cleaning up a LOT of older Linux packages

[Skaperen]

i've noticed that a LOT of older Linux packages remain installed of various types, mostly images. the oldest appears to be 4.4.0-20 and the most recent appears to be 4.4.0-122. is there some tool to remove all but the latest two versions and do all the necessary rebuilds (like grub config) or do i need to write my own (if so, what all should it do?).

[Bashing-om]

Skaperen; Hello -



there some tool to remove all but the latest two versions

Yep, that is the function of autoremove:


sudo apt autoremove


autoremove is also a part of the unattended-upgrade package and can be configured .



we can do that

[Skaperen]

sudo apt -y autoremove removed 7 of them but left most of them. the ones it removed were recent one.

[oldfred]

Are the old files from before an upgrade?
Is so, they may not even be in dpkg to be removed. Generally you only want to use dpkg to remove installed files as then you get it out of sync. And bits of files may be in various places. Part of why I prefer clean installs as then you have done the equivalent of a major houseclean.

Some things & places to check.

# What's present in /boot?
ls /boot
# What's in the grub menu?
grep initrd /boot/grub/grub.cfg | uniq
# What's installed according to the package manager? ii installed
dpkg -l linux-image*
# Which kernels is initramfs-tools aware of?
ls /var/lib/initramfs-tools
Use dpkg -S to see which .dkms files were not placed by the package manager
dpkg -S /full/path/to/file
Only use rm on files not in dpkg
dpkg -S /lib/modules | sed s/:.\*//
uname --kernel-release
Did you also check /var/cache/apt/archives? You may have the old .deb's taking up space.
ll /var/cache/apt/archives
kernel house clean
ll /usr/src/*
http://askubuntu.com/questions/301466/files-are-piling-up-in-usr-src-how-can-i-stop-this
in /boot by version: abi, config, initrd.img, vmlinuz

[Skaperen]

what i did was "apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade" about every week or so for the past couple years. i suspect every time there was a kernel upgrade, one of these packges was added. i used dpkg only to run a "dpkg -l" to list packages. i discovered all these Linux packages this way. there are about 80 .deb files in /var/cache/apt/archives but none of the Linux .deb files are there.


lt1/forums /home/forums 3> al /var/lib/initramfs-tools
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 77 Apr 13 01:56 4.4.0-119-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 77 Apr 23 19:25 4.4.0-121-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76 Mar 10 00:45 4.4.0-28-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 76 Mar 10 00:44 4.4.0-36-generic

i have 2 commands i list files with: al = "ls -Al" and dl = "ls -dl". for a multi-column list i just use "ls". so it looks like there are 4 versions that initramfs-tools knows about. a closer look at the output of "dpkg -l" and i see most of them are "rc" instead of "ii". so i think i should get all those names and do a purge to clear out leftover config files.


dpkg -l|egrep '^rc '|field 2|egrep '^linux'|wc -l
80
lt1/root /root 6#

so ...


lt1/root /root 6# apt-get purge -y $(dpkg -l|egrep '^rc '|field 2|egrep '^linux')
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
linux-image-4.4.0-101-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-103-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-104-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-108-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-109-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-112-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-116-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-24-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-31-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-34-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-38-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-42-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-47-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-51-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-53-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-57-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-59-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-62-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-63-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-64-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-66-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-70-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-71-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-72-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-75-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-78-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-79-generic*
linux-image-4.4.0-81-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-83-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-87-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-89-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-4.4.0-103-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-104-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-108-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-109-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-112-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-116-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-21-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-22-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-24-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-34-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-38-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-45-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-47-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-51-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-53-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-57-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-59-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-62-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-63-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-64-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-66-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-70-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-71-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-72-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-75-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-78-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-79-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-81-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-83-generic*
linux-image-extra-4.4.0-87-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-89-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*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 80 to remove and 53 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 444759 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-image-4.4.0-101-generic (4.4.0-101.124) ...
Purging configuration files for linux-image-4.4.0-101-generic (4.4.0-101.124) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 4.4.0-101-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-101-generic
...
and now most of them are gone.

lt1/root /root 7# dpkg -l|fgrep linux
ii console-setup-linux 1.108ubuntu15.3 all Linux specific part of console-setup
ii libselinux1:amd64 2.4-3build2 amd64 SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii libv4l-0:amd64 1.10.0-1 amd64 Collection of video4linux support libraries
ii libv4lconvert0:amd64 1.10.0-1 amd64 Video4linux frame format conversion library
ii linux-base 4.0ubuntu1 all Linux image base package
ii linux-firmware 1.157.17 all Firmware for Linux kernel drivers
ii linux-generic 4.4.0.121.127 amd64 Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-119 4.4.0-119.143 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 4.4.0
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-119-generic 4.4.0-119.143 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-121 4.4.0-121.145 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 4.4.0
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-121-generic 4.4.0-121.145 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-28 4.4.0-28.47 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 4.4.0
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-28-generic 4.4.0-28.47 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-36 4.4.0-36.55 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 4.4.0
ii linux-headers-4.4.0-36-generic 4.4.0-36.55 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-generic 4.4.0.121.127 amd64 Generic Linux kernel headers
ii linux-image-4.4.0-119-generic 4.4.0-119.143 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-4.4.0-121-generic 4.4.0-121.145 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-4.4.0-28-generic 4.4.0-28.47 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
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
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-119-generic 4.4.0-119.143 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-121-generic 4.4.0-121.145 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-extra-4.4.0-28-generic 4.4.0-28.47 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
ii linux-image-generic 4.4.0.121.127 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image
ii linux-libc-dev:amd64 4.4.0-122.146 amd64 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii linux-sound-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5 all base package for ALSA and OSS sound systems
ii linuxvnc 0.9.10-2 amd64 VNC server to allow remote access to a tty
ii pptp-linux 1.8.0-1 amd64 Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) Client
ii syslinux 3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1 amd64 collection of bootloaders (DOS FAT and NTFS bootloader)
ii syslinux-common 3:6.03+dfsg-11ubuntu1 all collection of bootloaders (common)
ii syslinux-legacy 2:3.63+dfsg-2ubuntu8 amd64 Bootloader for Linux/i386 using MS-DOS floppies
ii util-linux 2.27.1-6ubuntu3.4 amd64 miscellaneous system utilities
lt1/root /root 8#