initramfs-tools

When /boot is full, repeated mkinitramfs runs can fill up /

Bug #1597661 reported by Dan Watkins on 2016-06-30

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #1713004: Temporary files left under /var/tmp by mkinitramfs. Edit Remove

This bug affects 8 people

	Status	Importance	Assigned to
One Hundred Papercuts	Confirmed	High	Unassigned
initramfs-tools	Confirmed	Undecided	Unassigned
initramfs-tools (Debian)	Fix Released	Unknown	debbugs #814345
initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)	Confirmed	High	Unassigned

Bug Description

My /boot partition filled up so when I (or unattended upgrades) next attempted to install a kernel, it failed. On failure, mkinitramfs leaves a temporary directory in /var/tmp.

If you (or unattended upgrades) do this enough times, you can end up with substantial, non-obvious disk usage.

(I believe that this is fixed in Debian: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814345)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: initramfs-tools 0.122ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-28.47-generic 4.4.13
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-28-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jun 30 09:12:45 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-07-30 (700 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.3)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: initramfs-tools
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2016-03-07 (114 days ago)

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Dan Watkins (oddbloke) wrote on 2016-06-30:

Dependencies.txt Edit (2.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
JournalErrors.txt Edit (59.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcEnviron.txt Edit (126 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater) on 2016-06-30

Changed in initramfs-tools (Debian):
status:	Unknown → Fix Released

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2016-08-03:

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Confirmed

Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e) on 2016-08-26

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → High
Changed in initramfs-tools:
status:	New → Confirmed
Changed in hundredpapercuts:
status:	New → Confirmed
importance:	Undecided → High

Revision history for this message

spike speigel (frail-knight) wrote on 2017-07-01:

Related to bug 1515513

Revision history for this message

Scott Emmons (lscotte) wrote on 2017-09-01:

The commit for this in upstream Debian (0.123 version of initramfs-tools) is here: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/kernel/initramfs-tools.git/commit/?id=ac6d31fc2c707b72ff8af9944c9b4f8af303a6a3 - I would be happy to make a patch for this commit to xenial (zesty and later has 0.125+, so should already include the fix).