Re: Upgrade error that I don't know how to solve

[Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net>]

On 8/7/23 08:26, rob stone wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> I think that I have solved this.
> I found an unused package that I could purge.
> aptitude fetched the linux-image again, purged and then unpacked,
> generated the boot image, etc., and it now appears everything is back
> on track.
> Disk space on the root partition is abysmal. I'll try a re-boot
> tomorrow. Time for bed.
>
> Regards,
> Rob
> >
> On Mon, 2023-08-07 at 23:54 +1000, rob stone wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I was running an aptitude safe-upgrade and the following appeared
> > during the dpkg phase:-
> >
> > Preparing to unpack .../58-linux-image-amd64_6.4.4-2_amd64.deb ...
> > Unpacking linux-image-amd64 (6.4.4-2) over (6.4.4-1) ...
> > Preparing to unpack .../59-linux-image-6.4.0-1-amd64_6.4.4-
> > 2_amd64.deb
> > ...
> > Unpacking linux-image-6.4.0-1-amd64 (6.4.4-2) over (6.4.4-1) ...
> > dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-RAGhR8/59-linux-
> > image-6.4.0-1-amd64_6.4.4-2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
> >   cannot copy extracted data for './lib/modules/6.4.0-1-
> > amd64/kernel/sound/pci/oxygen/snd-oxygen-lib.ko' to
> > '/lib/modules/6.4.0-1-amd64/kernel/sound/pci/oxygen/snd-oxygen-
> > lib.ko.dpkg-new': failed to write (No space left on device)
> > I: /vmlinuz is now a symlink to boot/vmlinuz-6.3.0-1-amd64
> > I: /initrd.img is now a symlink to boot/initrd.img-6.3.0-1-amd64
> > Preparing to unpack .../60-linux-libc-dev_6.4.4-2_amd64.deb ...
> > Unpacking linux-libc-dev:amd64 (6.4.4-2) over (6.4.4-1) ...
> > Preparing to unpack .../61-linux-perf_6.4.4-2_amd64.deb ...
> >
> > Then at the end the following messages appeared.
> >
> > dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-amd64:
> >   linux-image-amd64 depends on linux-image-6.4.0-1-amd64 (= 6.4.4-2);
> > however:
> >    Version of linux-image-6.4.0-1-amd64 on system is 6.4.4-1. 
> >
> > dpkg: error processing package linux-image-amd64 (--configure):
> >   dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
> >
> > So I tried running dpkg --configure -a
> >
> > and the message above was repeated.
> >
> > I know that I am short of disk space on the root partition in part
> > caused by multiple versions of large libraries that can't be flagged
> > as
> > obsolete as other packages have them as dependencies.
> >
> > Could somebody more knowledgeable than myself give some hints on how
> > to
> > solve this.

You need more storage available during the upgrade on whatever device has the /lib directory. Purging a package, as you found, may help, but is only a temporary mitigation. You probably need to increase free storage gong forward, either by purging more (maybe much more) or migrating to a larger device. Running nearly full negatively affects performance and, in the case of SSDs, service life.

It would help if you posted information about the distribution of storage, for example, the output of

df -h

This kind of question is not peculiar to laptops, and the debian-user mailing list probably would be a better place to post it, if only because that is a more active list.

Regards,
Tom Dial
 

> > Thanks,
> > Rob