release upgrade doesn't properly calculate free space needed for /boot

Hi Geoff,

it is clear what you mean.

It is not really necessary in your case, but if you whant to help you may be follow this text:

Hi Geoff,

sorry for the inconvenience. Those problems are very neasty.

Unfortunately, a little more help from you ins needed.

Please use

apport-collect 1173468

from command line to bring up all needed informations/logs here. Without them the developers of ubunut-release-upgrader are not able to work on this report.

If apport collect is disclaiming about missing libraries, please install them and rerun the command until all works.

In meantime I set the status of the report to incomplete. When you have brought up the needed information, please set the status of the report back to new. This will bring progress in the fixing process.

greetings

melchiaros

P.S:

 If and only if it not possible to get it managed with apport-collect you can also bring up the logs manually from

/var/log/dist-upgrade

folder.

Please attach them one by one here(this is important). For the apt-clone file in the log folder you need root proviledges to upload it. This is one of the causes why it is better to use apport-collect.

BTW: It is recommend for futhur reports to use the command

ubuntu-bug <PACKAGENAME>

for reporting. This will bring up all needed information up in the first reporting step. -> Less work for all.

apport information

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apport information

Many thanks Geoff for performing the apport-collect run.

melchiaros

Are you sure that it is a out of memeory for boot?

I have seen somethink similiar of this arround here(in the last 2 days). There was also a dpkg error that final ends up in a kde frontend crasher(in termlog):

Processing triggers for dictionaries-common ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic
 linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-generic
 initramfs-tools
Error in function:
SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-67ayk1/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeViewKDE.py", line 595, in _handleException
    apport_crash(exctype, excvalue, exctb)
  File "/tmp/ubuntu-release-upgrader-67ayk1/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeApport.py", line 52, in apport_crash
    apport_excepthook(type, value, tb)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 103, in apport_excepthook
    pr.add_proc_info(extraenv=['PYTHONPATH', 'PYTHONHOME'])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/report.py", line 515, in add_proc_info
    raise ValueError('%s does not exist' % self['ExecutablePath'])
ValueError: /usr/bin/python2.7 (deleted) does not exist

Original exception was:
SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

There are also ppa's enabled.

ubuntu-release-upgrader is not able at time to handle such with succes, but this should be not the problem here.

BTW: If you feel that ubuntu-release-upgrader should be able to handel ppa, you may want to give

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1173902

a "also affects me"

Aha, there it is:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1173129

This also ends similiar, but the main issue is arround apache and not the kernel.

I let it in this state. Somebody with more knowledge should have a lok at this.

Hi Sasa,

I think there are about 4 separate issues which are all mangled up now the logs are visible:
1) KDE window manager died during the upgrade - not sure why. All window controls and task bars disappeared during the upgrade
2) There was insufficient disk space to install the kernel image (this bug report)
3) I suspended my laptop during the install (stupid I know) - it resumed alright after but the whole upgrade process failed at this point
4) I have some PPAs enabled but the installer disables them for the upgrade doesn't it? - This isn't a problem for me, they don't do anything critical on my system

Cheers,

PS this bug was raised through the "click here to report bug" system in the installer...

Sasa,

Its definitely out of disk space for the linux-image package on the /boot partition - it happens to me every time a new kernel gets installed.

I can see the error in /apt/term.log:

<<SNIP>>
Setting up linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic (3.8.0-19.29) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic.postinst line 1010.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 3.8.0.19.35); however:
  Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic with 1.
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-generic
 initramfs-tools
Log ended: 2013-04-27 22:51:03

The rest of the errors are self inflicted from suspending.

Thanks

Oh, yes, now I see.

Thank you for clarification

What do you think of an adaption of the summry that target more on the /boot size problem?

Hi Sasa - good idea. changed the bug title

Cheers!

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Same problem here - updating to 13.04 crashed halfway through, a later

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

told me 4 packages were not installed, and gave me the following messages (I hope it is clear despite being in German):

initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu0.7) wird eingerichtet ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic (3.8.0-19.29) wird eingerichtet ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.8.0-19-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic.postinst line 1010.
dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic (--configure):
 Unterprozess installiertes post-installation-Skript gab den Fehlerwert 2 zurück
dpkg: Abhängigkeitsprobleme verhindern Konfiguration von linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic hängt ab von linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic; aber:
  Paket linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic ist noch nicht konfiguriert.

dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von linux-image-generic (--configure):
 Abhängigkeitsprobleme - verbleibt unkonfiguriert
dpkg: Abhängigkeitsprobleme verhindern Konfiguration von linux-generic:
 linux-generic hängt ab von linux-image-generic (= 3.8.0.19.35); aber:
  Paket linux-image-generic ist noch nicht konfiguriert.

dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von linux-generic (--configure):
 Abhängigkeitsprobleme - verbleibt unkonfiguriert
Trigger für initramfs-tools werden verarbeitet ...
Es wurde kein Apport-Bericht verfasst, da das Limit MaxReports bereits erreicht ist.
    Es wurde kein Apport-Bericht verfasst, da das Limit MaxReports bereits erreicht ist.
        update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic with 1.
dpkg: Fehler beim Bearbeiten von initramfs-tools (--configure):
 Unterprozess installiertes post-installation-Skript gab den Fehlerwert 1 zurück
Es wurde kein Apport-Bericht verfasst, da das Limit MaxReports bereits erreicht ist.
    Fehler traten auf beim Bearbeiten von:
 linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic
 linux-image-generic
 linux-generic
 initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Follow-up: I did not manage to fix the broken upgrade (serious problems with fglrx graphics drivers that were halfway installed) manually. The solution for me was to setup a Ubuntu installation disk/stick and choose "reinstall 13.04" from the installation menu. Up and running again.

(The option does only seem to exist if there isn't an overly complex structure of OS's and disks, so you may want to unplug other HDDs)

Flo,
If you were just out of disk space on /boot like I was -- and it looks like you were, then the simplest way to recover is just to uninstall some old kernels as you likely have a few installed, eg do:

$ dpkg -l|grep "ii[[:space:]]*linux-image"
and remove the oldest version, making sure that this isn't the running kernel, eg:
$ apt-get remove linux-image-3.5.0-23-generic linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic

Once you've done this, apt will re-run the packing for half-installed linux-image package from the new ubuntu version, although perhaps your system developed other problems from the installer aborting at a different point and leaving your system in an inconsistent state.

A lot of advice out there says to have a ~ 100MB boot partition which doesn't allow many kernel images to be installed these days and there are a few systems out there that refuse to boot if the root partition is massive so this may catch a few people...

This is the state of my boot partition immediately after the upgrade failed:

#df /boot
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 163322 152984 1906 99% /boot

I had removed a kernel package just before the update, because this issue has affected me in the past. When I began do-release-upgrade the Use% for /boot was 68%, i.e. I had 52263 IK-blocks (51 MiB) free.

For comparison,
# du -BK /boot/*3.5.0-27*
shows that the four packages linux-headers-3.5.0-27, linux-headers-3.5.0-27-generic, linux-image-3.5.0-27-generic, and linux-image-extra-3.5.0-27-generic (my currently running kernel) consumes 37.63 MiB on /boot, so I thought I was safe. Go figure...

My fix: since this is an upgrade, remove the *oldest* kernel package set installed, which in my case was 3.5.0-17.
# dpkg -l | grep 3.5.0-17 | cut -b5-45 | xargs apt-get -s -y purge
The following packages will be REMOVED
  linux-headers-3.5.0-17* linux-headers-3.5.0-17-generic* linux-image-3.5.0-17-generic* linux-image-extra-3.5.0-17-generic*

** The above command includes the -s 'simulate' switch. When you're happy with what will happen, repeat it without the -s **

I did, and apt-get proceeded to configure the new kernel (3.8.0.-19.35). Now /boot has 32944 available blocks.

The conclusion seems to be that the kernel package installation uses much more space while working than when it has finished; 51 MiB free is insufficient to install a package set which uses less than 39 MiB of /boot.

From the original reporters log file we can see the size we estimated needing and what we had available:

2013-04-27 11:07:53,091 DEBUG linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic (new-install) added with 32248858 to boot space
2013-04-27 11:07:54,021 DEBUG dir '/var/cache/apt/archives' needs '1261842326' of '<DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeCache.FreeSpace object at 0x605ebd0>' (106533376000.000000)
2013-04-27 11:07:54,022 DEBUG dir '/usr' needs '481880064' of '<DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeCache.FreeSpace object at 0x605ebd0>' (105271533674.000000)
2013-04-27 11:07:54,022 DEBUG dir '/usr' needs '52428800' of '<DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeCache.FreeSpace object at 0x605ebd0>' (104789653610.000000)
2013-04-27 11:07:54,022 DEBUG dir '/boot' needs '32248858' of '<DistUpgrade.DistUpgradeCache.FreeSpace object at 0x605ec90>' (33273856.000000)

This appears in main.log.

Running through this process myself I discovered the following in my boot partition at the time of the failure:

16M initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic
16M initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic.dpkg-bak
   0M initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic.new

So it seems that the new kernel image is getting created multiple times during the upgrade process.

From what I can tell it looks like update-initramfs is run two times, once by linux-image-3.8.0-19-generic and a second time by linux-image-extra-3.8.0-19-generic.

When update-initramfs is ran a backup of the initrd for the kernel being installed is made, while the new one is being generated. Hence, the need for additional free space.

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-release-upgrader - 1:0.195

---------------
ubuntu-release-upgrader (1:0.195) saucy; urgency=low

  [ Dustin Kirkland ]
  * debian/release-upgrade-motd: LP: #1173209
    - recheck release upgrade once-a-day, even if stamp file is
      already populated
    - this partially fixes the sticky "upgrade available" message,
      after successfully upgrading, even if the stamp is not removed
  * DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeController.py: LP: #1173209
    - remove the upgrade-available flag, on upgrade completion
  * debian/ubuntu-release-upgrader-core.postinst: LP: #1173209
    - clear the upgrade-available flag, on postinst; it will automatically
      repopulate, if necessary

  [ Brian Murray ]
  * DistUpgradeCache.py: encode error message as UTF-8 (LP: #1177821)
  * DistUpgradeCache.py: double size estimate need in boot (LP: #1173468)
 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Fri, 17 May 2013 09:09:01 -0700

The same problem appears to have occurred during the upgrade from 3.8.0-19 to 3.8.0-21. In other words, this bug appears to be of broader scope than just the release upgrade.

I worked around the problem by deleting the abi, initrd.img and System.map files for 3.8.0-19. I did so with much trepidation, because other life priorities have reduced the time I am able to spend to keep my Linux knowledge as sharp as it once was.

This is the screen output from the upgrade process:

Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-21-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/pm-utils 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-21-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-19-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-19-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /memtest86+.bin
done
Setting up amarok-doc (2:2.7.0-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up amarok-common (2:2.7.0-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up amarok-utils (2:2.7.0-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up amarok (2:2.7.0-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Setting up linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-generic (3.8.0-21.32) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 3.8.0-21-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-21-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-21-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-21-generic with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-generic.postinst line 1010.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-generic (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-generic; however:
  Package linux-image-extra-3.8.0-21-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Setting up linux-headers-3.8.0-21 (3.8.0-21.32) ...
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                   ...

Latest (k)ubuntu installer checks for free space on /boot and aborts the upgrade if there isn't enough space -- thanks!