Ubuntu
update-manager package

[Feisty] useless kernel retained in grub bootlist

Bug #79332 reported by José M. López-Cepero
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
update-manager (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: update-manager

Just updated from Edgy to Feisty. My Edgy kernel (2.6.17-10-generic) still appears on the grub bootlist, even though it is obsolete and (more importantly) panics just as it boots. I suggest removing old kernels from the system on upgrade, or at least placing some kind of warning ("*deprecated*" or something similar) in the list so that the user is not fooled into thinking they will work correctly across the upgrade.

Michael Vogt (mvo)
Changed in update-manager:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Stephan (stephan-h) wrote :

It seems even removing the linux-image package doesn't remove the entry in grub's menu.list?
Since kernels seem to be sorted by version, the old (and absent) kernel is used as the default,
which makes unattended boots fail!

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor) wrote :

The kernel-image should run update-grub in its post removal script. Which package did you uninstall?

The sorting uses the opposite ordering. The latest one is the first one that will be loaded. If not this would be a bug. So please attach your /boot/grub/menu.list.

There are some cases in which you are happy to still have the "obsolete" kernels on your disk. There was a spec last year for a tool to free up hard disk space, that could also include cleaning up old kernels.

Revision history for this message
Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel) wrote :

u-m now does some kernel cleaning but as Sebastian says "There are some cases in which you are happy to still have the "obsolete" kernels on your disk"

Since Intrepid the system-cleaner package helps the user to find packages that apt marks as automatically removable, or that Ubuntu no longer supports.

Changed in update-manager:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
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