Unable to update.... claims inadequate space on partition

[aeroflotsam]

Lubuntu 12.10 Dell 5160 512 meg ram 80 gig hd

I sure hope someone can help me out with this one. I've been running this version for a while now but after several successful updates, the update manager states that it is unable to update due to inadequate space on the partition. It seems to hang up when installing 3.5.0.21. The /boot directory claims 0 bytes remaining and I'm guessing that this might be the problem. I'm including a list of files on the /boot directory and maybe you might be able to advise me what to safely remove to fix this problem.

Lubuntu performs perfectly otherwise and I'd hate to lose it because of a problem like this. This software has breathed new life into this otherwise useless machine.

Many thanks

[efflandt]

That image does not tell much. What does df show? If you used a separate /boot partition and made it too small, you either need to remove some old kernels or make the /boot partition bigger.

[aeroflotsam]

Hi efflandt and thanks for your reply...

I'm having trouble using this forum...... very confusing.

I think you wanted me to enter df into the terminal....... here is the output.


Sorry efflandt----- I just can't seem to figure out this forum format...... my 71 year old brain can't seem to get wrapped around it. I'll try again another time. Thank you for your patience.

[oldfred]

If you are just copying terminal output, you can copy & paste right into your message. If very long we prefer code tags which you can easily add by highlighting again like a copy and click on the # in the edit panel.

If you want to post screen shots you use hte little paper clip icon in the edit panel. It will then open up a screen to let you find file on your system to upload.

Guide to Forum features:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1006656

[Impavidus]

Open the software centre, search for "linux-image-3.5.0-17-generic" and "linux-image-3.5.0-18-generic" and uninstall them.

You can also do this from the terminal if you like (sudo apt-get remove linux-image-3.5.0-17-generic linux-image-3.5.0-18-generic), but there's no need to do so.

This should free up some space by uninstalling old kernels. It's best to keep at least one old kernel as backup.

[aeroflotsam]

Many thanks to Impavidus and all who posted suggestions. I finally got it working and those two images removed with the terminal. Everything seems to be working OK and I guess we can color the problem solved.

Thanks again

[Impavidus]

If you don't keep an eye on the old kernels the problem will reoccur. After two more kernel updates you'll run out of disk space again. So keep in mind to remove the old kernels after each update, only keeping the latest kernel image and one older one as a back-up. To get rid of this problem permanently, you'll have to increase the the size of the /boot partition.

[aeroflotsam]

Hi again Impavidus,

I'm really glad you suggested that in your follow up post. I wonder why only a few users have had this problem and why the old images are not removed during the update process. The Lubuntu developers reported that this complaint of mine was a duplicate but offered no real solution. I don't think my skill level allows messing with the partition but who knows, someday I might down a couple of IPA's and go for it. In the interim thanks again for bailing me out!!!

"If it ain't broke, you ain't tryin' hard enough", Red Green.

Gordon

[oldfred]

The default Ubuntu install is just / (root) & swap. Most Desktop systems unless very old or if they have specific issues do not need a sperate /boot, servers may.

If all system files are in one partition then the unused space can be used by all parts of the system. But we often do suggest separate data partitions or /home for data and user settings.

If /boot is large enough then you rarely have issues, if you do regular maintenance.

RecoverLostDiskSpace
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoverLostDiskSpace

HOWTO: Cleaning up all those unnecessary junk files...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=140920
Caution deborphan will delete anything you manually installed. See comment:
Better to use Synaptic to select the ones you no longer want. Also you get notified about dependencies to be removed and can reconsider, if need be.
http://lifehacker.com/5817282/what-k...on-my-linux-pc