clear_partitions doesn't clear /boot

[Jarno Suni]

Steps to reproduce: use an installation media to upgrade from 15.10 to 16.04.

Expected result: no kernels of older release remain in /boot

Actual results:

Illustrated in shell:

$ ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-*
-rw------- 1 root root 6808720 helmi 26 05:17 /boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-30-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 6808528 maali 11 02:11 /boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-34-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 6829104 maali 16 02:45 /boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-35-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7013984 huhti 28 16:03 /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-21-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 7015440 touko 13 02:55 /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-22-generic
$ linux-version list
4.2.0-30-generic
4.2.0-34-generic
4.2.0-35-generic
4.4.0-21-generic
4.4.0-22-generic
$ dpkg -l linux-image-4'*' |grep .
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-============================-============-============-======================================================
ii linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic 4.4.0-21.37 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic 4.4.0-22.40 amd64 Linux kernel image for version 4.4.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

Workaround; How to remove the kernels: http://askubuntu.com/q/779031/21005
linux-purge from https://launchpad.net/linux-purge with --clear-boot option should work, too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-22.40-generic 4.4.8
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Fri May 27 11:31:51 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-28 (28 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
SourcePackage: dpkg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

This seems to be an old issue: http://askubuntu.com/questions/153185/how-to-remove-kernels-from-previous-release

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Due to this bug, purge-old-kernels script in byobu and (for older releases) in bikeshed fails to remove the kernels of the older release.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

How did you go about upgrading to Xenial? This indicates that it was a fresh installation.

InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-28 (28 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Then why there are old kernels in /boot, if it is fresh install? I used Installation media that was in an USB key drive to save me from downloading the release each time for various computers I want to install/upgrade 16.04 to. There was 15.10 installed in the hard disk, and my intent was to upgrade to 16.04 so that packages that I had installed manually would remain (but get updated) and my other customizations would be there.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

So it sounds like you choose the upgrade option in ubiquity (the Live CD installer) is that correct?

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Yes, IIRC.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Could you add the file /var/log/installer/syslog to this bug report?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

In the attached ubiquity upgrade log file we can see the following:

Apr 28 12:59:19 xubuntu kernel: [ 821.820380] EXT4-fs (sda2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Apr 28 12:59:19 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing bin from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:19 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing dev from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:20 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing etc from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing lib from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing lib64 from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing proc from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing sbin from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing sys from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing usr/bin from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing usr/games from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:21 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing usr/include from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:23 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing usr/lib from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:23 xubuntu clear_partitions: Removing usr/sbin from / (/dev/sda2).
Apr 28 12:59:26 xubuntu ubiquity: WARNING: Unknown X keysym "permille"

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

This was probably intentional since you wouldn't want to delete the kernels belonging to other installs in a multi boot system with a single common /boot.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Phillip Susi, alternatively the kernels may be broken, see Bug #690911

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

While I admit that this is a problem, I don't believe many people use this feature of ubiquity but I'm happy to proved wrong. I have a local cache of all open ubiquity bug reports of which there are about 3000, of those 3000 only 180 include the string "clear_partitions: Removing" so I'm inclined to think not many people use ubiquity to upgrade.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

It is handy, if you have many computers to upgrade, and slow or expensive internet use.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The option to upgrade using ubiquity has been removed so this is no longer an issue.

ubiquity (18.04.6) bionic; urgency=medium

  [ Steve Langasek ]
  * If we are running ubiquity-dm on VT1, we must conflict with
    <email address hidden> and not rely on some other display manager to do
    this for us.

  [ Brian Murray ]
  * Drop the option to upgrade from an old release using ubiquity as it is
    crashing and leaves users in a broken state. (LP: #1756862)