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

[s frahm]

Yes sir (jarnos), thank you. This same recurring Bug #1460396 by many
names. Is there a patch like this that also works on 16.04 Lubuntu LTS
?? Every time I have researched it over the years, there are variations
on this theme. This should be a core functionality of each LTS package
upon launch at minimum. What I am trying to get at, are the
possibilities of even more helpful suggestions and options upon install,
such as how large would you like /root to be? (say 1-5 GB) and how many
old kernel versions would you like to keep (2-3 minimum as a safe
default) Yes, pruning old kernels automagically could be dangerous, but
more so is crashing 1/2 completed upgrades IMHO. Thanks to all!

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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:
  Confirmed
Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress

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 (not in repositories for
  14.04 or later) or manually free space on your partition containing
  the /boot file system.

  See instructions here
  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RemoveOldKernels

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