When I first installed Rocky Linux, the boot screen offered me the choice of the version of Linux I was running, Windows Boot Manager and System Set-up (I’m running a dual-disc dual-boot arrangement so that my Windows and Linux systems are on separate discs).
I have since installed three system updates. Now the boot screen offers me the current version of Rocky Linux and the three older ones I no longer use, including a “rescue” version, together with the Windows offerings as above.
Presumably, the older versions of Linux are taking up disc space. Do I need them? If not, how can I get rid of them?
They are earlier “kernels”. Update of regular package replaces old version, but new kernels are added – if something in package update goes wrong, then one could end up without any kernel.
One can list this type of packages with: dnf rq --installonly
and even leave the latest from the list: dnf rq --installonly --latest=-1
One could remove those older packages.
Three might be the limit of how many versions are kept; older will be automatically removed as new updates get installed.
The kernel packages do not take huge amount of space.