Can't clean a full /boot because of unmet dependencies
I got an error message explaining my /boot is full. trying to clean up old image files always seems to fail because of disk full errors or dependency errors. Could someone explain where I’m going wrong.
$ sudo apt-get 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.
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-44-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-44-generic but it is not installed
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-45-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not installed
linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.
$ ls /boot
abi-3.13.0-32-generic initrd.img-3.13.0-43-generic
abi-3.13.0-36-generic lost+found
abi-3.13.0-37-generic memtest86+.bin
abi-3.13.0-39-generic memtest86+.elf
abi-3.13.0-40-generic memtest86+_multiboot.bin
abi-3.13.0-43-generic System.map-3.13.0-32-generic
config-3.13.0-32-generic System.map-3.13.0-36-generic
config-3.13.0-36-generic System.map-3.13.0-37-generic
config-3.13.0-37-generic System.map-3.13.0-39-generic
config-3.13.0-39-generic System.map-3.13.0-40-generic
config-3.13.0-40-generic System.map-3.13.0-43-generic
config-3.13.0-43-generic vmlinuz-3.13.0-32-generic
grub vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-32-generic vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-36-generic vmlinuz-3.13.0-39-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-37-generic vmlinuz-3.13.0-40-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-39-generic vmlinuz-3.13.0-43-generic
initrd.img-3.13.0-40-generic
I used
kernelver=$(uname -r | sed -r 's/-[a-z]+//')
dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/ii/{print $2}' | grep -ve $kernelver
to get
linux-headers-3.13.0-32
linux-headers-3.13.0-32-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-36
linux-headers-3.13.0-36-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-37
linux-headers-3.13.0-37-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-39
linux-headers-3.13.0-39-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-40
linux-headers-3.13.0-40-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-44
linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic
linux-headers-3.13.0-45
linux-headers-3.13.0-45-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-36-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-37-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-39-generic
linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic
Then picking the first image to remove
$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic
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.
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-32-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic but it is not going to be installed
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-44-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-44-generic but it is not going to be installed
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-45-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not going to be installed
linux-image-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-45-generic but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
In such case I would use the dpkg tool to force the removal of some kernel packages.
This is not suggested for common use and is a bit dangerous, but in such case with unmet dependencies might help.
First of all locate the kernel in which the system is booted. The one that is currently loaded. Open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and issue the following command
uname -r
It will show you the loaded kernel, you should NOT try to remove this one.
Then issue the command
ls /boot
it will return all the installed images. Pick one or two and try to remove them. Try to force remove/purge them. For example
sudo dpkg --force-all -P linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic
You can do the same for other images, in order to free up some space.
Then you can try to install the missing packages, or
sudo apt-get install -f
to try resolve the dependencies.
Finally, issue the "cleanup old kernels" command
sudo apt-get purge $(dpkg -l linux-{image,headers}-"[0-9]*" | awk '/ii/{print $2}' | grep -ve "$(uname -r | sed -r 's/-[a-z]+//')")
Above command will remove ALL the kernels except the one that is currently loaded.
Because you have a separate /boot partition, keep in mind you will need to track its space and cleaning up often (the frequency depends on the space of /boot)
This is what worked for me on Ubuntu 16.04.
sudo apt autoremove --purge
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo apt-get upgrade
List all kernels:
dpkg --list 'linux-image*'
Display current kernel:
uname -r
List all kernels EXCEPT current 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]'
Make sure your current kernel isn't on that list.
Remove all kernels EXCEPT current 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
Clear other stuff:
sudo apt-get autoremove
If it stills throws any error then repeat following commands to remove unwanted kernels,
sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-X.X.X-XXX-generic linux-image-extra-X.X.X-XXX-generic linux-signed-image-X.X.X-XXX-generic
sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic linux-image-extra-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic linux-signed-image-Y.Y.Y-YYY-generic
sudo apt-get -f install
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