Hello,

My boot partition is getting filled up after a number of kernel upgrades.
Is it okay to remove the old kernels from the /boot?
I see that the boot partition has config-..., initrd-..., System.map-..., and vmlinuz-...
Do I remove all 4 of them excluding the latest kernel?

Below is what my /boot looks like:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Feb 24 2006 config-2.6.9-34.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Feb 24 2006 config-2.6.9-34.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Feb 16 2007 config-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Feb 16 2007 config-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Aug 17 2006 config-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Aug 17 2006 config-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Sep 25 2006 config-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Sep 25 2006 config-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Jan 23 2007 config-2.6.9-42.0.8.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Jan 23 2007 config-2.6.9-42.0.8.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Jun 12 14:55 config-2.6.9-55.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Jun 12 15:07 config-2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50K Aug 23 08:08 config-2.6.9-55.0.6.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49K Aug 23 08:19 config-2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1.0K Sep 13 16:55 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Aug 28 2006 initrd-2.6.9-34.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Aug 28 2006 initrd-2.6.9-34.ELsmp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Mar 6 2007 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Mar 6 2007 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Sep 5 2006 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Sep 5 2006 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Oct 13 2006 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.1M Oct 13 2006 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp.img
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 1.1M Feb 16 2007 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.8.EL.img
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 1.1M Feb 16 2007 initrd-2.6.9-42.0.8.ELsmp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Jul 3 18:25 initrd-2.6.9-55.0.2.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Jul 3 18:27 initrd-2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Sep 13 16:54 initrd-2.6.9-55.0.6.EL.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Sep 13 16:55 initrd-2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp.img
drwx------ 2 root root 12K Aug 28 2006 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23K Aug 3 2005 message
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21K Aug 3 2005 message.ja
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 717K Feb 24 2006 System.map-2.6.9-34.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 744K Feb 24 2006 System.map-2.6.9-34.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 734K Feb 16 2007 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 750K Feb 16 2007 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 732K Aug 17 2006 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 749K Aug 17 2006 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 732K Sep 25 2006 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 749K Sep 25 2006 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 734K Jan 23 2007 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.8.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 750K Jan 23 2007 System.map-2.6.9-42.0.8.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 737K Jun 12 14:55 System.map-2.6.9-55.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 754K Jun 12 15:07 System.map-2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 738K Aug 23 08:08 System.map-2.6.9-55.0.6.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 754K Aug 23 08:19 System.map-2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Feb 24 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Feb 24 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Feb 16 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Feb 16 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Aug 17 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Aug 17 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Sep 25 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Sep 25 2006 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Jan 23 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.8.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Jan 23 2007 vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.8.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Jun 12 14:55 vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.0.2.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Jun 12 15:07 vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.5M Aug 23 08:08 vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.0.6.EL
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.4M Aug 23 08:19 vmlinuz-2.6.9-55.0.6.ELsmp

Yeah, you can remove the old kernels and associated files if you don't plan to use them. I always keep the kernel I've most recently compiled and at least one older, known working kernel (usually the one I had been using just before recompiling). Once you've used the new kernel for awhile and feel that it doesn't have any issues, you can remove the older one.

You may also want to delete the lines for the removed kernels from the menu.lst/grub.conf so they don't appear in the boot menu.

That will show a list of kernel related packages. Uninstall the kernels you do not need by doing
That will also remove their entries from grub.

Thanks for the info guys!

To recap...

The /boot partition normally contains both (1) the boot-loader program .. these days usually Grub .. which loads the Linux kernel, and (2) the various kernel-image files themselves. This is, basically, how and where the "always-resident software known as 'the Linux kernel'" manages to get into the memory of your computer when you first turn it on.

Usually, you are given a choice of exactly which version of the kernel you want to run, when you start your machine. This is so that, if something's wrong with "the latest" one, you can easily fall-back to "the previous" one. Kernel updates, therefore, usually do not remove "the previous" version. And eventually the /boot partition begins to run out of room.

When you are using a package-based system such as rpm, it is important that you continue to use that package-based system when you want to "clean house." You should explicitly un-install the previous versions... don't just remove the files yourself. This will keep the package-system's database up-to-date as to what is actually present on your system and what is not. When you uninstall the older packages, you should see the older files disappear from /boot.

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