Kernel upgrade fails due to insufficient space on boot partition.

This document (7018350) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Service Pack 4 (SLED 10 SP4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 4 (SLED 11 SP4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 4 (SLES 10 SP4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 4 (SLES 11 SP4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)

Situation

Error occurs during OS patching and, as a result, the latest kernel is not installed. Here's an example of an error returned while updating a SLES 12 SP1 system configured with a 75MB /boot partition:

Installation of kernel-default-3.12.67-60.64.18.1 failed:
Error: Subprocess failed. Error: RPM failed: installing package kernel-default-3.12.67-60.64.18.1.x86_64 needs 17MB on /boot filesystem

Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i] (a):

Resolution

Move the vmlinux, vmlinuz, and initrd images out of the /boot directory before starting the installation:

hostname:~ # mkdir /tmp/boot
hostname:~ # cd /boot
hostname:/boot # mv vmlinu* initrd* /tmp/boot
hostname:/boot # zypper patch

If patching completes successfully, run an ls on /boot to verify the new vmlinuz and initrd images exist before attempting a reboot:

hostname:/boot # ls

Cause

The /boot filesystem was originally set up with less space than is needed to perform the kernel upgrade.

Additional Information

Since the kernel and initrd images are only loaded into memory during the GRUB phase of system boot, moving these files out of /boot once the system is running will not impact the live system.

Disclaimer

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