upgrading

Maybe you are just running out of space one one partition whilst there is plenty room left on the other ones.
Please provide the output of

df -h
df -i

This should show the amount of free space on the different partitions, and the number of free inodes.

The commands
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
should remove unneeded packages from your system.

Hi Manfred,
Thanks so much for your speedy answer..........I used the autoremove command & freed up some space, but I don't know if it's enough?
Here's the result of the 2 commands you asked for. Must say I'm surprised it's showing 89% use??????
anyway, thanks for your time - and help.
david

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 909G 87G 777G 11% /
none 4,0K 0 4,0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 3,9G 4,0K 3,9G 1% /dev
tmpfs 787M 1,5M 785M 1% /run
none 5,0M 0 5,0M 0% /run/lock
none 3,9G 80K 3,9G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 60K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 236M 198M 26M 89% /boot

Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root 60514304 493753 60020551 1% /
none 1006188 2 1006186 1% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 1003565 564 1003001 1% /dev
tmpfs 1006188 600 1005588 1% /run
none 1006188 2 1006186 1% /run/lock
none 1006188 5 1006183 1% /run/shm
none 1006188 30 1006158 1% /run/user
/dev/sda1 62248 293 61955 1% /boot

I suggest you remove packages to free space. You cannot complete the update with no space. Removing libreoffice should do it. You can add it back afterwards.

Apparently you have created a separate /boot partition of 236 MB size. The /boot partition contains the core files for booting (kernel files). All the rest is in the / partition with plenty of space left. (Removing libreoffice will only create more free space on /, so that will not help at all for the problem on /boot.)

Two options:
1. Delete files on the /boot partition to get more free space there.
2. Get rid of the /boot partition and put the files into a /boot directory on the / partition

I guess you have several old kernel versions installed. Ussually having just two of them is enough.
What is the output of
ls -l /boot

Thanks Andrew - did that.....no difference!

Hi Manfred - here it is:

total 194278
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1005798 Okt 9 2013 abi-3.11.0-12-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1006439 Okt 23 10:10 abi-3.11.0-13-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1006439 Nov 12 18:33 abi-3.11.0-14-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1006496 Jan 30 18:53 abi-3.11.0-15-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1006729 Feb 3 23:20 abi-3.11.0-17-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1007681 Feb 18 22:37 abi-3.11.0-18-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1007681 Mär 11 20:06 abi-3.11.0-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163251 Okt 9 2013 config-3.11.0-12-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163255 Okt 23 10:10 config-3.11.0-13-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163255 Nov 12 18:33 config-3.11.0-14-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163245 Jan 30 18:53 config-3.11.0-15-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163230 Feb 3 23:20 config-3.11.0-17-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163258 Feb 18 22:37 config-3.11.0-18-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 163258 Mär 11 20:06 config-3.11.0-19-generic
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 1024 Apr 6 11:48 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18084431 Okt 29 14:37 initrd.img-3.11.0-12-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18092368 Nov 14 08:46 initrd.img-3.11.0-13-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18090793 Dez 3 09:37 initrd.img-3.11.0-14-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18222214 Jan 31 08:58 initrd.img-3.11.0-15-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18228471 Feb 19 07:28 initrd.img-3.11.0-17-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18226394 Mär 7 09:14 initrd.img-3.11.0-18-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18228720 Apr 6 11:48 initrd.img-3.11.0-19-generic
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Okt 29 14:14 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 176500 Jun 17 2013 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 178680 Jun 17 2013 memtest86+_multiboot.bin
-rw------- 1 root root 3285893 Okt 9 2013 System.map-3.11.0-12-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3286187 Okt 23 10:10 System.map-3.11.0-13-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3286278 Nov 12 18:33 System.map-3.11.0-14-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3293845 Jan 30 18:53 System.map-3.11.0-15-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3293992 Feb 3 23:20 System.map-3.11.0-17-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3296162 Feb 18 22:37 System.map-3.11.0-18-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 3296414 Mär 11 20:06 System.map-3.11.0-19-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5600032 Okt 29 14:17 vmlinuz-3.11.0-12-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5600496 Okt 23 10:10 vmlinuz-3.11.0-13-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5601072 Nov 12 18:33 vmlinuz-3.11.0-14-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5631120 Jan 30 18:53 vmlinuz-3.11.0-15-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5631792 Feb 3 23:20 vmlinuz-3.11.0-17-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5634192 Feb 18 22:37 vmlinuz-3.11.0-18-generic
-rw------- 1 root root 5634416 Mär 11 20:06 vmlinuz-3.11.0-19-generic

Hi Manfred,
Your options, unfortunately, I have no idea how to do!!!

Two options:
1. Delete files on the /boot partition to get more free space there.
2. Get rid of the /boot partition and put the files into a /boot directory on the / partition

If you would be kind enough to talk/walk me through I'd be very grateful :)
david

ok, you have seven versions of the kernel packages installed, two would be enough.

Start software-center and deinstall the packages that have names like
linux-*-3.11.0-12* (e.g. linux-image-3.11.0-12-generic)
linux-*-3.11.0-13*
linux-*-3.11.0-14*
linux-*-3.11.0-15*
linux-*-3.11.0-17*
just leaving the ones with 3.11.0-18 and 3.11.0-19

Hi Manfred,

Wünderbar!!!

Many thanks - exactly what I needed,
david