Here's another incomplete purge of kernel files, which did not cause a crash (different file this time, modules.seriomap). This installation was on a hard disk, in a usb 2.0 enclosure. Intrepid patched to date March 10, 2010 showed the manual kernel cleanup problem. Same file, modules.seriomap was left. No proprietary drivers in use. $ uname -a Linux laptop 2.6.27-17-generic #1 SMP Wed Jan 27 23:14:44 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux sudo apt-get purge `apt-cache pkgnames |fgrep 27-15` [sudo] password for xxx: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package linux-headers-lbm-2.6.27-15-server is not installed, so not removed Package linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-15-generic is not installed, so not removed Package linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-15-server is not installed, so not removed Package linux-image-2.6.27-15-virtual is not installed, so not removed Package linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-15-server is not installed, so not removed Package linux-headers-lbm-2.6.27-15-generic is not installed, so not removed Package linux-headers-2.6.27-15-server is not installed, so not removed Package linux-image-2.6.27-15-server is not installed, so not removed The following packages will be REMOVED: linux-headers-2.6.27-15* linux-headers-2.6.27-15-generic* linux-image-2.6.27-15-generic* linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-15-generic* 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 150MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... 156348 files and directories currently installed.) Removing linux-headers-2.6.27-15-generic ... Removing linux-headers-2.6.27-15 ... Removing linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-15-generic ... update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-15-generic Purging configuration files for linux-restricted-modules-2.6.27-15-generic ... Removing linux-image-2.6.27-15-generic ... Examining /etc/kernel/prerm.d. run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/prerm.d/dkms run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/prerm.d/last-good-boot Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... found but preserving previous setting: splashimage=/boot/grub/digging.xpm.gz Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-17-generic Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-16-generic Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done Purging configuration files for linux-image-2.6.27-15-generic ... Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... found but preserving previous setting: splashimage=/boot/grub/digging.xpm.gz Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-17-generic Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-16-generic Found kernel: /boot/memtest86+.bin Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done rmdir: failed to remove `/lib/modules/2.6.27-15-generic': Directory not empty dpkg - warning: while removing linux-image-2.6.27-15-generic, directory `/lib/modules/2.6.27-15-generic' not empty so not removed. $ ls /lib/modules 2.6.27-15-generic 2.6.27-16-generic 2.6.27-17-generic $ ls /lib/modules/*15* modules.seriomap $ locate modules.seriomap /lib/modules/2.6.27-15-generic/modules.seriomap /lib/modules/2.6.27-16-generic/modules.seriomap /lib/modules/2.6.27-17-generic/modules.seriomap $ cat /lib/modules/*15*/m* # serio module type extra id proto touchwin 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x33 touchright 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x32 penmount 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x31 mtouch 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x30 inexio 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x37 gunze 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1c touchit213 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x37 elo 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x29 fujitsu_ts 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x35 serio_raw 0x01 0xff 0xff 0xff vsxxxaa 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x08 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x01 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x02 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x03 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x04 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x05 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x06 sermouse 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x07 psmouse 0x01 0xff 0xff 0xff psmouse 0x05 0xff 0xff 0xff xtkbd 0x00 0xff 0xff 0xff sunkbd 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x10 sunkbd 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x00 stowaway 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x20 newtonkbd 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1f lkkbd 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x28 zhenhua 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x36 warrior 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x18 twidjoy 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x24 stinger 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1e spaceorb 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x19 spaceball 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1b magellan 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1a iforce 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x1d i2c-taos-evm 0x02 0xff 0xff 0x34