What happens with the /boot directory is full in Ubuntu 12.04.5?

tearsforhari · 05-16-2015, 12:15 PM

Hi. I think because the auto-update is on, old kernels and their dependencies continuously fill up the /boot partition. Can someone tell me if this is an issue? That is, will it affect cron jobs or any other process on the virtual machine?

I just figured out how to manually purge them using the command prompt. But it seems to be a design flaw in Ubuntu, no?

JeremyBoden · 05-16-2015, 12:34 PM

The /boot partition is only used during the initial boot of the host.

So VM's are not affected.

Host crontabs are stored in /var

whm1974 · 05-16-2015, 12:40 PM

This only becomes a problem with a separate /boot partition. Instead have a separate / and /home partitions and you will never have a problem.

btmiller · 05-16-2015, 12:43 PM

I've noticed this as well. On my boxes I just go through and regularly purge old kernels, however Ubuntu has other ways of dealing with this. This page in the documentation has some tips.

I've fgound when /boot is full apt-get will fail to work correctly and some manual clean-up work is needed.

tearsforhari · 05-16-2015, 01:27 PM

Yes, thank you all. I've too noted that apt-get didn't work properly when the /boot was full. Even after moving everything out of the /boot (which was a mistake) apt-get worked better, but still failed.

Yes, I purged the old kernels with the following:

Code:

>uname -r
3.2.0-83-generic-pae
>dpkg --list | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-82-generic-pae       3.2.0-82.119                            Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-83-generic-pae       3.2.0-83.120                            Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-generic-pae                3.2.0.83.97                             Generic Linux kernel image
>sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.2.0.82-generic (this is the old kernel file to be removed)
>sudo update-grub2

Anyone know how to turn off the auto-updates from the command line?

tearsforhari · 05-16-2015, 01:29 PM

whm1974: I'm not following you. I have a separate / /boot and /home?

EDDY1 · 05-16-2015, 02:30 PM

post output of

Quote:

sudo fdisk -l
df -h

tearsforhari · 05-16-2015, 02:54 PM

I had problems with another machine. But here is the one that I am currently using:

Code:

>sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders, total 312500000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00050045

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      499711      248832   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          501758   312498175   155998209    5  Extended
/dev/sda5          501760   312498175   155998208   8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders, total 312500000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/Opera-root: 28.5 GB, 28458352640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3459 cylinders, total 55582720 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/Opera-root doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/Opera-swap_1: 3485 MB, 3485466624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 423 cylinders, total 6807552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/mapper/Opera-swap_1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/mapper/cryptswap1: 3485 MB, 3485466624 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 423 cylinders, total 6807552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4a1ab871

Disk /dev/mapper/cryptswap1 doesn't contain a valid partition table

Code:

Filesystem              Size  Used Avail Use Mounted on
/dev/mapper/Opera-root   27G  4.1G   21G  17% /
udev                    996M  4.0K  996M   1% /dev
tmpfs                   202M  788K  201M   1% /run
none                    5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                   1006M  224K 1006M   1% /run/shm
/dev/sda1               228M   62M  155M  29% /boot
/home/hgill/.Private     27G  4.1G   21G  17% /home/tears

whm1974 · 05-17-2015, 05:04 AM

Quote:

whm1974: I'm not following you. I have a separate / /boot and /home?

I meant to say that just have / and /home in separate partition. And you don't need to put /boot in it's own separate partition.