simple ls -la
to find the versions, and removed the oldest files. I ran the following scripts:
sudo rm *4.4.0-91-generic sudo rm *4.4.0-92-generic ...
until I only had the most recent 6 versions. I checked df
to see where I was at with disk space, and lo-and-behold I had it down to ~50%. Finally I ran the commands that were originally suggested:
sudo apt -f install sudo apt autoremove sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Now my installation is all up to date and ready to rock and roll!
The moral of the story is: make sure to keep your Ubuntu installations up to date! Automating this process is ideal!
🙂 Cole
thank you for this post, just want I was looking for