#1112541 linux: initrd grew significantly from 6.12.38+deb13 to 6.16.3+deb14 causing ENOSPACE

#1112541#5
Date:
2025-08-30 15:48:48 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

Not sure if this is actionable and indeed beyond expectations, but just
in case this points at a problem in the packaging. Feel free to close if
I just need to deal with this.

I just upgraded my forky system and the upgrade failed:
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
zstd: error 70 : Write error : cannot write block : No space left on device
E: mkinitramfs failure zstd -q -9 -T0 70
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 with 1.
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 (--configure):
  installed linux-image-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 package post-installation
script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Setting up linux-libc-dev (6.16.3-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-amd64:
  linux-image-amd64 depends on linux-image-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 (=
6.16.3-1); however:
   Package linux-image-6.16.3+deb14-amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-image-amd64 (--configure):
  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
  linux-image-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
  linux-image-amd64
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


I don't have a big /boot system, as the default boot partition used to
be (way too) small. I recall that I once enable something to only
install required modules into the initrd, which helped me along until today.

/boot right after upgrade:
paul@toba ~ $ df -h /boot
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p2  456M  281M  151M  66% /boot
paul@toba ~ $ ls -al /boot/
total 273416
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root      1024 Aug 30 17:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root      4096 Aug 30 17:31 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    283225 Jul  3 21:01 config-6.12.35+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    283270 Jul 16 09:13 config-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    289665 Aug 24 23:29 config-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
drwx------  3 root root      4096 Jan  1  1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root      1024 Aug 20 18:36 grub
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 120238850 Jul 22 19:33 
initrd.img-6.12.35+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 120394731 Aug 30 08:39 
initrd.img-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
drwx------  2 root root     12288 Nov 17  2024 lost+found
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        83 Jul  3 21:01 
System.map-6.12.35+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        83 Jul 16 09:13 
System.map-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        92 Aug 24 23:29 System.map-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  12093376 Jul  3 21:01 vmlinuz-6.12.35+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  12097472 Jul 16 09:13 vmlinuz-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  13162432 Aug 24 23:29 vmlinuz-6.16.3+deb14-amd64

/boot after $(sudo apt remove linux-image-6.12.35+deb13-amd64):
paul@toba ~ $ df -h /boot
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p2  456M  337M   95M  79% /boot
paul@toba ~ $ ls -al /boot/
total 330986
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root      1024 Aug 30 17:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root      4096 Aug 30 17:35 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    283270 Jul 16 09:13 config-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    289665 Aug 24 23:29 config-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
drwx------  3 root root      4096 Jan  1  1970 efi
drwxr-xr-x  5 root root      1024 Aug 30 17:36 grub
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 120394731 Aug 30 08:39 
initrd.img-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 191341702 Aug 30 17:36 initrd.img-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
drwx------  2 root root     12288 Nov 17  2024 lost+found
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        83 Jul 16 09:13 
System.map-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        92 Aug 24 23:29 System.map-6.16.3+deb14-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  12097472 Jul 16 09:13 vmlinuz-6.12.38+deb13-amd64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  13162432 Aug 24 23:29 vmlinuz-6.16.3+deb14-amd64

Note the increase from 120394731 to 191341702 for the initrd.

Paul

#1112541#10
Date:
2025-09-06 09:42:29 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Paul,

Can you please with lsinitramfs list the contents for both and provide
those for comparison?

Regards,
Salvatore

#1112541#17
Date:
2025-09-06 12:06:37 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,


Please find those attached.

Paul

#1112541#24
Date:
2025-09-06 12:37:30 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Paul,

I had a look, unfortunately I think this is then expected. The
majority of changes are from the firmware-nvidia-graphics package, and
the package itself increased from 20250410-2 to 20250808-1
substantially due to more firmare added:

$ dpkg-deb -f firmware-nvidia-graphics_20250410-2_all.deb Installed-Size
64591
$ dpkg-deb -f firmware-nvidia-graphics_20250808-1_all.deb Installed-Size
156283

For instance the added
usr/lib/firmware/nvidia/tu102/gsp/gsp-570.144.bin is 28M in size.
Attached the diff I generated with some pre-subistitution for easier
comparision.

If you might not need firmware-nvidia-graphics, then removing it might
be an option an regenerating the initramfs.

Regards,
Salvatore