Description of problem: Yum checks for available disk space before installing. But it seems like the check for space on /boot isn't sufficient for kernel installation: [root@localhost ~]# yum -y update --skip-broken --enablerepo rawhide-debuginfo ... ---> Package kernel-PAE.i686 0:2.6.31.5-96.fc12 set to be installed ---> Package kernel-devel.i686 0:2.6.31.5-96.fc12 set to be installed ... Installing : kernel-PAE-2.6.31.5-96.fc12.i686 23/83 W: Possible missing firmware ql8100_fw.bin for module qla2xxx.ko W: Possible missing firmware aic94xx-seq.fw for module aic94xx.ko gzip: stdout: No space left on device grubby: error writing ../boot/grub/grub.conf-: No space left on device ... Cleanup : gnome-screensaver-2.28.0-1.fc12.i686 68/83 grubby: error writing ../boot/grub/grub.conf-: No space left on device Cleanup : kernel-PAE.i686 69/83 ... [root@localhost ~]# grep 2.6.31.5 /boot/grub/grub.conf [root@localhost ~]# I assume it is hard to predict how big the created initrd is, but IIRC yum takes its precautions. Perhaps the new initramfs has new requirements? (Minor detail: It seems odd that what _must_ be output from kernel uninstall appears before the progress info. Missing flush of stdout/stderr?) Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): yum-3.2.25-1.fc12.noarch
yum doesn't do the disk space check itself. It lets rpm do it. reassigning.
Disk space on /boot is checked like everything else, but rpm has no way of knowing beforehand how much disk space scriptlets are going to consume. Especially in the case kernel and /boot that's a lot, even more so since dracut by default creates some kind of "universal" initrd with all the drivers included. The size of %ghost files is included in the packages and accounted for when checking for disk space requirements, despite the file not actually being included in the package payload. The kernel package should create files of approximate initrd size for the initrd file instead of just touch'ing it, that'll enable rpm to make better estimate of the space needed although it can't be fully accurate as the initrd size can vary between hosts.
I checked in a diff to f12 & devel that replaces the touch with a 20MB dd from /dev/zero.
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 12 development cycle. Changing version to '12'. More information and reason for this action is here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping
Seems to be solved, closing.