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Kernel upgrade with low space results in phone not booting

What problem did you encounter

When low on space in /boot, a failed initramfs generation results in the boot script pointing to the broken kernel.

What is the actual behaviour?

  1. Install kernel
  2. Fail to install
  3. Boot script points to the broken version

What is the expected behaviour?

  1. Boot script points to some good version

How to reproduce

Starting with:

ls /boot/vmlinuz-* | cat
/boot/vmlinuz-5.19.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.13-librem5-gd7c9aec13bf6

Trigger with:

sudo truncate -s 32M /boot/fill # adjust size until problem seen. If the kernel installs, increase. If it fails before initramfs generation, decrease.
sudo apt install linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5

Result (notice missing initrd):

$ grep -a librem5 /boot/boot.scr 
   setenv fk_kvers '6.2.0-1-librem5'
purism@pureos:~$ ls /boot/initrd.* | cat
/boot/initrd.img-5.19.0-1-librem5
/boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-1-librem5
/boot/initrd.img-6.1.0-1-librem5
/boot/initrd.img-6.1.13-librem5-gd7c9aec13bf6
purism@pureos:~$ ls /boot/vmlinuz-* | cat
/boot/vmlinuz-5.19.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-1-librem5
/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.13-librem5-gd7c9aec13bf6
/boot/vmlinuz-6.2.0-1-librem5

Log:

Unpacking linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5 (6.2.2pureos1) ...
Setting up linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5 (6.2.2pureos1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.2.0-1-librem5
pigz: abort: write error on <stdout> (No space left on device)
E: mkinitramfs failure pigz 28
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.2.0-1-librem5 with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
Using DTB: freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb
Installing /usr/lib/linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb into /boot/dtbs/6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb
Installing new imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb.
Installing /usr/lib/linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb into /boot/dtbs/6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb
Taking backup of imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb.
Installing new imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb.
flash-kernel: deferring update (trigger activated)
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5 (--configure):
 installed linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for flash-kernel (3.102.0pureos6) ...
Using DTB: freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb
Installing /usr/lib/linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb into /boot/dtbs/6.2.0-1-librem5/freescale/imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb
Taking backup of imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb.
Installing new imx8mq-librem5-r4.dtb.
flash-kernel: installing version 6.2.0-1-librem5
Generating boot script u-boot image... done.
Taking backup of boot.scr.
Installing new boot.scr.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-image-6.2.0-1-librem5
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

What hardware are you running on?

L5

Relevant OS information

Which OS are you using?

Byzantium