Synaptic fails after failed kernel upgrade

If you dont have enough room in /boot for two kernels then you're never going to be able to upgrade the kernel, so repartitioning or resizing the partitions (using gparted on the live cd) would be the only option.

If you have made space, or can make space in /boot, then you can reinstall the kernel with:-

sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.17-11-generic --reinstall

But if you dont have enough space still then that will fail.

Just to clarify, can you post the output of the following commands:-

mount

du -hs /boot

df -h

Ermm..... Have you tried compiled a custom kernel (Not supplied by Ubuntu Update) before?

I get similar error when after I compiled a custom kernel from the official kernel (linux) website and I attempted to install official Ubuntu latest kernel (older than true Linux official kernel. I did so is because I cannot get restricted drivers enabled (Nothing is shown). I can try Envy etc but not work with Compiz using GeForce 7300 GT)

It may not necessary to be disk full because mine is a standard installation (so boot should be same as root partition) although disk full is a high chance. :(

I have the same problem, my /boot folder is too small, and I did exactly the same thing - I dumped a couple of the old legacy kernels from there, and now I have a couple of minor problems - XMMS won't play SID files [the installer craps out at the end citing a lack of kernel setup - version unimportant, it's one of the ones I deleted meaning it fails dependencies] and I can't log into Gnome without using Failsafe mode - although I suspect that is unrelated.

Also, I can't boot from CDROM [mobo problem on the laptop - have changed CD drive for a new OEM unit to no effect] so I'll have to do a PXE boot to load the live CD and GParted the drive.

I can't help thinking that having a much larger /boot folder in the default installation - say, minimum 800mb - would be a good thing if it's going to keep storing the legacy stuff there, unless someone knows of a safe way to clean out the old images?

For the record, from what I can find out, the /boot folder is locked in size - you have to unmount it to resize it, and if you did a 'use the whole disk' and have no unpartitioned space left, you're knackered without a live CD to resize the partitions with. It's not a 'folder', it appears to be a seperate filesystem, like /swap.