I Cannot update anything

how much hard disk space to you have? type in a terminal:

df -h

let us know the output

It seems you have no space on the destination disk.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Try updating again after cleaning the cache.
copy&paste:
sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get clean all && sudo apt-get autoclean all

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto

Sam I tried running those commands and got this:

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get clean all && sudo apt-get autoclean all
[sudo] password for james:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.85eubuntu39.3) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)

Setting up linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-23-generic (2.6.24-23.36) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic
dpkg: error processing linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-23-generic (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic:
 linux-image-generic depends on linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-23-generic; however:
  Package linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24-23-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-image-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic:
 linux-generic depends on linux-image-generic (= 2.6.24.23.25); however:
  Package linux-image-generic is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing linux-generic (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic

gzip: stdout: No space left on device
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-23-generic
dpkg: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

And nhasian in regards to your question here is the answer:

james@james-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 73G 14G 60G 19% /
varrun 236M 120K 236M 1% /var/run
varlock 236M 0 236M 0% /var/lock
udev 236M 52K 236M 1% /dev
devshm 236M 44K 236M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 236M 39M 197M 17% /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile
/dev/sda1 118M 116M 0 100% /boot
gvfs-fuse-daemon 73G 14G 60G 19% /home/james/.gvfs

Hi Jimmy
As I supposed (and you can see) you have no space on the /dev/sda1 partition.
Free some space on this partition to solve your problem. If you don't know how, please ask here for more help.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:
(if the system ask you for a password give your user password, you will not see nothing when you type it, then press enter)

df -h

and

sudo fdisk -l

copy and paste results here

Thank you

The

/dev/sda1 118M 116M 0 100% /boot

is full try to remove old kernel

to discover your installed kernels type in a terminal:

sudo dpkg -l | grep -i linux-image | grep -i ^ii

copy and paste result here...

Thank you

Ok so here is the first command:

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for james:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x282d282d

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 16 128488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 17 265 2000092+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 266 9729 76019580 83 Linux

And here is the second command:

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo dpkg -l | grep -i linux-image | grep -i ^ii
ii linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic 2.6.24-16.30 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic 2.6.24-17.31 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic 2.6.24-18.32 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic 2.6.24-19.41 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic 2.6.24-21.43 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-22-generic 2.6.24-22.45 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86
ii linux-image-2.6.24-23-generic 2.6.24-23.46 Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x86

Every time Ubuntu installs a new Linux kernel, the old one is left behind. This means that if you are regularly updating an Ubuntu system the Grub boot menu becomes longer and longer with kernels you don’t need anymore.

The old kernels are deliberately left installed and on the menu so you can boot a previous kernel if you have trouble with a new one. But if the new one works, you can safely uninstall the old kernel, which will also result in the Grub menu being cleaned up.

First you need to find out what your current kernel is. Open a terminal and run the following command:

    uname -r

It will print the version of the Linux kernel you are running, this is the one you want to keep. It should look something like this:

    2.6.20-23-generic

Open the Synaptic package manager from the System->Administration menu.

Click the “Search” button on the tool bar and search for linux-image-2.

The results should show every available and installed kernel. A green box on the left indicates that the package is installed. The only linux-image you want installed is the latest one. Find the package corresponding to the kernel to you running currently (this is the kernel you found in the terminal window). Make sure you keep that one. Now you can uninstall the old kernels from the list by clicking their boxes and selecting “Mark for Removal”.

Caution! Be careful of what you remove. Ensure that you don’t remove your current kernel, or anything that is not a linux-image. It is possible to break Ubuntu if you remove the wrong kernel.

Click the apply button on the tool bar to complete the changes.

Hope this helps, let me know.

I recommend that you keep the last two kernels.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Ariel Cabral I opened the terminal window and wrote the command and got this:

james@james-laptop:~$ uname -r
2.6.24-23-generic

However when I open the Synaptic package manager from the System->Administration menu this is what I get:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Please try:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic
sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic
sudo apt-get autoremove

Hope this helps

james@james-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get clean
james@james-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
james@james-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
james@james-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
james@james-laptop:~$ dpkg --configure -a
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege

The last error was because you forgot to use sudo.
At a terminal send the followings commands:
 sudo dpkg --configure -a
 sudo apt-get clean
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic
 sudo apt-get autoremove
and then again the following:
 df -h
Then we will see if something was freed up.
Hope this helps, let me know.

jimmyed007,
you've tried this command already (see your second post), please repeat it again:
sudo dpkg --configure -a

##quote terminal
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege

as you can also see in your second post, you have 'boot' on a separate partition and it's full.
>/dev/sda1 118M 116M 0 100% /boot

btw. a 'boot' partition should have at least 150MB, in particular if you forget to remove older kernel.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Boot

If updating still doesn't work, you could go to /boot and remove at least .bak files from old kernel to free some space, each has 7,5MB. ##Please concentrate and do not remove a kernel image like this.
e.g.
sudo rm initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic.bak
sudo rm initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic.bak
sudo rm initrd.img-2.6.24-18-generic.bak
sudo rm initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic.bak

##or open Nautilus as root and remove those .bak files
gksudo nautilus

Then again:
sudo dpkg --configure -a

Hi again:
I partially agree with Sam, then try this in this order in a terminal:
 sudo rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic.bak
 sudo rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic.bak
 sudo rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-18-generic.bak
 sudo rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic.bak
and then:
 sudo dpkg --configure -a
 sudo apt-get clean
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic
 sudo apt-get autoremove
and then again the following:
 df -h
Then we will see if something was freed up. I all goes fine, you can (and must) remove the rest of the old kernels before you try to update again.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Ariel Cabral these are my results after doing all the commands you told me to do, but I don't how to remove the rest of the old kernels before I try to update again. Can you help me through removing the rest of the kernels, again I am a newbie to Linux. Thank You.

james@james-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 73G 14G 60G 19% /
varrun 236M 116K 236M 1% /var/run
varlock 236M 0 236M 0% /var/lock
udev 236M 44K 236M 1% /dev
devshm 236M 44K 236M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 236M 39M 197M 17% /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile
/dev/sda1 118M 84M 28M 76% /boot
gvfs-fuse-daemon 73G 14G 60G 19% /home/james/.gvfs

Hi Jimmy,
The commands are:
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-17-generic
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic
 sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic
 sudo apt-get autoremove
When finished tell me if you saw any error message and run again:
 df -h
And paste the result here.
Hope this helps, let me know.

Hi again,
Don't try to upgrade anything by now.
First you need to install and use gparted to modify your /boot partition using a LiveCD.
The /boot partition must have no less of 200M (and much more in my opinion, you have 118M), so you need to modify that before to go further or you're going to have the same problem in the near future.
Hope this helps, let me know.

 Ariel Cabral this is my result after I typed df -h in. Next how do I install and use gparted to modify my /boot partition using a LiveCD. And how do I do The /boot partition so it will have no less of 200M (and much more in my opinion, you have 118M), so you need to modify that before to go further or you're going to have the same problem in the near future.

james@james-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 73G 13G 60G 18% /
varrun 236M 116K 236M 1% /var/run
varlock 236M 0 236M 0% /var/lock
udev 236M 52K 236M 1% /dev
devshm 236M 44K 236M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 236M 39M 197M 17% /lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/volatile
/dev/sda1 118M 36M 76M 32% /boot
gvfs-fuse-daemon 73G 13G 60G 18% /home/james/.gvfs

Well specifically to Ariel Cabral, thank you for helping me so much and having the final command that allowed me to update again! And to the rest of the people in the Launch Pad community, thank you all as well. I have taken all of your e-mails and commands that you have written me back with and saved them so when this occurs in the future I will know what to do. Plus I am a visual learner so seeing the commands and psychically typing them in is how I learn. After all before I discoved Linux I was using one of the most awful systems ever designed, known as WINDOWS!! Now that I have used Linux I will never go back to windows ever again. I am glad to be using an operating system that has such a huge online community and support network. Thank you once again to all that have helped a newbie learn such a great operating system.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I have been reading through it trying to solve a problem.

Ok, so I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 (which in the few days I've been running it as a replacement for Fedora Core 11 seems wonderful):

tim@scally:~$ uname -a
Linux scally 2.6.28-13-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 19:49:51 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

An installation (using apt-get) failed earlier. All my attempts to unlock/unblock dpkg have failed in the following circular fashion:

tim@scally:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a && sudo apt-get -f install

Setting up initramfs-tools (0.92bubuntu29) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)

Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
cpio: ./bin/udevinfo: Function stat failed: No such file or directory
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
dpkg: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
tim@scally:~$
tim@scally:~$ sudo apt-get install foo
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
tim@scally:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up initramfs-tools (0.92bubuntu29) ...
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)

Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
cpio: ./bin/udevinfo: Function stat failed: No such file or directory
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
dpkg: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Soooo, I had a quick check that I had enough diskspace on /boot and I'm fairly sure I have:

tim@scally:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda4 116G 3.8G 107G 4% /
tmpfs 1007M 0 1007M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1007M 128K 1007M 1% /var/run
varlock 1007M 0 1007M 0% /var/lock
udev 1007M 172K 1007M 1% /dev
tmpfs 1007M 84K 1007M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1007M 2.2M 1005M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-13-generic/volatile
/dev/sda1 149G 80G 70G 54% /cdrive
tim@scally:~$ df /boot
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda4 121254660 3919236 111176032 4% /

So I checked that the /boot/initrd...-13-generic file exists, which it does.

tim@scally:~$ ls /boot/init*
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
tim@scally:~$ ls -l /boot/init*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7549683 2009-07-12 16:21 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7559890 2009-07-12 16:45 /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic

But it would be the "./bin/udevinfo" that C3P0 is choking on.

tim@scally:~$ locate udevinfo
tim@scally:~$

Any ideas?

Managed to fix it as a result of (slightly incorrect) advice in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1147434

Having first made a copy called live.original, I've edited /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/live thus:

root@scally:/usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks# diff live{,.original}
150c150
< copy_exec /sbin/udevadm /bin
---
> copy_exec /usr/bin/udevinfo /bin

Which seems to have done the trick.

Cheers.

T.

T.