Remove old kernel modules

[kyrios123]

Currently (at least on Solus), the old kernel modules are left in /lib/modules. After a year, the disk usage of this folder is 5.6Gb on my machine.
It would be nice to foresee a mechanism in clr-boot-manager to purge the old kernel modules.

[Jacalz]

For me it just keeps the two latest modules and removes the rest...

[bryteise]

Hrm I don't see replication of this issue either but we've seen cleanup issues before. Not sure what would be special here though. @kyrios123 Do you still see this issue?

[kyrios123]

@bryteise yes. This problem impacts all computers running Solus (which still uses clr-boot-manager version 1.5.5)

[Jacalz]

I am using Solus and this definitely isn't an issue for me, I only have the 4.18.5 kernel modules and no more which totals at around 198mb...

[kyrios123]

@Jacalz what's the output of ls -ltr /lib/modules on your machine ?

[kyrios123]

UPDATE: I have more info about this issue.

Actually on Solus there are 2 kernel branches the -current one (4.18.x at the moment) and the -lts one (4.9.x). Both are installed on my system. On the boot menu, there are 2 entries for each kernel branch as expected (latest version and previous version). In /lib/modules there are 2 modules directories for the -current branch on which my machine boots, but I have 30+ modules directories for the -lts kernel, so it seems that the cleanup of the kernel on which the machine does not usually boots is not done.

[Jacalz]

Seems like what you are saying is correct, I only have the current branch installed so there are no LTS kernel modules, and thus no unneeded modules. Here is the output of ls -ltr /lib/modules just in case:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 1 sep 20.52 4.18.5-90.current

[bryteise]

@kyrios123 Interesting, I'll double check if I can replicate this behavior in Clear.

[Girtablulu]

Wanted to ask if there is any update regarding this? I have the same issue as kyrios123 on solus

[bryteise]

@Girtablulu I haven't been able to replicate this behavior on Clear, I think @ikeydoherty would have more knowledge about the state on Solus though.

[Girtablulu]

@bryteise Thanks for the quick reply, going to talk with the Solus maintainers

[Jacalz]

We now have a user reporting this on the dev tracker:
https://dev.getsol.us/T7183

Pinging @ikeyd on this, if he knows anything regarding this?

[moriel5]

I am very for not having posted this much earlier.

I had actually started noticing last year, however I had thought that this was only due to Solus being relatively new, and that tackling was on the pipeline (which to be fair, it may have been, however I had found next to nothing about this, only an old Solus forum post where someone had asked where are the old kernel modules located).

[ikeyd]

Pretty sure Solus is carrying the relevant libnica patch to make sure nc_rm_rf works? And this was only done a few months back in Solus land. So there are some stray dead kernel trees to be left around, but nowadays it should be cleanly wiping all of them. i.e. ask your guy on the dev tracker if they're fully up to date using latest clr-boot-manager

[DataDrake]

I'll get it sorted before the sync this week, cheers!

EDIT: Looks like we held up the update because the description of 3.0.0 on the releases page says it removes Grub support even though it actually only removes goofiboot and gummiboot support. Might want to update that before it confuses someone else!