Ubuntu - Free disk space when boot is full

1. Find packages to delete.

You can safely delete all but the latest package that matches the pattern linux-image-2.6.32-[0-9][0-
9]-server. Leave linux-image-2.6.32-45-server on your system because you will need it to reboot!

$ dpkg -l linux-image*

Name Version Description

==========================================================================================================
un linux-image <none> (no description
available)
un linux-image-2.6 <none> (no description
available)
ii linux-image-2.6.32-21-server 2.6.32-21.32 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-37-server 2.6.32-37.81 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-38-server 2.6.32-38.83 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-39-server 2.6.32-39.86 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-40-server 2.6.32-40.87 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-41-server 2.6.32-41.91 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-42-server 2.6.32-42.96 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-43-server 2.6.32-43.97 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-44-server 2.6.32-44.98 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-2.6.32-45-server 2.6.32-45.104 Linux kernel image for
version 2.6.32 on x86_64
ii linux-image-server 2.6.32.45.52 Linux kernel image on
Server Equipment.

2. Identify the kernel version you are currenlty running

DON'T delete this kernel image! And if it's not the latest, don't delete the latest one either.

$ uname -r
2.6.32-45-server

3. Delete the old kernels.

Removing the old kernels is the same as removing any other package. I'm using shell
expansion for the version numbers to save typing. It will prompt you with a list of packages that
will be removed, so you can double check the list before continuing.

sudo apt-get remove linux-image-2.6.32-{21,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44}-server

4. Remove dependencies.
There are some dependencies left on the system after removing the old kernels. Fortunately,
you can easily clean these up, too.

sudo apt-get autoremove