Need to remove old versions of Ubuntu kernel

joe3eagles · 07-22-2006, 10:32 PM

Hey folks,

I'm looking to clean up older versions of Ubuntu from my hard drive as well as merely from the GRUB menu. I know that editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file will clean up the menu, but what about the actual older kernels and other related stuff? Shouldn't those also be removed? I found the /lib/modules/ directory. Do those and/or other files need to be deleted? Would deleting them cause problems?

Thanks for any pointers!

Joe

aysiu · 07-22-2006, 10:40 PM

Go to Synaptic Package Manager or Adept and search for linux-image.

syg00 · 07-22-2006, 10:57 PM

... and select the ones you want deleted.
You'll get an option to remove completely - will get rid of any modules (including restricted) as well.

Tim Silver · 06-10-2008, 09:04 AM

OK. I notice that this thread has been viewed 18,510 times but I appear to be the only one with a further question!

Having looked-up 'linux-image' in Synaptics Package Manager, how do I know which ones are safe to remove?

Am I to be guided by the checkboxes on the left (some grayed-out, some with an icon?) or if they don't have an entry in the 'Installed Version' column?

Complete noob to any form of linux and do not want to risk any harm to system!

Any advice much appreciated.

Meson · 06-21-2008, 11:07 AM

If you remove the linux-images for a particular kernel, shouldn't you remove the linux-headers for that version as well?

tredegar · 06-21-2008, 11:38 AM

@Tim Silver,
The command uname -a in a terminal will tell you which kernel you are running as opposed to which kernels you may have available. Mine looks like this:

Code:

tred@vaio:~$ uname -a
Linux vaio 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 4 16:35:01 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
tred@vaio:~$

So I can remove all kernels, and headers and sources except 2.6.24-19-generic
In practice, I like to keep at least one "old" kernel, in case I find that the latest one has broken something that used to work with the older kernel.

HTH &
Welcome to LQ!

oserdavid · 07-14-2008, 12:14 PM

I hope I'm not hijacking a thread - but this is very related.
I'm running dual boot Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows Vista. I understand that when Ubuntu 8.04 is replaced by the next full incarnation of Ubuntu - it can be installed by simply 'updating' - which I understand. However, I have grub set up to launch Vista/Longhorn as default, and have edited grub's menu.list so that this remains the case when new kernels of Hardy are introduced, removing the old kernels, as suggested above. My question is, would the new full version of Ubuntu retain my grub settings, or will I need to edit a new version of grub, as I did the old one?

larookh · 08-22-2008, 04:31 AM

Ok so without apt- and without anything else

ok so maybe you screwed up and deleted it in dolphin like I did...

so I did this

su -s -H

gives you a root screen

go to /boot

ls -a
will show you everything

go into your trash folder

ls .Trash-0

rm both files and then mkdir both of them back

Alright so then I ran the dpkg --configure -a

everything worked!