This answer is obsolete for modern Ubuntu releases
Sometimes, a specific variant of the linux-image is slimmed down by removing the less common kernel modules (drivers). In this case, the linux-image-extra package simply contains all of the «extra» kernel modules which were left out.
- Officially, this only happens for the -virtual image; the most common hypervisors (Virtualbox, VMWare, Xen, KVM) emulate a well-defined and restricted set of hardware, so removing unnecessary drivers which increase the size of the kernel/initrd is a good idea. You can always get them back by installing the extras package.
- The kernel team also appears to have adopted this method for some of the mainline-PPA -generic kernels; the reasoning and solution remain the same — if it looks like the base kernel image is missing a module you need, install extras.
- As far as I know, the above approach has not been taken for the Quantal kernels — only -virtual is affected as usual.
Solution 2
In previous Ubuntu versions, the linux-image-extras was optional, tailored for virtual machines / servers.
As of Ubuntu 14.04, linux-image is a slim package (for virtual machines), and linux-image-extras now contains many drivers required for desktops.
In particular, usb-hid (keyboard support), is only present once you install the linux-image-extras package. A common mishap, which results in TTY1 hanging on boot, and unable to login using a keyboard.
Mainline kernels are shipped using a single linux-image package, such as linux-image-3.19.0-031900rc1-generic_3.19.0-031900rc1.201412210135_amd64.deb
what are linux-image-extra and linux-image-generic? [duplicate]
Every time I use sudo apt-get upgrade , I get errors with the linux-image-extra and linux-image-generic . I am new to Ubuntu so I would like to know if these «image» files are the same as in Windows? What is the problem with my system if these image files can not be upgraded? Output from df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 291G 16G 261G 6% / none 4,0K 0 4,0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup udev 1,4G 4,0K 1,4G 1% /dev tmpfs 288M 1,2M 287M 1% /run none 5,0M 0 5,0M 0% /run/lock none 1,5G 216K 1,5G 1% /run/shm none 100M 64K 100M 1% /run/user /dev/sda1 236M 208M 16M 94% /boot /home/mama/.Private 291G 16G 261G 6% /home/mama the error message seems to be too long to upload here. part of it would be gzip: stdout: No space left on device E: mkinitramfs failure cpio 141 gzip 1 update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-52-generic with 1. run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1 Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-3.13.0-52-generic.postinst line 1025. dpkg: error processing package linux-image-3.13.0-52-generic(—configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
The Windows NT kernel is used in all Windows NT systems (including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10). Windows does not use the Linux kernel, so linux-image-extra and linux-image-generic are not included in Windows.
1 Answer 1
Although you have to include more details into your question, I will try and guess what your problem is:
Your problem was caused by something different, but I leave this answer as it could eventually help others who might read this post.
I assume you run sudo apt-get upgrade and it tells you it did not install/upgrade the packages linux-image-extra and linux-image-generic .
First of all, those packages are representing the latest kernel available for your system (in easy words). By installing/upgrading them, you install a new kernel version which will be used after the next reboot.
As these kernel updates are major updates and usually need additional dependencies etc. to be taken care of, the normal apt-get upgrade cannot handle them. You need the advanced upgrade command sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to proceed. This should do the kernel update and the warning about not-upgraded packages should disappear.
In your case the error was caused by the lack of enough free space in your /boot partition, which is the place where new kernels get installed. Therefore your question was marked as duplicate of How do I free up more space in /boot?, because you will find detailed answers there on how to solve your problem.
What is the linux-image-extra package for and do I need it?
Sometimes, a specific variant of the linux-image is slimmed down by removing the less common kernel modules (drivers). In this case, the linux-image-extra package simply contains all of the «extra» kernel modules which were left out.
- Officially, this only happens for the -virtual image; the most common hypervisors (Virtualbox, VMWare, Xen, KVM) emulate a well-defined and restricted set of hardware, so removing unnecessary drivers which increase the size of the kernel/initrd is a good idea. You can always get them back by installing the extras package.
- The kernel team also appears to have adopted this method for some of the mainline-PPA -generic kernels; the reasoning and solution remain the same — if it looks like the base kernel image is missing a module you need, install extras.
- As far as I know, the above approach has not been taken for the Quantal kernels — only -virtual is affected as usual.
Solution 2:
In previous Ubuntu versions, the linux-image-extras was optional, tailored for virtual machines / servers.
As of Ubuntu 14.04, linux-image is a slim package (for virtual machines), and linux-image-extras now contains many drivers required for desktops.
In particular, usb-hid (keyboard support), is only present once you install the linux-image-extras package. A common mishap, which results in TTY1 hanging on boot, and unable to login using a keyboard.
Mainline kernels are shipped using a single linux-image package, such as linux-image-3.19.0-031900rc1-generic_3.19.0-031900rc1.201412210135_amd64.deb
What is the linux-image-extra package for and do I need it?
Sometimes, a specific variant of the linux-image is slimmed down by removing the less common kernel modules (drivers). In this case, the linux-image-extra package simply contains all of the «extra» kernel modules which were left out.
- Officially, this only happens for the -virtual image; the most common hypervisors (Virtualbox, VMWare, Xen, KVM) emulate a well-defined and restricted set of hardware, so removing unnecessary drivers which increase the size of the kernel/initrd is a good idea. You can always get them back by installing the extras package.
- The kernel team also appears to have adopted this method for some of the mainline-PPA -generic kernels; the reasoning and solution remain the same — if it looks like the base kernel image is missing a module you need, install extras.
- As far as I know, the above approach has not been taken for the Quantal kernels — only -virtual is affected as usual.
In previous Ubuntu versions, the linux-image-extras was optional, tailored for virtual machines / servers.
As of Ubuntu 14.04, linux-image is a slim package (for virtual machines), and linux-image-extras now contains many drivers required for desktops.
In particular, usb-hid (keyboard support), is only present once you install the linux-image-extras package. A common mishap, which results in TTY1 hanging on boot, and unable to login using a keyboard.
Mainline kernels are shipped using a single linux-image package, such as linux-image-3.19.0-031900rc1-generic_3.19.0-031900rc1.201412210135_amd64.deb