Full /boot partition

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1

A few days ago the Software Center notified me of the following error:
Error running transaction: installing package kernel-core-6.16.4-200.fc42.x86_64 needs 3MB more space on the /boot filesystem
Looking up the probable causes, I limited the number of kernels to 2 in dnf.conf but it didn’t fix the problem.
My ls -lh /boot:

/boot 
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 282K Aug 15 02:00 config-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 282K Jul 17 02:00 config-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 282K Aug  2 02:00 config-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64
drwx------. 4 root root 4.0K Jan  1  1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4.0K Jul 30 18:16 extlinux
drwx------. 3 root root 4.0K Sep  8 16:08 grub2
-rw-------. 1 root root 167M Jul 29 20:55 initramfs-0-rescue-740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 190M Aug 21 17:40 initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 189M Jul 29 19:45 initramfs-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 189M Aug  9 17:38 initramfs-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.img
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 4.0K Jul 29 20:54 loader
drwx------. 2 root root  16K Jul 29 20:48 lost+found
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root   47 Aug 21 17:39 symvers-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.xz -> /lib/modules/6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64/symvers.xz
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root   46 Jul 29 19:44 symvers-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.xz -> /lib/modules/6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64/symvers.xz
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root   46 Aug  9 17:37 symvers-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.xz -> /lib/modules/6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64/symvers.xz
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  12M Aug 15 02:00 System.map-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  12M Jul 17 02:00 System.map-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  12M Aug  2 02:00 System.map-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  17M Jul 29 20:54 vmlinuz-0-rescue-740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  17M Aug 15 02:00 vmlinuz-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  17M Jul 17 02:00 vmlinuz-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root  17M Aug  2 02:00 vmlinuz-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64

If I understand correctly from the threads created by others in my same situation, I should be able to fix the issue by safely removing the oldest kernel initramfs-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.img with sudo rm /boot/<filename>, but I’m afraid to break something.

2

You can remove the oldest kernel at the same time as you limit kernels to 2. Remember to empty the trash.

If you remove the corresponding vmlinuz and system maps you will even more space.

Consider expanding your boot partition - you may have to shrink another partition to do that.

1 Like
3

Is is very unlikely you need the extlinux stuff, so you can uninstall the syslinux
packages by running dnf remove 'extlinux*'.

However, how big is the boot file system (df -h) and how much is used (lsblk -f).

1 Like
4

We can’t answer your questions without more details. The sizes of the files you show are very similar to my 3 Fedora installs, but I don’t use extlinux. We need to determine whether the partition is too small or is there something taking up a lot of space in one the the directories.
Here:

sudo du -sm /boot/efi /boot/grub2 /boot/loader /boot/lost+found 
31	/boot/efi
14	/boot/grub2
1	/boot/loader
1	/boot/lost+found

Please add /boot/extlinux to the above command line. If one of your other directories uses a lot more space than shown above, look for a large file.

1 Like
5

Thank you everyone for replying, here’s the infos:

df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2       974M  838M   70M  93% /boot

lsblk -f

NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda2 ext4   1.0         c61fca4a-3610-4989-8f47-6ef7678c19b7   69.2M    86% /boot

sudo du -sm

20	/boot/efi
3	/boot/grub2
1	/boot/loader
1	/boot/lost+found
2	/boot/extlinux
6

Do run sudo du -ahx /boot instead, perhaps there are hidden files.

1 Like
7

The output is quite long, I’ve put it in spoiler

sudo du -ahx /boot
189M	/boot/initramfs-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.img
17M	    /boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0
284K	/boot/config-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/kontron_wdt.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/config.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/ifcpu.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/sanboot.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/gpxecmd.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/lfs.c32
28K	    /boot/extlinux/vesamenu.c32
100K	/boot/extlinux/liblua.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/host.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/whichsys.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/hexdump.c32
16K	    /boot/extlinux/pxechn.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/cpuidtest.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/cat.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/ls.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/elf.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/cpu.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/debug.c32
16K	    /boot/extlinux/dmitest.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/vpdtest.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/zzjson.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/pcitest.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/kbdmap.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/cmenu.c32
16K	    /boot/extlinux/rosh.c32
68K	    /boot/extlinux/libgpl.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/ifcpu64.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/lua.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/ifmemdsk.c32
12K	    /boot/extlinux/mboot.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/disk.c32
16K	    /boot/extlinux/sysdump.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/linux.c32
28K	    /boot/extlinux/menu.c32
24K	    /boot/extlinux/libmenu.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/cpuid.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/dir.c32
28K	    /boot/extlinux/chain.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/pwd.c32
12K	    /boot/extlinux/dmi.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/vesa.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/ifplop.c32
12K	    /boot/extlinux/gfxboot.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/poweroff.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/sdi.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/meminfo.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/vesainfo.c32
28K	    /boot/extlinux/memdisk
160K	/boot/extlinux/hdt.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/prdhcp.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/ethersel.c32
28K	    /boot/extlinux/libutil.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/pci.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/pmload.c32
116K	/boot/extlinux/ldlinux.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/cmd.c32
4.0K	/boot/extlinux/reboot.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/cptime.c32
176K	/boot/extlinux/libcom32.c32
12K	    /boot/extlinux/syslinux.c32
8.0K	/boot/extlinux/dhcp.c32
1.1M	/boot/extlinux
12K	    /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
2.3M	/boot/grub2/fonts/unicode.pf2
2.3M	/boot/grub2/fonts
4.0K	/boot/grub2/grubenv
2.4M	/boot/grub2
12M	    /boot/System.map-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
4.0K	/boot/.vmlinuz-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.hmac
4.0K	/boot/.vmlinuz-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.hmac
12M	    /boot/System.map-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
284K	/boot/config-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
0	    /boot/symvers-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.xz
17M	    /boot/vmlinuz-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64
16K	    /boot/lost+found
167M	/boot/initramfs-0-rescue-740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0.img
4.0K	/boot/.vmlinuz-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.hmac
190M	/boot/initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
4.0K	/boot/loader/entries/740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.conf
4.0K	/boot/loader/entries/740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.conf
4.0K	/boot/loader/entries/740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.conf
4.0K	/boot/loader/entries/740dfe35c3494a22a3c0f7543fbebaf0-0-rescue.conf
20K	    /boot/loader/entries
24K	    /boot/loader
12M	    /boot/System.map-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64
0	    /boot/symvers-6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64.xz
17M	    /boot/vmlinuz-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64
0	    /boot/symvers-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.xz
284K	/boot/config-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64
17M	    /boot/vmlinuz-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64
189M	/boot/initramfs-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.img
837M	/boot
8

What is strange is that your initramfs files are unusual big. Mine are about 45Meg each, and yours are about 190Meg each.

A normal code formatting </> would have been better.

1 Like
9

I have noticed the same on my system (without the extlinux bits)
It appears that the initramfs images created with the updated dracut (kernels 6.16 and 6.17) are almost twice the size of earlier initramfs images.

The default 1GB size for /boot apparently will no longer be adequate to contain all that will be there with the newer kernels
This is my f42 system

$ ls -l /boot
total 571256
...
-rw-------. 1 root root 115057270 Jul 23  2021 initramfs-0-rescue-34133d6334d64575ae3ea5a4524a0718.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 100139022 Aug 28 20:09 initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 100117023 Aug  5 19:54 initramfs-6.15.8-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 165855870 Aug 29 12:04 initramfs-6.16.3-200.fc42.x86_64.img
...

and this is my f43 system

$ ls -l /boot
total 749644
...
-rw-------. 1 root root 277513184 Sep  7 15:39 initramfs-0-rescue-594ece762a4b48678f35f7be2ddf7410.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 105193686 Aug 21 21:48 initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 105466448 Aug  6 17:51 initramfs-6.15.9-201.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 172405524 Sep  7 15:38 initramfs-6.17.0-0.rc3.31.fc43.x86_64.img
...

Note the relative size difference between both the 6.16 kernel and the 6.17 kernel when compared to the 6.15 kernel images.

2 Likes
10

I fixed the formatting to use pre-formated text only for you.

1 Like
11

Thank you Barry, still getting used to this platform :slight_smile:
Thank you Villy Kreuse and Jeff V for pointing out the size issue, I will expand my /boot partition as suggested by MatH.
I successfully deleted the oldest kernel and related files.

1 Like
12

FYI I’m not seeing this on my systems yet with dracut-107-2.fc42.x86_64.

My KDE desktop has the largest initramfs files, all the server based machines are a lot smaller.

Heres the sizes for my desktop:

-rw-------. 1 root root 89M Mar 17  2022 /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-1c29c17391714633b75beebc6deb0389.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 88M Aug 23 14:35 /boot/initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 89M Aug 30 12:49 /boot/initramfs-6.16.3-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 89M Sep  5 09:15 /boot/initramfs-6.16.4-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 89M Sep  2 10:03 /boot/initramfs-6.17.0-0.rc3.250826gfab1beda7597.32.fc44.x86_64.img

I think it’s worth reporting this as a bug.
We will see a lot of support queries about this.
If it is a bug then let’s ask the dracut folks to fix it.
If it is a feature let’s ask for an explaination that we can share with users.

1 Like
13

For comparison

-rw-------. 1 root root 176163377 Apr 18 21:20 /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-c35352c28d0b4aafb339e37b4e9fdff1.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  55799361 Aug 23 08:04 /boot/initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  56084822 Aug 29 11:56 /boot/initramfs-6.16.3-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root  56085016 Sep  6 15:55 /boot/initramfs-6.16.4-200.fc42.x86_64.img
14

You might not need to if this turns out to be a bug in dracut on some systems that gets fixed.

15

You can use the lsinitrd command to list the contents if the initrd image. Perhaps when comparing the older image to the new bigger image, something may stand out.

16

I wonder if that might depend on the fact I’m using a Fedora derivative, Ultramarine Linux.
I realize I should have mentioned that at the beginning, apologies.

17

You have the initramfs images to investigate @computersavvy what do you see?

18

I hope that was done using sudo dnf remove kernel*6.NN.NN* where the NN.NN was replaced with the actual kernel version to be removed.

If you removed files manually then it may introduce other issues in the future.

1 Like
19

I get by with 1gb /boot with the following edit to /etc/dnf/dnf.conf:

[main]
gpgcheck=True
installonly_limit=2
clean_requirements_on_remove=True

then update:

sudo dnf update -y

20

strange things…

I have two PC -

desktop CINNAMON

ls -lah /boot/init*
-rw-------. 1 root root 99M чер  5  2022 /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-55954ad4b45048d9b732e2512c7ca10a.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 67M сер 21 19:10 /boot/initramfs-6.15.10-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 68M сер 31 08:48 /boot/initramfs-6.16.3-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 68M вер 10 11:44 /boot/initramfs-6.16.5-200.fc42.x86_64.img

notebook LXQT

ls -lh /boot/initramfs-*
-rw-------. 1 root root 101M лис 15  2022 /boot/initramfs-0-rescue-2240ee57ad6d42549ec2e177ded73113.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 252M вер  5 08:57 /boot/initramfs-6.16.4-200.fc42.x86_64.img
-rw-------. 1 root root 252M вер  9 09:37 /boot/initramfs-6.16.5-200.fc42.x86_64.img

Sizes of initramfs very differnt…
1 Like