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Am currently running POP_OS 20.04 (LTS). When I open the terminal and run the command,

dpkg --list | grep linux-image

it returns a list of apparently installed images, including my current (6.0.12) and most recent (5.17.5), about nine images from version set 5.0 and six from version set 5.3 ...plus one from 4.18 and one from 5.4. console shows outdated images

Previously I have used synaptic to remove older kernels from the system, but for some reason when I search for linux-image (and sort installed images to the top) only my current and most recent are showing as installed ~ the box is green. These older 5.0/5.3 images don't show in the search results. old images do not appear in synaptic

Stacer uninstaller also cannot find them. stacer cannot find old images

Can anyone tell me why these images show in the console but not synaptic? What are they doing on the system and are they even really on the system? If they are indeed taking up space on my home partition how can I safely remove them?

One consideration comes to mind is this system started out at POP_OS version 18.10 and has been upgraded with each release up to 20.04 (LTS) -- although not sure if that has anything to do with it. Another thought is maybe this has something to do with the recovery partition, but I have no idea how or why it would need so many versions of the kernel, or why they would accumulate in such untidy manner.

frogsbottom
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    While I can't speak to synaptic (didn't even know it still existed), you can remove them at the command line. `sudo apt purge `. – RonJohn Mar 27 '23 at 23:52
  • This is just a side question, but does anyone know if the Recovery Partition in POP_OS contains a kernel? And would it ever show up in queries such as the aforementioned grep list? I don't actually know how linux recovery partitions work (or how they're structured). – frogsbottom Mar 29 '23 at 18:09

2 Answers2

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The rc marker at the start of each line indicates that the packages are removed, but configured — i.e. all their contents have been removed, apart from configuration files. Packages in this state don’t appear in Synaptic by default.

You can remove them with sudo dpkg --purge or sudo apt purge, listing the packages you want to remove. sudo apt autoremove --purge should purge them automatically without having to list them.

Stephen Kitt
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  • That `rc` markers indicate leftover config files is helpful to know. Thank you. On this system `sudo apt autoremove --purge` didn't remove these image rc entries (for reasons unknown) as it's part of my monthly maintenance routine. But was able to manually remove each one using `sudo apt purge` [image version]. This didn't free up any space on the drive but did wonders for my OCD. – frogsbottom Mar 29 '23 at 18:17
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Intro:

Like yourself and all other Debian & derivative users, I needed a way to prune my old Kernels. However, the ones I found on the 'net were almost perfect- they deleted all Kernels except the current ones- but unfortunately they would also remove the LATEST version that I wanted to upgrade to.

Solution:

The below one-liner-there may be more elegant ways to write it- will remove all Kernels except for both the CURRENT and the LATEST Kernels. I eat my own dog food and can say it's tested and known to work on my own inventory of Ubuntu 22.04 hosts:

Test (won't apply changes):

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2 | head -n -2 | awk '{print $1}' | xargs sudo apt-get purge

Apply Changes (-y to the apt-get purge command above):

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2 | head -n -2 | awk '{print $1}' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

How it Works:

Part 1: List all kernels & Headers EXCLUDING (grep -V) the current one:

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]'

Part 2: Only print the column with the Kernels & headers from the dpkg --list output

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}'

Part 3: Next we sort the list by the 2nd column in ascending numerical order:

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2

Part 4: Print list EXCLUDING the last (2) lines which are the Kernel & header for the LATEST Kernel version:

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2 | head -n -2

Part 5: After sorting on the 2nd column we print just the Kernel & header package names:

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2 | head -n -2 | awk '{print $1}'

Part 6: Finally, after we've built the list which excludes both the CUURRENT and LATEST Kernel versions, we feed it to xargs which chews through each line with apt-get -y purge

dpkg --list | grep -v $(uname -r) | grep -E 'linux-image-[0-9]|linux-headers-[0-9]' | awk '{print $2" "$3}' | sort -k2,2 | head -n -2 | awk '{print $1}' | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

Conclusion:

There might be more elegant & tighter ways of writing the above, but it does the business. Anyway, hope this saves you- and others- some time-

F1Linux
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