Comments on: Remove Old Kernels in Ubuntu

By: d4

d4 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:24:21 +0000

And here is on small script to only keep the currently running kernel and the two most recent ones: dpkg -l | grep ^ii | grep "linux-image-[0-9]" | awk -F' ' '{ print $2 }' | grep -v `uname -r` | sed '$d' | sed '$d' | sed 's/linux-image//' | xargs -i echo "linux-image{} linux-headers{}" | xargs sudo aptitude purge

By: How to: Removing old kernels in Ubuntu « Azare's Blog

How to: Removing old kernels in Ubuntu « Azare's Blog — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:54:09 +0000

[...] i want to remove the oldest. For the past few rounds of cleanups, I have used the method found in Tux Tweaks . Just need to copy and paste the commands from that [...]

By: techjacker

techjacker — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:45:20 +0000

brilliant guide thanks very much!

if anyone gets an error about grub when they remove an image eg:
The link /vmlinuz.old is a damaged link
Removing symbolic link vmlinuz.old
you may need to re-run your boot loader[grub]

then make sure you run this command before you restart!
sudo update-grub

By: Hans Lambermont

Hans Lambermont — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:37:35 +0000

This one-liner also removes the headers of the current running kernel: linux-headers-2.6.32-24 for uname -r = 2.6.32-24-generic-pae Adding 's/-[^0-9].*//' to the line fixes this : dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed 's/-[^0-9].*//';"s/$.*$-$[^0-9]\+$/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* $[^ ]*$.*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

By: Linerd

Linerd — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:25:05 +0000

Yep, that's the same one that Zach posted above. It removes all but the most recent kernel (I think. I'm not sure if avoids removing the currently running kernel, or if it avoids removing the latest).

By: Dawie Joubert

Dawie Joubert — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:45:27 +0000

I found this script on the net some time ago, works wonders: [term]dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/$.*$-$[^0-9]\+$/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* $[^ ]*$.*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge[/term]

By: Thahir

Thahir — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:45:20 +0000

great....

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:30:36 +0000

Awesome, Zach! Thanks! Keep showin' us how it's done!

By: Rohit

Rohit — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:36:45 +0000

wowwww.its really awesome and seems like magic....!

Thanks for sharing Dude

Thanks for great post, keep it up

By: Barb

Barb — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:40:52 +0000

Thanks Zach! Worked like magic and no pain and suffering on the user end!

Cheers,
Barb