Comment 0 for bug 1318951

My latest system upgrade failed because it can't upgrade the kernel:

  $sudo env LANGUAGE=en_US apt-get upgrade
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree
  Reading state information... Done
  You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these.
  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
   linux-signed-image-3.13.0-24-generic : Depends: linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic (= 3.13.0-24.47) but 3.13.0-24.46 is installed
  E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

When trying to install linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic manually because it can't create a backup link for the old kernel. This really doesn't surprise me, because /boot is on a fat32 filesystem ( EFI System Partition ) so it shouldn't be possible to create any links at all.

My fstab entries for boot are as follows:
  UUID=0E1E-3E58 /mnt/efi vfat defaults 0 2
  /mnt/efi/ubuntu /boot none bind 0 0

Here is the output of me trying to install the kernel manually:

  $sudo env LANGUAGE=en_US apt-get install linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree
  Reading state information... Done
  The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
    efibootmgr secureboot-db shim
  Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
  Suggested packages:
    fdutils linux-doc-3.13.0 linux-source-3.13.0 linux-tools
  Recommended packages:
    grub-pc grub-efi-amd64 grub-efi-ia32 grub lilo
  The following packages will be upgraded:
    linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic
  1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
  114 not fully installed or removed.
  Need to get 0 B/15,0 MB of archives.
  After this operation, 1.024 B disk space will be freed.
  (Reading database ... 205799 files and directories currently installed.)
  Preparing to unpack .../linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic_3.13.0-24.47_amd64.deb ...
  Done.
  Unpacking linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic (3.13.0-24.47) over (3.13.0-24.46) ...
  dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic_3.13.0-24.47_amd64.deb (--unpack):
  unable to make backup link of `./boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic' before installing new version: Operation not permitted
  dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
  Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 3.13.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic
  run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 3.13.0-24-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic_3.13.0-24.47_amd64.deb
  E : Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)