initramfs error when installing / updating

Running auto-remove and clean worked for my situation.

apt-get auto-remove && apt-get clean && apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Warning: do not do this if your hard drive is encrypted unless you know exactly what you're doing

For me, it was an issue with the initramfs-tools package

I just did:

sudo apt remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt clean
sudo apt install initramfs-tools

Then I no longer received the error

@jameshibbard brought up an important point: if you use either full-drive encryption, or encrypt your initramfs output (squashfs vmlinuz pacakges in /boot) as is a new feature, please be careful as switching out versions of your initramfs-tools seem likely to make your system unbootable.

If you have no idea what that means, chances are your system is not encrypted, unless you remember selecting it during the install process. I've noticed some graphical installers are including it as an option these days, including Ubuntu if I'm remembering correctly.

Do your due diligence.

I had this error since more than a year. Now I found a solution.

cd ~
mkdir initramfs
cd initramfs
cp -r /boot .
cd boot
sudo update-initramfs -ut -b .
sudo cp -r * /boot
sudo apt-get autoremove

Explanation: /boot is on a different partition with insufficient space to perform the operation. Solution: do the update on a drive where there is sufficient space and copy back the results.

As pointed out by Harald, the problem was insufficient space on the /boot partition.

His solution didn't work for me, but led me directly to what did:

cd /boot, then ls to look at the versions of the files already there. Then rm each of the files that have multiple versions, making sure to delete all but the newest, then sudo apt update

A similar question has this solution:

sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Additionally ensure this command:

ll /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck

returns this output:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2468 Sep 18  2018 /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/fsck*

sudo apt remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt clean
sudo apt install initramfs-tools
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg --configure -a

This was the solution for me.

I had this issue on two separate machines today after doing an apt update and apt upgrade except mine was for linux-image-4.15.0-48-generic. (Ubuntu 18.04.2)

My fix was this (reproduced on both machines):

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-4.15.0-48-generic.postinst
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get update

Then reinstall the package:

sudo apt install linux-image-4.15.0-48-generic

This will set the package to manually installed and will replace the *.postinst file.

I've just had a very similar issue when I did an sudo apt autoremove and it failed attempting to install kernel files for a kernel I don't have. My uname -a shows I'm using kernel version 5.0.0-20 and running ls -al /boot shows only this and the 5.0.0-17 kernel are installed. However, apt suddenly turned up errors and attempted to install files in my /boot for old kernels including 5.0.0-15, 4.18.0-17, 4.13.0-45. Which is weird.

So I figure that somehow they've altered the logic for dkms (or something related to initramfs) and it checks some other locations to see if kernels might be installed and then does updates on those kernels and replaces missing files.

I'm not sure exactly what fixed it but I did:

sudo apt purge *5.0.0-15* *4.18.0-17* *4.13.0-45* 
#check carefully that it's not removing anything you need though, this is a hammer to crack a nut

ls -al /lib/modules 
# which revealed lots of old module folders that I removed with ...
sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/4.* 
# and similarly for the 5.0.0-15 modules

Then I did:

ls -al /usr/src/ 
# which again showed old source trees that I pruned with
sudo rm -rf sudo rm -rf /usr/src/linux-headers-4.*

Then I did:

locate -e 4.13.0 
# which found old kernel files in
ls -al /var/lib/initramfs-tools/ 
# so I removed with
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/initramfs-tools/4*

I have problems with a very tight /boot folder for historical reasons and so removed old kernel files with:

sudo rm -i /boot/**4* 
# and similar for all but my current and next oldest kernels
# -i is interactive mode so you have to answer 'y' to remove
# that's a really useful safety check, 'sudo rm' is a dangerous tool!

Finally I ran:

sudo apt -f install

Which finished as expected and returned the system to the expected state without attempting to install extraneous kernels. I did not test as I went along so can not guarantee which part fixed it, but it was not harmful to clear those old files out AFAICT.

Aside, checking my /var/log/apt/history.log file, this appears to be the beginning of this particular error:

Start-Date: 2019-07-01  17:59:10
Commandline: /usr/bin/unattended-upgrade
Upgrade: linux-tools-common:amd64 (4.15.0-52.56, 4.15.0-54.58)
End-Date: 2019-07-01  17:59:16

Start-Date: 2019-07-01  17:59:22
Commandline: /usr/bin/unattended-upgrade
Install: linux-image-5.0.0-20-generic:amd64 (5.0.0-20.21~18.04.1, automatic), linux-modules-extra-5.0.0-20-generic:amd64 (5.0.0-20.21~18.04.1, automatic), linux-modules-5.0.0-20-generic:amd64 (5.0.0-20.21~18.04.1, automatic)
Upgrade: linux-image-generic-hwe-18.04-edge:amd64 (5.0.0.17.73, 5.0.0.20.76), linux-image-extra-virtual-hwe-18.04-edge:amd64 (5.0.0.17.73, 5.0.0.20.76)
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
End-Date: 2019-07-01  18:00:10

But this may be a false flag as for me the limited /boot space can be the cause of the error code (1).

Try purging unused kernels. If problem persists then remove all 'initrd' images with

sudo rm /boot/initrd.img*

then generate new 'initrd' images for all current existing kernels

sudo update-initramfs -c -k all

This was happening to me. Ended up being that /boot was full.

Check boot partition space with df -h

Then free up some space with: How do I free up more space in /boot?