Statement

Normally the Apt or synaptics and other package handlers autoremove packages that are upgraded to a newer version or considered to be no longer needed. But, this mechanism is not followed to remove older kernels after a new one is installed. So, if you have had the same Ubuntu installation for a while and have just been upgrading to newer releases, you may have noticed that a lot of older kernel versions are piling up in your grub menu and on your system. The /boot partition is getting piled up and if you have exclusively made a separate partition for it, you start getting warning messages.

The older kernels are deliberately not removed by the system so that the user can roll back to the previously used good kernel ( working condition) if in case the new version fails to load after the reboot. So, I would recommend to use the newest kernel for a couple of weeks, and if everything goes well, remove the older kernels leaving just one of the old kernels. (more…)