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how_to_delete_old_unused_kernels

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To find out the current version of Linux kernel running on your system, use the following command.

$ uname -sr

Linux 4.12.0-041200-generic

To list all installed kernels on your system, issue this command.

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'

linux-image-4.12.0-041200-generic
linux-image-4.8.0-22-generic
linux-image-extra-4.8.0-22-generic
linux-image-generic

Run the commands below to remove a particular linux-image along with its configuration files, then update grub2 configuration, and lastly reboot the system.

$ sudo apt remove --purge linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic
$ sudo update-grub2
$ sudo reboot

And that's it. However, Although this method works just fine, it is more reliable and efficient to use a handy script called “byobu” that combines all the commands above into a single program with useful options such as specifying number of kernels to keep on the system.

Install byobu script package which provides a program called purge-old-kernels used for removing old kernels and header packages from the system.

$ sudo apt install byobu

Then remove old kernels like so (the command below allows 2 kernels to be kept on the system).

$ sudo purge-old-kernels --keep 2
how_to_delete_old_unused_kernels.1655026330.txt.gz · Last modified: 2024/03/12 21:23 (external edit)