[SOLVED] Old kernels won't uninstall

[Beerislife]

I've got about SIX kernels installed on my Neon system and I cannot get rid of the old ones. Since the machine is running 5.19.X there is really no need to have the 5.15.X kernels hanging around.

The Mainline Kernel app goes through the motions of removing them but they are still there! What am I doing wrong?

Fedora used to let you set how many kernels to keep, pity I can't do that in *Buntu!

I'm feeling a bit tired today so I'm also confused as to which is the latest kernel that's installed!

[Schwarzer Kater]

Perhaps this might help?
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php%...&t=169067.html

If the reason is not the wrong marking as "manual" and therefore sudo apt autoremove --purge not working for those kernels, you could just purge any 5.15 kernel with APT (there don't seem to be that many…).

[claydoh]

The Mainline Kernel app goes through the motions of removing them but they are still there! What am I doing wrong?

That tool is for mainline kernels , not for normally installed ones. It probably can't remove non-manual kernel installs.

pity I can't do that in *Buntu!

Sure, you can (ummm..maybe not as much, see my edit below). The default is three, iirc, but that holds for each series, so yes, it can get messy, maybe.



Being an LTS, neon is using the same stock HWE kernel stack, which essentially is an addon to the original 'GA' kernels.

You have two kernel meta-packages installed, linux-image-generic (the 5.1.5 'GA' kernels) and linux-image-hwe-22.04 (the current backported kernel, 5.19, soon to be replaced with the 6.2 from Lunar)
You essentially need to uninstall two meta-package, and then autoremove.
If you have any stray -image or -headers packages lying around, you can manually remove them.

sudo apt remove linux-{image,headers}-generic

EDIT

Ok, you can't easily configure the number of kernels to keep via a config edit like you used to. Debian integrated this logic into apt itself, and I have no clue how this would be properly overriden, and don't feel like doing a deep dive. I thought Ubuntu were supposed to be the bad guys all the time?

[Beerislife]

I'll look at this later, right now I'm totally out of it. It must be the heat and humidity!

[Beerislife]

OK. So now I'm seeing this...

[Beerislife]

And...

sudo apt remove linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Starting pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 3
Starting 2 pkgProblemResolver with broken count: 3
Investigating (0) linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0-76.83 @pi K Ib >
Broken linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 Depends on linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0-76.83 @pi pR >
Considering linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 10003 as a solution to linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 2
Broken linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 Depends on linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 < none | 5.15.0-76.83 @un uH >
Considering linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 2 as a solution to linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 2
Try Installing linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 < none | 5.15.0-76.83 @un uH > before changing linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64
Or group remove for linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64
Investigating (0) linux-image-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0.76.74 @pi K Ib >
Broken linux-image-generic:amd64 Depends on linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0-76.83 @pi pR >
Considering linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64 10003 as a solution to linux-image-generic:amd64 1
Removing linux-image-generic:amd64 rather than change linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic:amd64
Investigating (0) linux-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0.76.74 @ii K Ib >
Broken linux-generic:amd64 Depends on linux-image-generic:amd64 < 5.15.0.76.74 @pi R > (= 5.15.0.76.74)
Considering linux-image-generic:amd64 1 as a solution to linux-generic:amd64 0
Removing linux-generic:amd64 rather than change linux-image-generic:amd64
Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-hwe-5.19-headers-5.19.0-42 linux-hwe-5.19-headers-5.19.0-45
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-76-generic
Suggested packages:
fdutils linux-doc | linux-source-5.15.0 linux-tools
linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic
The following packages will be REMOVED
linux-generic linux-image-5.15.0-76-generic linux-image-generic
linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-76-generic
The following NEW packages will be installed
linux-image-unsigned-5.15.0-76-generic
0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 4 to remove and 1 not to upgrade.
Need to get 11.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 355 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

[claydoh]

Use the exact command I gave, you need to uninstall the meta-packages, as these depend on the individual kernel packages. Then do an auto remove. Dpkg isn't always the best tool as it isn't designed to handle dependency resolution so much.

It probably isn't helping that there are kernel updates in last night's updates.

I tested this last night before posting the command, just to be sure, though I have done this in the past.

[kc1di]

I know may people don't like it but I use ubuntu-cleaner to remove older kernels and if your careful it does not cause problems.
you can install it by following the instructions here.
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/12/...er-janitor-app

[Beerislife]

Thanks. I ran the command you supplied and I'm now down from six to five kernels! I still have one 5.15.X installed that I'd like to nuke!

Edit: It's now gone too and I'm down to four!

[claydoh]

Edit: It's now gone too and I'm down to four!

Which one do you boot to? Form the image in your OP, you are/were on the second most recent kernel, maybe the logic in apt is keeping the running kernel plus the previous 2? The newer one may not be being counted?
On top of that, the newest kernel package build version (5.19.0-46.47~22.04.21) is not the current official kernel. I don't know where that one is coming from.

$ apt policy linux-image-5.19.0-46-generic
linux-image-5.19.0-46-generic:
Installed: 5.19.0-46.47~22.04.1
Candidate: 5.19.0-46.47~22.04.1
Version table:
*** 5.19.0-46.47~22.04.1 500
500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

What does yours show? Do you know where this one came from?
5.19.0-46.47~22.04.1 is the current official kernel kernel in Jammy.

[Beerislife]

I have no idea where that kernel came from. I have no kernel PPAs on this system! I'll see if I can nuke it if it shouldn't be there!

[claydoh]

actually, it is a bug in the application. I just installed it on a hunch. It shows the same two 5.19.0.46.47 packages, one with ~22.04.21 and the other with ~22.04.1

I most definitely do NOT have two 5.19 kernels installed here.

So you are actually down to the normal 3 kernels

[Beerislife]

Now things are sorted out I'm going to purge Mainline...

[Beerislife]

And now I'm down to the running kernel, the previous kernel, and the phantom kernel!

I think I can safely say I've achieved my goal!