Boot loader is full - Rocky 8.10

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

Hello

At the end of the boot cycle, when the user session opens, I get an error message..

Screenshot from 2025-10-06 12-01-47
Screenshot from 2025-10-06 12-01-47552Ă—140 9.89 KB

The boot folder contains ..

(base) [admin@LOWROCKY boot]$ ls -al
total 987024
dr-xr-xr-x.  5 root root      4096  4 oct.  15:27 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 17 root root       236  4 oct.  14:17 ..
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root    202407  6 sept. 21:44 config-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root    202407 14 sept. 15:26 config-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root    202407 25 sept. 13:47 config-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
drwx------.  3 root root      4096  1 janv.  1970 efi
drwx------.  2 root root        21  7 juin  09:33 grub2
-rw-------.  1 root root 112361369 23 août   2023 initramfs-0-rescue-b4df78182cdd416591591406e3b01660.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48851546  4 oct.  15:51 initramfs-4.18.0-553.40.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48873835  4 oct.  15:56 initramfs-4.18.0-553.42.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48874484  4 oct.  16:02 initramfs-4.18.0-553.44.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877367  4 oct.  16:08 initramfs-4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877194  4 oct.  16:13 initramfs-4.18.0-553.50.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877292  4 oct.  16:19 initramfs-4.18.0-553.51.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877298  4 oct.  16:24 initramfs-4.18.0-553.53.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877305  4 oct.  16:30 initramfs-4.18.0-553.56.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877301  4 oct.  16:36 initramfs-4.18.0-553.58.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877306  4 oct.  16:41 initramfs-4.18.0-553.62.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877305  4 oct.  15:21 initramfs-4.18.0-553.63.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  48877301  4 oct.  15:27 initramfs-4.18.0-553.69.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  53431382  4 oct.  15:33 initramfs-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  31428096 10 sept. 16:52 initramfs-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64kdump.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  53432028  4 oct.  15:38 initramfs-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  31542784 19 sept. 14:15 initramfs-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64kdump.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  53428460  4 oct.  15:44 initramfs-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
-rw-------.  1 root root  31538688  1 oct.  08:48 initramfs-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64kdump.img
drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root        21 23 août   2023 loader
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root        53 10 sept. 16:12 symvers-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64.gz -> /lib/modules/4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64/symvers.gz
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root        53 19 sept. 07:26 symvers-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64.gz -> /lib/modules/4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64/symvers.gz
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root        53 30 sept. 23:16 symvers-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64.gz -> /lib/modules/4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64/symvers.gz
-rw-------.  1 root root   4509366  6 sept. 21:43 System.map-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-------.  1 root root   4509369 14 sept. 15:25 System.map-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-------.  1 root root   4509266 25 sept. 13:47 System.map-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root  10203440 23 août   2023 vmlinuz-0-rescue-b4df78182cdd416591591406e3b01660
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root  10889544  6 sept. 21:44 vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root       174  6 sept. 21:42 .vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64.hmac
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root  10885448 14 sept. 15:26 vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root       174 14 sept. 15:24 .vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64.hmac
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 root root  10885448 25 sept. 13:47 vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
-rw-r--r--.  1 root root       174 25 sept. 13:46 .vmlinuz-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64.hmac

What is the best way to clear it up please?

Thank you

2

There kernels you have installed is .76, .74 and .72 so all the initramfs for all the kernels except those are the ones you need to remove. Strange though that it didn’t do this normally when the older kernels were removed. Leave the kdump ones as they are for your existing kernels too.

You can check/verify what kernel packages you’ve got installed with:

rpm -qa | grep kernel

and ensure it lists the last three that I’ve mentioned above. If there are others installed, then you can remove them, except the last three or at least leave the active kernel .76.

3

Deleted all the initramfs that were not 76, .74 and .72, restarted the machine and all is well. It liberated 500MBs, so all should be good.

Thank you so much for your advice.

1 Like
4

For now.

The question remains why you had those older initramfs images?

Installation of kernel creates the initramfs image (and the kdump version of it).
Removal of kernel package should delete the corresponding initramfs images too.

5

You’re right. These are my current kernels.

I don’t see any orphan kernels, so I presume that the service is working properly.

(base) [admin@LOWROCKY ~]$ rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-core-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-modules-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-modules-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-core-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-tools-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-devel-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-devel-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
texlive-l3kernel-20180414-29.el8_8.noarch
kernel-tools-libs-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-modules-4.18.0-553.74.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-headers-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-core-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10.x86_64
kernel-devel-4.18.0-553.76.1.el8_10.x86_64

6

That is not quite the point.

# rpm -qf /boot/initramfs-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
kernel-core-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10.x86_64

says that package kernel-core-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10 provides (“owns”)
file /boot/initramfs-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10.x86_64.img
That is, when the kernel-core-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10 is removed,
also the file /boot/initramfs-4.18.0-553.36.1.el8_10.x86_64.img should vanish.

You, however, had multiple /boot/initramfs-*.img even though you no longer had corresponding kernel-core packages. Therefore, you had managed to remove those older kernel-core packages in a way that did not remove theeir /boot/initramfs-*.img files.

When you install next version of kernel, the currently oldest (“72”) kernel will be removed.
If things go as they should, then the initramfs-4.18.0-553.72.1.el8_10*.img will go too.
If not, then you will have “leftovers” filling your /boot in the future too.

PS. Another way to list the installed “install only” packages (like kernel):

dnf rq --installonly