Delete old kernels

shishio · 2. Mai 2021

Hi,

I would like to delete some old kernels on my system, leave the current one and one more for safety.
What is the recommended procedure?.

The kernels that I have installed are the following:

Code

linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.3-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.4-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
linux-image-5.4.0-0.bpo.4-amd64
linux-image-5.6.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-5.8.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.5-amd64
linux-image-amd64

Thank.

gderf · 2. Mai 2021

https://www.tecmint.com/remove…nel-in-debian-and-ubuntu/

KM0201 · 2. Mai 2021

Does

apt-autoremove

Not work? It should remove any old packages that have been upgraded. I use it frequently and I'm pretty sure it nukes old kernels (I also use apt autoclean to remove all old configs, etc.)

macom · 2. Mai 2021

Should be

apt autoremove without "-"

cubemin · 2. Mai 2021

I've found that apt --purge autoremove does nothing for old kernels on my server. I've had to use the manual method gderf linked above. It's not a big deal, though.

KM0201 · 2. Mai 2021

Zitat von macom

Should be
apt autoremove without "-"

Correct... Abject lesson in not posting after 16hr shifts. Lol

shishio · 2. Mai 2021

Zitat von gderf

https://www.tecmint.com/remove…nel-in-debian-and-ubuntu/

All ok following the instructions above.

Thank.

macom · 22. Februar 2023

Zitat von cubemin

I've found that apt --purge autoremove does nothing for old kernels on my server.

This is the case, if a kernel is marked as manually installed. Then you have to manually uninstall them as well.

ryecoaaron · 22. Februar 2023

backports kernels are different packages. autoremove will only remove them when they are still associated with the meta package (linux-image-amd64). Once a new version is released (6.1 over 6.0), the association to the older package is lost. So, they will need to be removed manually.

donh · 22. Februar 2023

dpkg -l |grep linux-image Will get you a list like in the first post. You can tell if they are still installed if it has "ii". If it is uninstalled it will show "rc" or something else cant remember of the top of my head. Removing the "rc" is only cosmetic they have been mostly removed.

Don't remove "linux-image-and64". apt remove --purge linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.5-amd64 (others you want to remove) Will clean up the list and give you back a bunch of disk space. Keep the last two just in case.

ryecoaaron · 22. Februar 2023

Zitat von donh

If it is uninstalled it will show "rc" or something else cant remember of the top of my head. Removing the "rc" is only cosmetic they have been mostly removed.

It means "removed" but the config is still there. If you purge it, it will be completely gone. I always recommend purging.

Zitat von donh

apt remove --purge linux-image-5.9.0-0.bpo.5-amd64 (others you want to remove) Will clean up the list and give you back a bunch of disk space. Keep the last two just in case.

The kernel plugin allows you to do this. It shouldn't let you remove the running kernel either

Konsti · 6. August 2023

Hi everyone, I did recently in-place, on-device OMV upgrade from 5.x to 6.x and by chance discovered that in my folder /lib/modules/ I still had old stuff hanging around (I installed WireGuard and wanted to see what's inside that folder mentioned in the config).

I didapt autoremove it removed 0 bytes.

I thus had to resort to manual uninstall, then, per gderf post and instructions:

How to Delete Old Unused Kernels in Debian and Ubuntu

In this article, we will explain how to safely delete old unused kernels in Debian and Ubuntu systems, but before removing first install latest kernel version.

www.tecmint.com

Code

$ cd /lib/modules ; ls -la

total 40
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 Jul  9  2022 5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 Oct  8  2022 5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 May 11 15:06 5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 Mar 16  2022 5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 Mar 26  2022 5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 May 16 10:47 5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 May 24 00:36 5.10.0-22-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4096 Nov  1  2021 5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 3 root 4096 May 11 16:43 6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
drwxr-xr-x 3 root 4096 May 24 00:33 6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64

$ du

4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64
494M    ./6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64
4.3M    ./5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-22-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64
4.7M    ./5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64
495M    ./6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
1.1G    .

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'

linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64
linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
linux-image-amd64

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42521 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.11-amd64 (5.10.92-1~bpo10+1) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42520 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.12-amd64 (5.10.103-1~bpo10+1) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 42519 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.15-amd64 (5.10.120-1~bpo10+1) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42518 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.8-amd64 (5.10.46-4~bpo10+1) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42517 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.bpo.9-amd64 (5.10.70-1~bpo10+1) ...

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'

linux-image-5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64
linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64
linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
linux-image-amd64

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42516 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-0.deb10.16-amd64 (5.10.127-2~bpo10+1) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42515 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64 (5.10.178-3) ...

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 42514 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for linux-image-5.7.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 (5.7.10-1~bpo10+1) ...

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'

linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
linux-image-amd64

$ sudo update-grub2

Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-0.deb11.7-amd64
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-0.deb11.6-amd64
done

$ reboot

Alles anzeigen

Question, please. If you see my full log above (at the end) with the 6.1.0.x kernels left, there remains one image with a very generic name linux-image-amd64 is this from the installer etc. ? Can it be erased ? Is the the default image (backup) ?

Thank you.

ryecoaaron · 6. August 2023

Zitat von Konsti

there remains one image with a very generic name linux-image-amd64 is this from the installer etc. ? Can it be erased ? Is the the default image (backup) ?

linux-image-amd64 should not be removed. It is a meta package that points at the latest kernel package. If you remove it, you would have to manually install kernel updates.

Delete old kernels

shishio 2. Mai 2021

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