Remove old kernels to make room on /boot?

jbennett · 10-03-2012, 03:43 PM

I am attempting to run yum update on my CentOS 6.3 install.

I have run into the following:

Code:

Running Transaction Test

Transaction Check Error:
  installing package kernel-2.6.32-279.9.1.el6.i686 needs 17MB on the /boot filesystem

Error Summary
-------------
Disk Requirements:
  At least 17MB more space needed on the /boot filesystem.

When I check /boot:

Code:

[root@nagiosxivm profile.d]# df -H /boot
Filesystem             Size   Used  Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1              102M    86M    11M  89% /boot

When I check for old kernels:

Code:

[root@nagiosxivm profile.d]# rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.i686
dracut-kernel-004-256.el6.noarch
kernel-firmware-2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.noarch
kernel-headers-2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686
kernel-devel-2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686
kernel-2.6.32-71.el6.i686
kernel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.i686
kernel-devel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.i686
vmadd-kernel-module-RHEL-2.0-1.i386
kernel-2.6.32-220.4.1.el6.i686
kernel-devel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.i686

Am I safe to do the following so as to avoid having to resize the /boot partition?

Code:

# rpm -e kernel-2.6.32-71.el6.i686 kernel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.i686 kernel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.i686 kernel-devel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.i686 kernel-devel-2.6.32-71.29.1.el6.i686

acid_kewpie · 10-03-2012, 03:46 PM

sure, that's fine. The devel packages won't affect /boot to any extent, or actually at all I don't think, but the kernels can go if you know you don't use them. You may wis to back up your bootloader config for safety, and check it still makes sense after you remove them, but you should be fine.

suicidaleggroll · 10-03-2012, 04:05 PM

I would use yum remove rather than rpm -e personally, but yes that's fine