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Ubuntu 12.04 - Update manager failed to install security update of some headers. I have tried: sudo apt-get -f install which tries to get dependencies, but initially fails with:

    dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-headers-3.2.0-54_3.2.0-54.82_all.deb

followed by many more errors including: No space left on device which is completely rubbish as there is more than 120 gb of space.

Questions:

  1. Can I fix this problem?
  2. If not, can I at least remove the faulty update so I can get the apt-get and the update manager working again?

Many thanks.

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    Try sudo apt-cache clean && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.
    – Danatela
    Sep 30, 2013 at 8:33
  • Do you have a separte /boot partition?
    – jobin
    Sep 30, 2013 at 9:44
  • Yeah, looks like a seperate /boot partition to me, too. Try uninstalling old and unused kernels, before installing new ones.
    – mondjunge
    Sep 30, 2013 at 10:09
  • Thanks to all comments above. I have a dual boot installation of Windows 7 and Ubuntu, and having checked, I see there are more than 30 old linux-images, some with status 'deinstall', and some 'install'. However, purging requires apt-get, which immediately finds the unmet dependencies and advises me to fix them, which is the problem I started off with!
    – zurga
    Sep 30, 2013 at 17:20
  • In case anyone is interested this problem is now resolved. You can see an analysis of the problem and its fix on the forums thread: (ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2177876)
    – zurga
    Oct 4, 2013 at 15:59

1 Answer 1

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The best way to check for old unused kernels is using 

dpkg -l linux-image* | grep ii | awk '{print $2}' | grep -v $(uname -r)

This will display each kernel version except the one you already has installed:

dpkg -l linux-image* | grep ii | awk '{print $2}' | grep -v $(uname -r)
linux-image-3.8.0-30-generic
linux-image-extra-3.8.0-30-generic
linux-image-generic

In my case, linux-image-generic should not be removed, since it is a metapackage that allows that my kernels get updated without my intervention whenever they becomes available. So the only two packages I should remove are linux-image-3.8.0-30-generic and linux-image-extra-3.8.0-30-generic.

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