[Bug 798414] Re: update-initramfs should produce a more helpful error when there isn't enough free space

[Redoubts]

@Andy, #10
I had a very similar problem, and your solution worked for me. I do autoremove & autoclean somewhat frequently, and yet when I tried apt-get remove linux-<TAB>, I found the following on my system:

linux-firmware                      linux-image-3.5.0-23-generic
linux-generic                       linux-image-3.5.0-24-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-23              linux-image-3.5.0-25-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic      linux-image-3.5.0-26-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-24              linux-image-extra-3.5.0-21-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-24-generic      linux-image-extra-3.5.0-22-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-25              linux-image-extra-3.5.0-23-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-25-generic      linux-image-extra-3.5.0-24-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-26              linux-image-extra-3.5.0-25-generic
linux-headers-3.5.0-26-generic      linux-image-extra-3.5.0-26-generic
linux-headers-generic               linux-image-generic
linux-image-3.5.0-21-generic        linux-libc-dev
linux-image-3.5.0-22-generic        linux-sound-base
 
as well as 3.5.0-17 (but nothing in between that and -23), which I removed to make space.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/798414

Title:
  update-initramfs should produce a more helpful error when there isn't
  enough  free space

Status in “initramfs-tools” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: initramfs-tools

  When generating a new initramfs there is no check for available free
  space, subsequently its possible for update-initramfs to fail due to a
  lack of free space.  This is resulting in package installation
  failures for initramfs-tools.  For example:

  Setting up initramfs-tools (0.98.8ubuntu3) ...
  update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
  Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
  update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic

  gzip: stdout: No space left on device
  E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1
  update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
  dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

  WORKAROUND:

  Remove unused kernels using computer janitor or manually free space on
  your partition containing the /boot file system.

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