How to clean up Ubuntu

how-to-clean-up-ubuntu.md

How To Clean Up Ubuntu

Some simple ways to free up space on Ubuntu

Remove Unnecessary Packages and Dependencies

apt-get autoremove

Clean Apt Cache

Check the amount of apt-cache on your system

du -sh /var/cache/apt

Remove all apt-cache from your system

apt-get clean

Uninstall Pakcages You Never Use

Remove specific packages

apt-get remove package-1 package-2

Remove packages and dependencies that are no longer required

apt-get autoremove

Remove Old Kernels

List your current version of linux kernel

umame -sr

Check how many linux kernels versions are installed

dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}' | wc -l

Check which linux kernels versions are installed

dpkg -l | grep linux-image | awk '{print$2}'

Find the linux image number and set the LINUXIMAGE, for example linux-image-3.13.0

LINUXIMAGE=linux-image-3.13.0

Find the linux image extra number and set the LINUXIMAGEEXTRA, for example linux-image-extra-3.13.0

LINUXIMAGEEXTRA=linux-image-extra-3.13.0

Find the lowest version number and set the STARTNUM, for example 50

STARTNUM=50

Find the version number before the current version and set the ENDNUM, for example 100

ENDNUM=100

Automagically delete all the old kernel versions

for i in $(seq $STARTNUM $ENDNUM); do apt remove --purge $LINUXIMAGE-$i-generic -y; done
for i in $(seq $STARTNUM $ENDNUM); do apt remove --purge $LINUXIMAGEEXTRA-$i-generic -y; done

Greetings.
There is a typo in the section "Remove Old Kernels". The first command should read uname -sr.

The current kernel version that I am using is: Linux 6.5.0-26-generic

I have 21 kernel versions installed, Here's a list of them:

• linux-image-5.15.0-100-generic
• linux-image-5.15.0-101-generic
• linux-image-5.15.0-91-generic
• linux-image-5.15.0-92-generic
• linux-image-5.15.0-94-generic
• linux-image-5.15.0-97-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-26-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-34-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-35-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-36-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-37-generic
• linux-image-6.2.0-39-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-14-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-15-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-17-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-18-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-21-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-25-generic
• linux-image-6.5.0-26-generic
• linux-image-generic
• linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04

Please can you help me decide on the rest of the commands above. I am not that profecient with linux kernels

Please can you help me decide on the rest of the commands above. I am not that profecient with linux kernels

Hello. Have you tried: sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

This is usually enough.

Please can you help me decide on the rest of the commands above. I am not that profecient with linux kernels

Hello. Have you tried: sudo apt-get autoremove --purge

This is usually enough.

Yes I regularly do this and everything is fine.

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Except that I a bit uncomfortable with the number of kernel images that I have. But I don't want to risk my os stability before consulting with the community about the right way to do it for my specific case.

• linux-image-generic
• linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04

Leave those last two alone and you can safely get rid of all the others.

• linux-image-generic
• linux-image-generic-hwe-22.04

Leave those last two alone and you can safely get rid of all the others.

Thank you so much for your feedback

Thanks for share! Repkace umame -sr by uname -sr.