How do I prevent Ubuntu from attempting to upgrade the kernel?
The underlying OpenVZ architecture of my host provides this kernel:
$ uname -r
2.6.32-042stab116.2And my understanding is this is outside of my control. Yet, every time I do:
$ sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgradeI see that Ubuntu tries (and fails) to upgrade. I now have several packages in a partially installed state:
$ dpkg -l |grep linux
ii libselinux1:i386 2.2.2-1ubuntu0.1 i386 SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii linux-firmware 1.127.22 all Firmware for Linux kernel drivers
iU linux-generic 3.13.0.101.109 i386 Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-100 3.13.0-100.147 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-100-generic 3.13.0-100.147 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-101 3.13.0-101.148 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-101-generic 3.13.0-101.148 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-91 3.13.0-91.138 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-91-generic 3.13.0-91.138 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-92 3.13.0-92.139 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-92-generic 3.13.0-92.139 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-93 3.13.0-93.140 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-93-generic 3.13.0-93.140 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-96 3.13.0-96.143 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 3.13.0
ii linux-headers-3.13.0-96-generic 3.13.0-96.143 i386 Linux kernel headers for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-generic 3.13.0.101.109 i386 Generic Linux kernel headers
iF linux-image-3.13.0-100-generic 3.13.0-100.147 i386 Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iF linux-image-3.13.0-101-generic 3.13.0-101.148 i386 Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iF linux-image-3.13.0-92-generic 3.13.0-92.139 i386 Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iF linux-image-3.13.0-93-generic 3.13.0-93.140 i386 Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iF linux-image-3.13.0-96-generic 3.13.0-96.143 i386 Linux kernel image for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-extra-3.13.0-100-generic 3.13.0-100.147 i386 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-extra-3.13.0-101-generic 3.13.0-101.148 i386 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-extra-3.13.0-92-generic 3.13.0-92.139 i386 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-extra-3.13.0-93-generic 3.13.0-93.140 i386 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-extra-3.13.0-96-generic 3.13.0-96.143 i386 Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.13.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
iU linux-image-generic 3.13.0.101.109 i386 Generic Linux kernel image
ii linux-libc-dev:i386 3.13.0-101.148 i386 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii syslinux 3:4.05+dfsg-6+deb8u1 i386 collection of boot loaders
ii syslinux-common 3:4.05+dfsg-6+deb8u1 all collection of boot loaders (common files)
ii util-linux 2.20.1-5.1ubuntu20.7 i386 Miscellaneous system utilitiesFor completeness, I am running a very similar OpenVZ container (same hosting) which does not show the same problem:
$ uname -r
2.6.32-042stab116.2
$ dpkg -l |grep linux
ii libselinux1:i386 2.2.2-1ubuntu0.1 i386 SELinux runtime shared libraries
ii libv4l-0:i386 1.0.1-1 i386 Collection of video4linux support libraries
ii libv4lconvert0:i386 1.0.1-1 i386 Video4linux frame format conversion library
ii linux-libc-dev:i386 3.13.0-101.148 i386 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii syslinux 3:4.05+dfsg-6+deb8u1 i386 collection of boot loaders
ii syslinux-common 3:4.05+dfsg-6+deb8u1 all collection of boot loaders (common files)
ii util-linux 2.20.1-5.1ubuntu20.7 i386 Miscellaneous system utilitiesAs you can see, the actual kernel is not listed by dpkg on either machine, but only the former has been bringing in these newer, unwanted kernels. Upgrades on the latter have been working smoothly.
UPDATE
In order to remove the half-installed packages, see this question.
62 Answers
fkraiem's answer has already explained why the running kernel can't be updated from the guest container.
To prevent kernel update, you have to uninstall its meta packages
sudo apt-get purge linux-generic linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic
You have some kernel image packages installed (the packages starting with linux-image), and like all other packages, the package manager wants to upgrade them when a newer version is available in the repositories.
However, in your case the kernel is provided by the host, and the installed kernel packages are completely disregarded. In such cases it is natural to uninstall them; the package manager may complain that you will be left with no kernel package installed since it is normally undesirable, but in your case it is perfectly fine.
Alternatively, keeping them installed and upgraded will do no harm (other than taking up disk space) since they are not used anyway.
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