"Rpm transaction failed" message when trying to upgrade to f42

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1

Hello

I’m trying to update from f41 to f42 by using sudo dnf as advised.

sudo dnf system-upgrade download --releasever=42

However after the step where it says it successfully imported the key, I receive the error message

"Transaction failed: Rpm transaction failed.
installing package kernel-modules-6.14.2-300.fc42.x86_64 needs 19MB more space on the / filesystem […] "
and many similar messages about other packages.

I’ve tried looking in ‘Disks’ and to resize the ‘fedora’ partition, which appears to have 2.2Gb free of 20Gb but (a) I don’t really know if it will help and (b) the settings will allow me only to decrease the size not increase it.

Disks
Disks690×308 23.9 KB

I would be grateful for your help on how to resolve the messages about the “Rpm transaction failed” message. I haven’t yet dared to run the “sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot” command.

2

Delete an old kernel to free some space, then try again.

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3

I’ve removed some kernels (Upgrading Fedora Linux Using DNF System Plugin :: Fedora Docs) and attempted to clean-up old packages (Upgrading Fedora Linux Using DNF System Plugin :: Fedora Docs) but I still receive over 450 messages like the ones below.

Transaction failed: Rpm transaction failed.

  • installing package java-21-openjdk-headless-1:21.0.6.0.7-6.fc42.x86_64 needs 112MB more space on the / filesystem
  • installing package libreoffice-core-1:25.2.3.1-1.fc42.x86_64 needs 256MB more space on the / filesystem
  • installing package nodejs20-libs-1:20.19.0-1.fc42.x86_64 needs 26MB more space on the / filesystem
  • installing package rstudio-common-2024.12.1+563-2.fc42.x86_64 needs 57MB more space on the / filesystem
  • […]

I’d be very grateful for any further things to check and try

4

How add more space in a Btrfs Filesystem, How add a new partition, How add a new disk, Linux - #2 by christian1

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5

Hi, thank you. That looks a helpful link. I will try these out

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6

I’ve been able to add some extra space to my btrfs now. The advice from the links is probably obvious to seasoned linux users but here is my simplified version in case it is of any help to others (or in case I have done something obviously inadvisable!)

  1. Check space available in the root file system:

    df -h /

    Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdaX        19G   17G  1.5G  93% /

  2. Create a new partition. I used GNOME’s Disks utility and gave it 40Gb from all the Free Space. It called the new file system, /dev/sdaN.

  3. Add the new add the new device to btrfs

    btrfs device add -f /dev/sdaN /

    (You might need to unmount the new /dev/sdaN first and run the above as a superuser for this to work).

  4. Check the space used and available again.

    df -h /

    Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdaX        57G   17G   39G  31% /

  5. Done.

It’s great to be running Fedora 42 at last. (I had hoped that the extra storage in the btrfs area would improve performance but unfortunately it seems slightly slower than before an Libre Calc is crashing, but I will continue to investigate that separately.)

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