What is the correct way to reduce the number of boot images?
Yoda posted a method on the old forum but for the life of me I can't remember how it is done and my Kubuntu box has about 18 of them now.
:penguin: <= The Kubuntu Penguins?
I think you go to Adept or Synaptic or whatever and search for linux-image and remove the old ones.
Quote from: kashi on August 01, 2009, 02:15:51 PM
I think you go to Adept or Synaptic or whatever and search for linux-image and remove the old ones.
How is that done?
Quote from: Mike Mitchell on August 01, 2009, 01:42:57 PM
What is the correct way to reduce the number of boot images?
Yoda posted a method on the old forum but for the life of me I can't remember how it is done and my Kubuntu box has about 18 of them now.
:penguin: <= The Kubuntu Penguins?
If you're talking about cleaning up the boot menu, instructions for that are here (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/clean-up-ubuntu-grub-boot-menu-after-upgrades/).
Do you mean kernel images? I go for the manual approach. Disclaimer: this is for Ubuntu so your approach may need to be different.
As root (eg using 'sudo -s' from your normal account), do this:
# cd /boot
# ls -l vml*
# uname -a
The 'ls' cmd lists all kernels. Then the uname cmd shows which kernel image is in use.
Then I use rm *carefully* to remove unwanted versions. For example on my current system I'm using 2.6.28-14-generic, so I do:
# ls *2.6.28-11*
The above confirms my selection criteria is right
# rm *2.6.28-11*
The above removes all components of the old kernel.
Then I edit the boot menu (GRUB in my case):
# cp grub/menu.lst grub/menu.backup
# vi grub/menu.lst
and I delete the 4-line sets for each kernel version and matching generic config that I rm'ed earlier. This file controls your PC's boot process so be careful eh!
This is all a bit old skool, I'm sure there are quicker tools now.
are you guys talking about when the machine's booting up, it basically 'asks you" which kernel to load (just after "loading GRUB")?
only one of my machines actually "shows" that...
I imagine though, that the others are the same, just simply automatically loading the latest? (I have Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04 on my three machines here.)
Quote from: Mike Mitchell on August 04, 2009, 01:32:58 PM
Quote from: kashi on August 01, 2009, 02:15:51 PM
I think you go to Adept or Synaptic or whatever and search for linux-image and remove the old ones.
How is that done?
I haven't got a working install of Kubuntu at the moment to give exact instructions, but from memory you just start Synaptic and type linux-image in the search box. In the results that you receive you tick the checkbox "mark for removal" of all the old versions of linux-image entries that you no longer need. You need to keep the latest one you are using of course and I used to keep the one before that as a kind of backup and remove all the other old ones. This automatically removes the grub entries for the old linux-image files you have removed.
I'm sure you can do it manually, but this way was easier and safer for me with my limited Linux knowledge.
I thought the method Yoda posted in the old forum had a way to tick an option or two to purge the older kernel images. I can remove them manually but was hoping for a slightly more automated option, after all, there have been quite a few kernels released since 9.04 was made public.
I found it:
How to purge the excess Linux images:
sudo apt-get autoclean
Well, perhaps it just worked this time. Don't know what I did the last time but it just knocked out the old images and left the last two. Just what I was after, hope I can remember next time. biggrin
Quote from: Mike Mitchell on August 21, 2009, 09:43:19 PM
I found it:
How to purge the excess Linux images:
sudo apt-get autoclean
Well, perhaps it just worked this time. Don't know what I did the last time but it just knocked out the old images and left the last two. Just what I was after, hope I can remember next time. biggrin
Ctrl D biggrin
Quote from: BF on August 21, 2009, 10:09:02 PMCtrl D biggrin
??? Not sure what ya mean? I use Ctrl D when I'm finished to close the CLI but I'm old and remember lots of Ctrl codes. (Like Ctrl M, L, T, etc)
Thanks for sharing that information Mike. I didn't know about autoclean. I used Synaptic to clean up old files.
While I was looking to see how autoclean worked I found an article with many different ways to delete old packages and dependencies that are no longer needed in Linux:
How to spring-clean an Apt-based distro (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/how_to_spring_clean_an_apt_based_distro)
Good link Kashi, I particularly like this one: sudo gtkorphan &
Plus one for the assist. :penguin:
Quote from: Mike Mitchell on August 22, 2009, 12:35:10 AM
Quote from: BF on August 21, 2009, 10:09:02 PMCtrl D biggrin
??? Not sure what ya mean? I use Ctrl D when I'm finished to close the CLI but I'm old and remember lots of Ctrl codes. (Like Ctrl M, L, T, etc)
In your browser Ctrl D makes a bookmark.. so you will remember next time >:D
Quote from: BF on August 22, 2009, 03:20:10 AMIn your browser Ctrl D makes a bookmark.. so you will remember next time >:D
Ah, I was up the wrong tree and barking.