Remove old Kernels?

[thebean]

Hey all, if there were steps I should take to remove older kernel versions? I'd hate to keep them from piling up.

I guess I should first be asking if it's safe to remove the old kernel?

Right now I just edit /etc/grub.conf and remove the boot option for the previous kernel. Anything else I can do?

Thanks

TheBean

[Jman]

If you can boot from the new one, it should be safe. Keeping the old one leaves it for backup if something should go wrong.

To remove it run as root rpm -e kernel-version in a terminal (Main Menu > System Tools > Terminal) where version is the full release number. Enter rpm -q kernel to get the installed kernels.

[crackers]

Using the rpm command will also clean up your grub.conf, by the way...

[thebean]

thanks!

[ashmew2]

Such an old thread but still works like a charm...Thank You :)

[pixaroglets]

damn right! :)

[Diomedea]

One observation: those who have the nvidia driver installed have to first remove the kmod package for the kernel version they want to eliminate. That can be done with Add/Remove Software.

[JuanC]

One observation: those who have the nvidia driver installed have to first remove the kmod package for the kernel version they want to eliminate. That can be done with Add/Remove Software.
You can do better by using yum:
yum remove kernel-version it will also remove dependencies like nvidia kmods

[smurffit]

Does someone has an idea how to remove self-compiled kernel which were made with make && make_modules && make install?

[marko]

Another good way is to have yum remove the oldest Nth kernel whenever the next kernel is installed by editing the /etc/yum.conf file
to put in (3 kernels retained for an example)

installonlyn = 3

or you can edit the file in
/etc/yum/pluginconf.d/installonlyn.conf

to set the number you want.

[sambo]

I had previously updated from FC10 to FC11. Now I'm wanting to continue updating to newer kernels but attempts to remove old kernels are unsucessful due to failed depedencies as yum remove and rpm -e both fail with a diagnostic message.

rpm -e kernel-2.6.30.9-102.fc11.x86_64
error: Failed dependencies:
kernel-uname-r = 2.6.27.29-170.2.78.fc10.x86_64 is needed by (installed) kmod-nvidia-2.6.27.29-170.2.78.fc10.x86_64-180.60-1.fc10.1.x86_64
kernel-uname-r = 2.6.27.30-170.2.82.fc10.x86_64 is needed by (installed) kmod-nvidia-2.6.27.30-170.2.82.fc10.x86_64-180.60-1.fc10.3.x86_64

What do I need to do in order to successfully remove the old kernel?

[forkbomb]

I had previously updated from FC10 to FC11.[...]
What do I need to do in order to successfully remove the old kernel?If that means you're now running F11, the best course of action would be to just update to a supported version....
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/LifeCycle/EOL

[GeekGirl1]

Thanks. This old thread is still working for Fedora 15.

To see what you have:
yum info kernel

Then, remove the old ones you don't want. Version is the number reported by yum info kernel, such as kernel-2.6.38.6:
sudo yum remove kernel-version

The uninstall process did remove a dependency on kmod-nVidia, as well as update /boot/grub.conf.

[PiElle]

Very useful! Thank You! :)

[PiElle]

If you run a Kernel PAE, don't forget:
yum info kernel-PAE
and
sudo yum remove kernel-PAE-version

I wrote this, because having now installed a kernel PAE I couldn't find any voice, until I typed:
rpm -qa *\kernel\*|sort :doh:
all's well that ends well ... :)

[scaryAardvark]

I always use

$ package-cleanup --oldkernels --count 1

[leosubhadeep]

Old thread, but became very useful. Thanks. :)