I ran out of disk space on /boot while running an update. package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic 4.4.0-42.62~14.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Joachim Fagerholm]

So this in not really a bug in the packages reported but in the default installation of Ubuntu 14.04 and earlier at least. The boot partition is just too small considering that automatic removal of old kernels is not available. It's a small repetitive nuisance to me but must be a killer for people who just uses Ubuntu and don't run uname -r or df -h /boot. The gui help opens disk tools but is useless because it can't even see the kernel files.
Having removed all 3.* kernels it still looks like this, and the problem will soon return:
/dev/sda1 236M 109M 115M 49% /boot
This is my desktop but I have witnessed the same problem on Ubuntu server installs that otherwise run year after year without trouble, with automatic updates and restarts.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic 4.4.0-42.62~14.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1-generic 4.4.19
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-38-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.21
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Oct 11 09:24:09 2016
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-04-23 (536 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20150218.1)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.17.5ubuntu5.7
 apt 1.0.1ubuntu2.14
SourcePackage: linux-lts-xenial
Title: package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-42-generic 4.4.0-42.62~14.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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