Errors ecnountered while processing: linux-firmware

[vimothy]

I'm getting an error whenever I try to upgrade my packages. For example:


➜ ~ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
redis-server
The following packages will be upgraded:
python-pymysql xdg-utils
2 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 116 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,048 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 python-pymysql all 0.7.2-1ubuntu1 [56.4 kB]
Get:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 xdg-utils all 1.1.1-1ubuntu1.16.04.1 [59.7 kB]
Fetched 116 kB in 0s (1,027 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 355894 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python-pymysql_0.7.2-1ubuntu1_all.deb ...
Unpacking python-pymysql (0.7.2-1ubuntu1) over (0.7.2-1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../xdg-utils_1.1.1-1ubuntu1.16.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking xdg-utils (1.1.1-1ubuntu1.16.04.1) over (1.1.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up linux-firmware (1.157.6) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
WARNING: missing /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic
Ensure all necessary drivers are built into the linux image!
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic: No such file or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_Ai2zHl/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_Ai2zHl/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic


gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package linux-firmware (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up python-pymysql (0.7.2-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up xdg-utils (1.1.1-1ubuntu1.16.04.1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-firmware
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I'm on 16.04. Thanks.

[howefield]

Can you post the output of..


df -i

df -h

ls -l /boot

[vimothy]

Thanks, howefield.


➜ ~ df -i
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
udev 2036766 612 2036154 1% /dev
tmpfs 2041668 934 2040734 1% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 30171136 1757573 28413563 6% /
tmpfs 2041668 161 2041507 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 2041668 7 2041661 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 2041668 18 2041650 1% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 0 0 0 - /mnt/4AB4-3F10
/dev/sda2 62496 305 62191 1% /boot
cgmfs 2041668 14 2041654 1% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs 2041668 26 2041642 1% /run/user/1001



➜ ~ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 1.6G 9.8M 1.6G 1% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 453G 185G 246G 43% /
tmpfs 7.8G 373M 7.5G 5% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1 511M 3.4M 508M 1% /mnt/4AB4-3F10
/dev/sda2 237M 197M 28M 88% /boot
cgmfs 100K 0 100K 0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs 1.6G 40K 1.6G 1% /run/user/1001



➜ ~ ls -l /boot
total 191254
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1241960 Aug 11 20:58 abi-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189696 Aug 11 20:58 config-4.4.0-36-generic
drwxrwxr-x 3 root root 1024 Jun 25 2016 efi
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1024 Jan 15 13:07 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12757799 Jul 17 2016 initrd.img-4.4.0-24-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12759993 Aug 9 13:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-28-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12735125 Aug 31 09:35 initrd.img-4.4.0-31-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9161591 Sep 23 09:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7417856 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611239 Sep 18 12:58 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611736 Sep 1 09:26 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10425682 Jan 16 13:36 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36615822 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic.old-dkms
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Sep 15 2015 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 182704 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184380 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 184840 Jan 28 2016 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 3867829 Aug 11 20:58 System.map-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7045472 Aug 11 20:58 vmlinuz-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7047384 Sep 1 09:26 vmlinuz-4.4.0-36-generic.efi.signed

[howefield]

Is this an encrypted installation ?

I'd try the easy..


sudo apt autoremove

in an attempt to clear some space in /boot, if that doesn't work then a manual removal of some of the older kernels/images can be done. Let's see what autoremove can do first though.

[vimothy]

Output from autoremove:


Reading package lists... DoneBuilding dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up linux-firmware (1.157.6) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
WARNING: missing /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic
Ensure all necessary drivers are built into the linux image!
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic: No such file or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_OxCzJ9/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_OxCzJ9/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic


gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing package linux-firmware (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
linux-firmware
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[ajgreeny]

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12757799 Jul 17 2016 initrd.img-4.4.0-24-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12759993 Aug 9 13:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-28-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12735125 Aug 31 09:35 initrd.img-4.4.0-31-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9161591 Sep 23 09:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7417856 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611239 Sep 18 12:58 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611736 Sep 1 09:26 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10425682 Jan 16 13:36 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36615822 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic.old-dkms
I have never seen a listing like that before with those old.dkms files which are taking a lot of space but mostly do not relate to installed kernels.
You appear to have only kernel 4.4.0-36 installed, and 4.4.0-38 which is not yet fully installed and configured, hence it does not show in your listing. Have you ever manually removed any system files from /boot using either the file manager or a sudo rm command?

It would be very helpful to also see the output of command
dpkg -l linux-image* which will tell us the state of all the kernels installed, removed, and unconfigured on your machine, and will help us sort out what needs removing.

[vimothy]

Thanks, ajgreeny. I seem to have to manually remove old kernel images periodically to free up space on /boot (using commands described here (http://askubuntu.com/questions/89710/how-do-i-free-up-more-space-in-boot)). I've never had this error before though.


➜ ~ dpkg -l linux-image*
zsh: no matches found: linux-image*

[ajgreeny]

You do not tell us which of the multitude of commands on that linked askubuntu thread you used so it is difficult to know if you have done something you ought to have avoided.

What are the "➜ ~ " characters doing in your shown command?
They should not be there, unless that is something to do with terminal prompts when using zsh which I don't know at all. However I can not understand why the dpkg command shows no matches as you obviously must have at least one linux-image installed in order for Ubuntu to run.

[vimothy]

ajgreeny:

"➜ ~" is my terminal prompt (the prompt shows my current directory -- it's the default oh-my-zsh prompt). The second line I posted is the output of the command.

The command I've used previously is this one: dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e '[0-9]' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

[vimothy]

BTW, a similar command does produce output:


➜ ~ dpkg -l linux-image-\*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-=========================================-=========================-=========================-================================================== ======================================
un linux-image-3.0 <none> <none> (no description available)
rc linux-image-3.19.0-15-generic 3.19.0-15.15 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-3.19.0-30-generic 3.19.0-30.34 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-3.19.0-31-generic 3.19.0-31.36 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-3.19.0-32-generic 3.19.0-32.37 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-3.19.0-33-generic 3.19.0-33.38 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-4.2.0-34-generic 4.2.0-34.39 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-4.2.0-35-generic 4.2.0-35.40 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic 4.2.0-36.42 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
un linux-image-4.4.0-34-generic <none> <none> (no description available)
ii linux-image-4.4.0-36-generic 4.4.0-36.55 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
un linux-image-4.4.0-38-generic <none> <none> (no description available)
rc linux-image-extra-3.19.0-15-generic 3.19.0-15.15 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-3.19.0-30-generic 3.19.0-30.34 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-3.19.0-31-generic 3.19.0-31.36 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-3.19.0-32-generic 3.19.0-32.37 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-3.19.0-33-generic 3.19.0-33.38 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-4.2.0-34-generic 4.2.0-34.39 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-4.2.0-35-generic 4.2.0-35.40 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-4.2.0-36-generic 4.2.0-36.42 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.2.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-4.4.0-34-generic 4.4.0-34.53 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-36-generic 4.4.0-36.55 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
rc linux-image-extra-4.4.0-38-generic 4.4.0-38.57 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

[ajgreeny]

OK, thanks for that; it must be one of the differences between bash and zsh that caused that lack of output.
You certainly have a lot of kernel configuration still in place by the look of it, but I am still baffled by your original output with all those initrd.img-4.4.0-##-generic.old-dkms files which I assume are doing nothing, apart from using about half of the total space available in /boot.

Do not, however just remove them until we have figured out why they are there and what is the best way to get rid of them.
Normally using an rm command in such system files is a non-starter so as to keep the filesystem and package management running smoothly, but in this case there may be no other way to deal with it all.
Let's see if anyone else can come up with ideas.

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12757799 Jul 17 2016 initrd.img-4.4.0-24-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12759993 Aug 9 13:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-28-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12735125 Aug 31 09:35 initrd.img-4.4.0-31-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9161591 Sep 23 09:19 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7417856 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611239 Sep 18 12:58 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36611736 Sep 1 09:26 initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic.old-dkms
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10425682 Jan 16 13:36 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36615822 Sep 23 09:17 initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic.old-dkms

[vimothy]

Thanks. One thing that had been puzzling me was the need to periodically (and reasonably frequently) free up space in /boot. I've not had to do this when I've used Ubuntu in the past.

[ajgreeny]

Thanks. One thing that had been puzzling me was the need to periodically (and reasonably frequently) free up space in /boot. I've not had to do this when I've used Ubuntu in the past.
It is a problem that many have found with the newer versions of Ubuntu if using either LVM or encryption, both of which automatically create a separate /boot partition.
Unfortunately the developers did not make that partition large enough for more than approximately 3 kernels to be installed, so it quite quickly becomes overfilled and does not allow further kernels to be installed properly if older kernels are not removed.

If you did not use either LVM or encryption in the past this will not have been a problem as there will not have been a separate /boot partition.

[vimothy]

Ah. It's quite possible I'm using both. It's a work laptop, so I think it's certainly encrypted (I didn't set it up).

[ajgreeny]

Further searching suggests that it is OK to remove the *generic.old-dkms files from boot with an rm command as they are put there not by the package manager but by dkms as a backup when dkms builds modules in your kernel at installation.
See http://askubuntu.com/questions/863380/can-i-remove-old-dkms-files
and https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=717584

You can therefore run command
sudo rm /boot/*.old-dkms which will remove just those old and useless files but leave the "real" initrd.img-4.4.0-##-generic files which are needed and created when kernels are installed by the package manager.

[vimothy]

Many thanks for your help. I'm now able to upgrade my packages (although there was some strange output, which I'll post below). Do you think it's likely that I'll have to do this again, at some point?

The output (edited for brevity):



...
Setting up linux-firmware (1.157.6) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-38-generic
WARNING: missing /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic
Ensure all necessary drivers are built into the linux image!
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic: No such file or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_OyJ9lr/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_OyJ9lr/lib/modules/4.4.0-38-generic/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-36-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-34-generic
WARNING: missing /lib/modules/4.4.0-34-generic
Ensure all necessary drivers are built into the linux image!
depmod: ERROR: could not open directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-34-generic: No such file or directory
depmod: FATAL: could not search modules: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_wRNXwR/lib/modules/4.4.0-34-generic/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_wRNXwR/lib/modules/4.4.0-34-generic/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
Setting up virtualbox-5.1 (5.1.14-112924~Ubuntu~xenial) ...
addgroup: The group `vboxusers' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
Setting up libdbus-1-3:amd64 (1.10.6-1ubuntu3.3) ...
...

I've only run the upgrade once, so I suppose it's possible that this warnings will not appear after the next upgrade.

[howefield]

Looks like you're still way behind on your kernel, I think the current version would be 4.4.0-59

With an encrypted installation as ajgreeny said, /boot is smaller than it otherwise would be so you'll most likely need to run sudo apt autoremove regularly, diary it every quarter or so.

Alternatively get unattended-upgrades to take care of it, eg https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2311001&p=13427857&viewfull=1#post13427857

[ajgreeny]

What does command
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all show you as output?

From the dpkg output it should only be giving you an update to the 4.4.0-36 kernel which seems to be the only one fully and properly installed at present.
If it throws errors about 4.4.0-34 it is possibly because there are unnecessary files remaining in /var/lib/initramfs-tools for that kernel version which is no longer fully installed.

I have found suggestions at http://askubuntu.com/questions/809947/update-initramfs-missing-lib-modules-4-4-0-13-generic to remove these extraneous files
sudo rm /var/lib/initramfs-tools/4.4.0-34-generic but I am not totally certain what the un at the start of the dpkg -l output means for that kernel version so hang around for a while yet before going ahead and also show us the output of
dpkg -s linux-image-4.4.0-34-generic which ought to give more info on its status in your system. You can the retry that command for the 4.4.0-38 version to see what appears there.